In N.H.L. Free Agency, Wild Sign Parise and Suter

Parise, the 27-year-old captain who led the Devils to the Stanley Cup finals this past season, said in a conference call, “I loved playing in New Jersey.”

He added that it was “very, very hard to leave” and “at the end it was between New Jersey and Minnesota. That’s what it came down to: just the idea of being able to come home and be around family.”

Ryan Suter, who established himself as one of the best defensemen in hockey with the Nashville Predators, also signed a 13-year, $98 million contract with the Wild.

Parise said General Manager Lou Lamoriello was “very supportive” of his decision.

“We were upfront and honest with each other through this whole process,” Parise said. “He said, ‘If that’s what you really want, I’m happy for you, I wish you the best.’ He couldn’t have been nicer about it.”

Lamoriello said that Parise told him “if he wasn’t going home to Minnesota he would be coming to New Jersey. It was one of the toughest decisions he said he had to make. I respect that.”

Minnesota General Manager Chuck Fletcher said it was “a great day in the history of the Minnesota Wild.” The team has a rabid fan base, but has missed the last four postseasons and has not won a playoff round since 2003.

Parise grew up in Minneapolis, the son of J. P. Parise, the former Islander and Minnesota North Star. Suter, the son of the 1980 Olympian Bob Suter, grew up in Madison, Wis., and his wife, Becky, is from Bloomington, Minn. Parise and Suter are friends who played together for the United States at the world junior tournament and the 2010 Vancouver Olympics.

Parise and Suter have conferred with each other since Sunday, when the free-agent market opened.

Suddenly, the Wild leap from being one of the N.H.L.’s weakest teams, with by far the fewest goals scored, to a possible contender.

Moreover, the Wild are suddenly infused with a measure of glamour. The N.H.L. has long wished to stage a Winter Classic in Minnesota, which calls itself the State of Hockey and has more registered players per capita than any state except Alaska.

The Parise and Suter signings make the Twin Cities seem like a shoo-in to follow Ann Arbor, Mich., site of the 2013 Winter Classic, as the 2014 host for the outdoor New Year’s Day game.

The Predators were unhappy with Suter’s decision. General Manager David Poile said in a conference call that he was “disappointed and very surprised” and did not have a chance to match Minnesota’s offer.

Lamoriello was able to re-sign most of his free agents over the last week, including goalie Martin Brodeur and defenseman Bryce Salvador, despite the team’s debt problems. But he lost Parise to the lure of family and likened the loss to that of defenseman Scott Niedermayer, who left the Devils in 2005 to play alongside his brother, Rob, in Anaheim, Calif.

In a conference call with reporters, Lamoriello said the Devils’ offer to Parise was “competitive” with the Wild’s offer. He said the offer was made Saturday in suburban Toronto to Parise and his agents, Wade Arnott and Don Meehan.

“We made our offer and were told that the money we offered would not be an issue,” Lamoriello said, adding that he was not asked to make a second offer and that the Devils’ financial problems were not part of the negotiations. “The decision from what Zach told me was based upon going home and playing with someone he grew up with.”

“It’s a very unfortunate thing when you have a player of his stature that’s come up through the ranks, and the decision is made to go elsewhere,” Lamoriello said. “Zach Parise you never replace. He was our leader, the prototype of a Devils player and a great example to younger players. It’s a loss, there’s no question.”

The announcement ended four days of waiting for decisions from Parise and Suter. Parise fielded calls with his agents outside Toronto from Saturday through Monday, then went home to Minnesota on Tuesday.

Suter was at his farm outside Madison, while his agent fielded calls at his office in International Falls, Minn. On Tuesday, delegations from the Wild and the Detroit Red Wings visited Suter in Madison. The Detroit delegation included the team’s owner, Mike Ilitch.

But Suter, speaking in the same conference call as Parise, said the two did not arrive at their joint decision to go to Minnesota until late in the process.

“I’d say only last night and into this morning it became realistic,” Suter said.

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