I can think of 3 problems why this 3-way trade doesn't really work.

1) I can't see any team taking that Parise contract without shedding another one. Taking a very big and risky contract for a 35 year old player seems unwise to me

2) and With Staal's NMC MIN has to protect him in the expansion draft, and since they're most likely protecting 4 D-men (Suter, Spurgeon, Dumba, Brodin/Soucy regarding of whether they re-sign Brodin in-season or not), this leaves two forwards to be protected. Zuccarello and Staal are must-protects. There are pretty many players they should be protecting instead of Jordan Staal. This way I get trading Parise because they're in the same boat with that contract - then again I'd suggest MIN buy that contract out

3) despite having a bad season, Gardiner is probably the most valuable of the package going MIN's way, which is a problem because there's no way they can protect him...losing him for free isn't really a viable option. Even if he actually waived his M-NTC for Wild in the first place.

The trade value is ok, but the forthcoming expansion draft makes this pretty impossible to work out.

Completely agree on all of this. More reasons why this is unlikely haha!

be careful with gardiner. if u go to the playoffs bench him for any game 7

3 ways are never likely.

Lol a 2 and a 3 for parise, no,