Zach Parise will not be signing with the Rangers. Parise went on record today to openly express the fact he will not be signing with the Rangers nor will he consider it. ‘Don’t make a headline out of it’ was his final response to beat reporters when pressed on the matter.

Parise removing himself from the Rangers’ future plans narrows the obvious options the Rangers are linked to in order to upgrade their offense. Perhaps Parise ruling himself out of the Rangers future saves the Rangers from themselves. Should the current Devil have been up for grabs on July 1st there’s no guessing how much and how long Sather may have been tempted to offer Parise.

Can the Rangers afford to have another massive contract on the books and still get deeper? With Lundqvist eventually due an extension and Brad Richards’ long term deal, not to mention all the young players’ expiring deals, perhaps giving Parise a long term, mega-money contract wasn’t the most efficient way – among other things – of spending the cap space the Rangers seem to have in the short/mid term.

The Parise announcement may also help Columbus. GM Scott Howson will have noted that the Rangers now have one less alternative in their quest to add more skill and may hold strong to their (unrealistic) demands for Rick Nash.  With a weakening free agent pool and uncertainty around players such as Alex Radulov, the Rangers may be forced to go after Nash and pay more than they want to. The next few weeks promise to be very interesting following the Parise news.

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