When doomed ex-Minnesota Wild GM Paul Fenton signed Mats Zuccarello to a five-year contract with a cap hit of $6 million annually with a no-move clause in the first three years and a modified no trade clause to go with it for the final two, there was never much chance the deal would work out all that well. That’s nothing against Zuccarello, it’s just that he was turning 32 years old before that season even began meaning he was already theoretically several years beyond his prime.
Fortunately for the Wild, while Zuccarello isn’t what he once was in his years with the New York Rangers, he’s remained a really effective player in his own right.