For the Minnesota Wild, they had to make a lot of weird and awkward lineup decisions prior to Game 1 of their first-round matchup against the Vegas Golden Knights. Veteran winger Zach Parise is on the outside looking in, and has been a few times during the regular season—the writing was on the wall.
“I have a lot of sympathy for him,” Wild GM Bill Guerin said on The Athletic’s Straight from the Source podcast on Thursday. “It’s not an easy thing. It’s a crappy decision for us to make and it’s a crappy situation for him to be in.