Leipold sparks Wild week

It wasn't exactly a wild week in free agency, but it was the Wild's week thanks to Minnesota owner Craig Leipold committing $196 million to Zach Parise and Ryan Suter. The Wild landed the top two players available in unrestricted free agency.

It leads us to a few questions:

Did they get good market value or overpay?

Will they suffer from buyer's remorse?

Are the playoffs a certainty?

My take: The Wild better make the playoffs and should. Parise and Suter are both good players who can make a difference on their own while adding talent and overall depth to their team. Neither is an elite player in my book, which to me means they were overpaid. The Wild aren't going to regret signing them and making a huge splash in the Twin Cities, but the cost will likely lead to buyer's remorse.

Their deals are merely going to raise the cost of doing business in the NHL at a time owners are expected to look for a larger percentage of revenue in the upcoming collective bargaining agreement. How they can they suggest they need more when they're spending that kind of dough?

For a more extensive look at the first week of free agency, check out my analysis in Monday's editions of The Buffalo News.

--- Bucky Gleason