If you were hoping to make a really big score off of the Minnesota Wild winning the Stanley Cup during the 2012-13 season. . .well, it appears that you're a little too late.
According to the folks at Covers.com, just two weeks ago the Wild were listed as a 200-to-1 shot to hoist the big, silver trophy next season. The only team that had longer odds than Minnesota was the Columbus Blue Jackets.
Now, according to Covers' Twitter account, the odds on the Wild have dropped all the way to 22-to-1 in light of Wednesday's signings of forward Zach Parise and defenseman Ryan Suter.
That's a pretty significant drop.
The drop in the team's odds truly speaks to the level of players that Suter and Parise are. They were the top two available free agents this off-season in the National Hockey League, and there were very few people that thought that the Wild would land even one of the two, let alone both of them. But, in the end, they both signed identical deals with the Wild. . .both for thirteen years, and both for $98 million.
Have to give credit to the management of the Minnesota Wild for pulling off a coup like this. It looks like it's time to truly start getting excited in the State of Hockey again.