Courting season for Parise
The Philadelphia Inquirer Blog - Flyers Report: Broad Street Bull
Courting season for Parise
Sam Carchidi, Inquirer Staff Writer
The Flyers will be among numerous teams interested in talking with New Jersey star left winger Zach Parise when he becomes an unrestricted free agent on July 1.
Understandably, Parise was in no mood to address his status after the Kings won the Stanley Cup by blasting his Devils, 6-1, on Monday.
“I’m not talking about that,” he told reporters in Los Angeles.
Parise had just one goal in the Finals; the Devils want to re-sign him.
“I think Zach is a big thing the organization has to take care of first, no doubt about that,” goaltender Marty Brodeur said. “They need to try to lock him in and lure him into staying. He’s a franchise player and a guy the fans love. As a captain, he’s a great leader and he did a great job first year as a captain to bring a team counted out early in the season to what we accomplished.”
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Former Flyer Simon Gagne was one of the first Kings to skate around the ice with the Stanley Cup. It was a greatest snapshot of his underrated career.
A few minutes later, in the sweetest moment of their careers, Mike Richards handed the Cup to his best friend, Jeff Carter.
Richards on the Flyers organization: "They taught me how to be a winner."
He then said this about the Kings: “This is the closest team I've ever been a part of."
- 1 goal, 0 assists in the Stanley Cup Finals. Makes Flyers fans want Parise.
Meanwhile, Carter, who was run out of town by Flyers fans, and still deals with the hatred, despite his 4 goals in the Finals.
As usual, the grass always seems greener when it is in someone else's yard.
— Hexy4GM - Carter "run out of town by Flyers fans?" What the HEdoublehockeysticks are you talking about?
That being said, I do agree about Parise. He's just Carter/Richards in a Devils uniform. Good player, not superstar, won't materially change the results of this year, money you'd need to sign him better spent on defense.— tmbooth5 - If you read the overall tone of the comments about Carter. Now, and his last season with the Flyers, you will see that he never got respect from Flyers fans. Those fans still bring up the fact that Niemi made a save off of him in game 6 versus Chicago (they will say Carter choked). His 46 goals were never appreciated. He has a smooth, natural skating stride, that people mistook for laziness. — Hexy4GM
- Hexy, normally I agree with 99% of your opinions but we need to part company temporairly vis-a-vis Carter.
After the Kings resued him from Columbus and he was reunited with Richie and Gagne you would have thought he would show a little spark. He did't, then got hurt for an extended period of time. His partying not only did not cease, but he moved it to new territory: Hollywood with the A-Listers. When he did score goals, they tended to be useless "padding" goals.
Richards played a character role down the stretch, getting gritty when needed.
If the Flyers can sign Parise they could keep him or trade him to somebody who can spare a Drew Doughty-class D-man. We live in Orange County (Ducks Country) and normally hate LA but they did earn the cup so goog on 'em: For the remainder of the summer. If the season starts in September we are Flyers Fans first and Ducks Fan Second.
Best of luck to the Flyers oreganization for another run at the Cup.— backhand - The notion of useless, "padding" goals in LA is laughable. That team had one of the most anemic offences in the league. Their record with Carter and Richards is incredible. The record for the Kings when Carter scores is almost flawless (I believe it was 10-1). Depth wins the Stanley Cup. The LA Kings added a second line, that would be a first line on 80 percent of teams in the NHL. — Hexy4GM
- he was very fortanute to play with a loaded Kings team who played great D, Goaltending and played 2 nd fittle to real stars!! — lasershot10
- Um...he was the reason the team was loaded. The Kings top line (Kopitar, Williams, Brown) scored 69 goals in the regular season while the Flyers second line (Briere, Simmonds, Voracek) had 62.
"Second fiddle to the stars" apparently, means leading the team in playoff goals. Leading the team in game winning goals. Leading the team in face-off percentage.— Hexy4GM - They need D. Unless the goal is to win games 8-6.— chham57
- It's Flyers-east turn to win the Cup next year. Add Shea Weber and we are good to go.
— mortt1956 
Comment removed.- I believe he was joking you tool. — Phillymidwestern
- Let's revisit the Flyers in the 2012 playoffs. They gave up ten goals in a playoff game to Pittsburgh. 10. Everyone should have known right away that no matter what the outcome of the Penguins series was, the Flyers were not winning the Cup. Their defense is not good enough and Bryzgalov didn't look to me to be on the same planet with Quick. They can and should upgrade the defense. Parise is a luxury item that they don't need. It still comes down to goaltending in the Stanley Cup Playoffs and Bryzgalov has not given anyone reason to believe that he is good enough to lead a team to the Cup.— syddan26
- I'd love to have Parise on my team. I think anyone would. But, like others said, defense is a priority. Plus, who leaves to make room for his cap hit, and who leaves the line up?— Chasev
- How do they Flyers give Parise 6 million plus when their best player (Giroux) only makes 3.5 million, makes no sense.— Fabulous
- for the 37th year in a row..goaltending and defense wins championships. someone ought to tell the owners of this club that idea still stands.— Shemp Howard
