NHL Free Agency: The three best landing spots for Zach Parise
These are the three best fits for Zach Parise ahead of NHL Free Agency opening this week.
NHL Free Agency is just days away with all 32 teams able to improve their team on the open market from Wednesday, July 28 onwards, and there will be a lot of interested parties when it comes to forward Zach Parise.
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After being bought out by the Minnesota Wild earlier this month, Parise will be free to sign with any team he wants once Free Agency opens, and there will be plenty of franchises interested in adding a proven top-six wing to their rosters.
Although his production dipped in 2020-21 after recording just 18 points (7 G, 11 A) in 45 games for the Wild, Parise could be a potent offensive threat if put in the right situation and he can also be used on either power play unit.
With 810 points (393 G, 417 A) in 1,060 career NHL regular season games, in addition to a further 80 points (37 G, 43 A) in 105 postseason games, the left-shot’s resume is impressive and he still has some good hockey left in the tank.
Plus, at 36-years-old, Parise is eligible to sign a one-year, over-35 deal with performance bonuses that wouldn’t count against the cap in 2021-22, so that will be a huge selling point for any team interested in making a run at the forward.
So, with that being said, let’s take a look at three of the most intriguing fits for Parise ahead of Free Agency…
The Three Best Landing Spots for veteran forward Zach Parise in NHL Free Agency
3. Pittsburgh Penguins
The Pittsburgh Penguins ownership made it abundantly clear last season that they are committed to winning after hiring veteran NHL executive Brian Burke as their President of Hockey Operations, with Ron Hextall serving under him as General Manager.
While Hextall will no doubt have one eye on the future given his track record for drafting high-end prospects, just look at his fingerprints all over the Philadelphia Flyers, Burke wouldn’t have left his role with Sportsnet for an immediate and long rebuild.
No, as long as Sidney Crosby, Evgeni Malkin and Kris Letang are on the roster, the Penguins will be committed to winning and that’s why they could be interested in going after Zach Parise once Free Agency opens on Wednesday.
For starters, Parise worked with Burke at the 2010 Olympics and, as per the narrative out there, Parise is keen to go somewhere where he is most comfortable and where he also has a pre-existing relationship.
While the Penguins aren’t as high up on the list in that category as the two other teams we have in this article, they do offer an intriguing proposition in that they are desperate to win one more Stanley Cup with Crosby before their window fully slams shut.
Therefore, the opportunity to finally win a ring and to potentially play on a line with Crosby could prove too tempting for Parise, who may only have a couple of years left before he decides to call it quits in his NHL career.
We all know that forwards tend to enjoy a bit of a resurgence when put on a line with Crosby, while Parise could also be a good fit on Jeff Carter‘s line and he’d also be a nice weapon to have on the second power play unit.
Plus, as we mentioned above, Parise could sign a bonus-laden deal that wouldn’t count against the cap for teams in 2021-22, something he can do given that he’s owed $6.7 million by the Wild over the next eight years and that would certainly work for the Penguins who have about $7.5 million in cap space per CapFriendly.
2. Vegas Golden Knights
Per Michael Russo of The Athletic, who covered the entirety of Zach Parise’s time with the Minnesota Wild, the forward wants nothing more than to play in a place where he will be comfortable and where he also has a pre-existing relationship.
As a result, the Vegas Golden Knights would appear to be a good fit given that Head Coach Pete DeBoer coached Parise and the New Jersey Devils as they went to the Stanley Cup Final in 2012 and, per Russo again, Parise absolutely loves DeBoer.
Parise was the Captain of that Devils team and he could be very tempted to go and play in a fun city like Vegas for a Head Coach he adores, not to mention the fact that the Golden Knights are built to win right now.
They have fallen short the last couple of years, including shockingly losing to the Montreal Canadiens in the Semifinals of the 2020-21 Stanley Cup Playoffs, but they have the roster to make a deep run and Parise would be a nice piece.
He could be the depth scorer that this Vegas team needs given that they have historically struggled to generate secondary scoring from their bottom-six, and the 36-year-old could also potentially be a nice fit alongside Mark Stone and Max Pacioretty and on the second power play unit.
There’s also the fact that Parise is a respected leader and he’s seen as a real glue-guy in the locker room, while he knows what it takes to go deep in the postseason so that could also be a huge selling point for a Vegas team that has struggled to get over the final couple of hurdles.
As could the fact that, at 36-years-old, Parise is eligible to sign a one-year, over-35 deal with performances bonuses that wouldn’t count against the cap in 2021-22, which is great news for the Golden Knights who are already right up against the cap.
1. New York Islanders
In many ways, if Zach Parise doesn’t sign with the New York Islanders once Free Agency opens on Wednesday, then it would come as quite a shock given the forward’s deep and considerable ties to that franchise.
For starters, he played under Isles General Manager Lou Lamoriello when Lamoriello was the architect of the New Jersey teams that made deep runs to the Playoffs, including making the Stanley Cup Final in 2011-12.
Parise was willing to waive his no-move clause in both 2019 and at the 2020 NHL Trade Deadline in order to speak to Lamoriello and the Islanders, so it is common sense that the left-shot would be more than interested in making his Long Island home this time around.
His ties to the Islanders also go much deeper than that, however, given that his late father J.P. Parise played 240 games for the franchise in the 70’s, so that could certainly be a huge factor in any decision too.
There’s also the fact that Parise is a perfect fit for the way the Islanders play hockey, and he would be a dream figure for Head Coach Barry Trotz to have both in the room and out on the ice.
He’s a real character guy, he’s a respected leader and he would buy in to Trotz’s team-first philosophy and ensure that the overall success of the team is the main priority.
Sure, Parise isn’t the player he was and he’s not going to get back to those levels at this stage in his career but, in a well-structured system such as the Islanders, he could enjoy success as a middle-six forward, maybe even as a running mate for Mathew Barzal, he could be used in all situations and he would be a nice fit on the second power play unit.
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The Islanders have a load of cap space – around $17 million per CapFriendly – and they could sign Parise to a performance bonus-laden deal if they have other moves in the pipeline, but a move to Long Island and a reunion with a GM he knows and trusts could be the perfect fit for Zach Parise, who will be looking to win an elusive Stanley Cup with what could be his final contract in the National Hockey League.