Wild owner Craig Leipold on Zach Parise-Ryan Suter era: ‘That was not a failure’

Minnesota Wild owner Craig Leipold made himself abundantly clear during Wednesday’s preseason game against the St. Louis Blues.

As he reflected on this past offseason — and in turn the Zach Parise-Ryan Suter era as a whole — Leipold evoked a sense of inner peace with general manager Bill Guerin’s decision to buyout the former faces of the franchise over the summer.

Though the move to cut Parise and Suter shocked the fan base, as well as the rest of the league, Leipold himself signed off on everything at the time, and he still feels like it was the right move.

“I have not regretted the decision since he’s made it,” Leipold said while talking to reporters inside his owner’s suite. “Not at all.”

Now that doesn’t mean it was easy for Leipold to move on. He challenged Guerin at various points throughout the process, and after months of deliberation, he finally agreed that it was a good move for the future of the franchise.

Why was Leipold ultimately OK with making such a big decision?

“Because he convinced me of it,” Leipold said of Guerin. “It was the right move for the locker room and the right move for our young players. It was the right move for us to kind of move forward, and frankly, Ryan and Zach, I don’t think they’re unhappy where they are. I think things are going to work out fine for them.”

Asked how he looks back on the Parise-Suter era, Leipold remained steadfast that he thought it was the right now sign both players in the first place. If he could go back to July 4, 2012 — the day Parise and Signed inked their matching 13-year, $98 million contract — Leipold said he wouldn’t change a thing.

“Would I do it over again?” Leipold said. “In an absolute second.”

Though the Wild never won a Stanley Cup with Parise and Suter on the roster, they did finish with a respectable 354-237-74 record, and only missed the playoffs once in that span.

“That was not a failure,” Leipold said. “It totally changed our franchise. We went from not selling any tickets and having a future that looked bleak to overnight being a sellout team for the next five or six years.

“Did we get to the level that we want?” Leipold added. “No we didn’t. And that’s true of them as well.”

Still, it’s clear that Leipold looks back on that period of time very fondly in the grand scheme of things. Now it’s time to turn the page.

“I think we have so many newer players on the team and the young guys are stepping up and it just seems like it’s a new chapter,” Leipold said. “We are moving forward with new players, a new philosophy, a new locker room, a new captain. And I think everybody’s embraced it.”