VALLEY CITY, N.D. (NewsDakota.com) – The Minnesota Wild have announced today that they will be buying out the remaining 4 years on the contracts of forward Zach Parise and defenseman Ryan Suter.

The Wild signed the pair of former all-stars at the beginning of free agency back in the summer of 2012, both to identical 13-year, $98 million contracts. The move will save the Wild money off the salary cap, and with the NHL’s expansion draft coming up next Wednesday, Minnesota will have 2 protection slots opened up. Both players would have been protected due to their full no-movement clauses in their contracts.

Parise, who is from Minneapolis and played his college hockey at the University of North Dakota, dressed in 558 games for the Wild, scoring 199 goals, 201 assists for 400 points. However, in this past season he spent some time as a healthy scratch and only registered 18 points in 45 games played.

Suter appeared in 656 games during his 9-year tenure with Minnesota. He would register 55 goals and 314 assists for 369 points.

Both players are 36 years old and scheduled to become free agents on July 29.