Scoggins: Freed from the shackles of the Parise-Suter buyout, the Wild have no more alibis

The asterisk finally disappears, as do all those “yeah, but” disclaimers. The season is over, and the Wild will no longer be confined by salary cap shackles.

May we never bring up the Parise-Suter buyouts ever again.

Time to move forward. Expectations will be different now. President of Hockey Operations Bill Guerin stands on equal footing with peers in constructing a roster this offseason, and he and coach John Hynes should be judged accordingly.

The buyouts of Zach Parise and Ryan Suter became a wart on the organization’s face that felt like it would never go away. The heap of dead money tied up on those two served as both an explanation and alibi whenever the team struggled, though it’s worth reminding that Guerin willingly chose this path.

The impact was punitive. The buyouts cost nearly $15 million this season, meaning 17% of the salary cap was devoted to two players who are long gone.

Technically, the Wild still owe some money on that bill next season — $1.7 million — but the severe penalty phase has expired, and along with that comes a sense of a fresh start.

“We all know what the summer holds,” alternate captain Marcus Foligno said, “but we’re all looking forward to that, just having a clean slate so to speak and a team that cannot be handcuffed so to speak.

“We’re excited for that opportunity, and at the end of the day, it’s up to us in here to do something with it. But are we excited? For sure. You would have liked to see us defy the odds a little bit this season with that against us and prove people wrong.”

Instead, they made dubious history.

Their first-round loss to the Vegas Golden Knights increased the Wild’s streak of one-and-done postseason exits to eight, dating to 2016.

They became the first team in the four major men’s professional sports leagues — NHL, NFL, NBA and MLB — to make the playoffs eight times in a 10-year span and lose in the first round every time, according to the analytics site OptaSTATS.

Does that come with a banner?

The organization cannot afford to waste any more of Kirill Kaprizov‘s prime years. Guerin‘s top order of business this offseason is to re-sign Kaprizov, who turned 28 last week and becomes an unrestricted free agent after next season. That contract will be a whopper, but Guerin has the financial flexibility to lock up his superstar and improve the roster by using that Parise-Suter buyout money on actual players.

“We’re a team that’s right there,” Foligno said.

Being close isn’t a destination to be celebrated for eternity. The Wild have lived in that neighborhood for too long.

One play from Game 6 crystallized the entire series. Kaprizov dived in a desperate attempt to deflect a pass from Mark Stone to Jack Eichel on a breakaway. Kaprizov came within inches of getting his stick on the puck. Instead, Eichel controlled it for a breakaway goal that put the Golden Knights ahead for good in the series-clinching victory.

The Wild were not overmatched. They had chances against a team that looked vulnerable. The series came down to inches.

The Wild had a power play in overtime in Game 4 at home with a chance to take a 3-1 series lead. They didn’t score, and then Jake Middleton fumbled a pass that set up Vegas’ game-winning goal.

The Wild should have won Game 5, but Gustav Nyquist was offsides by inches on Ryan Hartman’s go-ahead goal with 75 seconds left in regulation.

Had the Wild won those games and advanced, nobody would have mentioned the Parise-Suter buyouts, except in the context of lauding the team for exceeding expectations.

“Sometimes you get in a playoff series and you’re like, ‘Well, there was an area that was exposed or something you couldn’t figure out or you were overmatched,’ and that wasn’t the case for us in this series,” Hynes said. “We just couldn’t find a way to win.”

Guerin‘s charge is to use freed-up money to sign better players, add more depth and improve the roster so that they’re not lamenting another close playoff series loss this time next year.

The pressure on Guerin and Hynes gets cranked up considerably. The roster and results next season will be evaluated more critically now that buyout bogeyman is gone.