I know the odds are very unlikely but coming off a season ending injury you never know. I pose this question because if Parise doesn't find his old form, what would happen with contract negotiations? Let's just say for arguments sake he puts up 60 points, 30 goals 30 assists. That would definitely be considered a bad season for Parise going into his prime (Now for the rest of the league though that would be considered pretty good numbers). Would Lou be tempted to not want to get into one of the biggest bidding wars ever for a player who struggled in his contract year? 

Other teams would still jump at Parise with all the cash they can get and make him sign, that's a definite. 

It just scares me though this thought because look at what teams were willing to do to get Brad Richards who is only a top 15 center in the league (Still a very good player though). Richards got a concussion at the end of the season, and that definitely did not scare off any teams.

Now at this point in time we know that Parise if he hits the open market will be forced to take less to remain with the Devils. I can't imagine Lou making Parise one of the highest paid players in the league in terms of cap hit. I don't see that happening.

And If Zach wanted to remain a Devil forever he would never hit the open market in the first place. 

I just don't see Lou going at lengths to spend the big bucks on Zach especially if he doesn't have a bounce back year. 

I know we all want Zach to remain a Devil for life, but we've seen Lou not give out the contracts to players we wanted to see in a Devils uniform forever. I bring up Rafalski, Gionta, Gomez, you get the point.

Now Zach is a much better player than the above mentioned players, but as we learned over the years Lou is pretty stiff on contract negotiations, and I think we were all surprised no long term deal was struck this year. 

Those are just my thoughts but how do you think Lou will handle Parise and his contract if he does not bounce back to his old self after this injury?