Hockey fans in Minnesota have been cheering for men named “Parise” for more than 50 years. Starting in 2025, they can visit one in the U.S. Hockey Hall of Fame.
Former Minnesota Wild star Zach Parise was announced as one of the five members of the USHHF’s class of 2025 on Wednesday, and will be formally inducted later this year. He was a standout forward in his home state for nine seasons after his late father, J.P., was a star forward for the Minnesota North Stars in the 1970s.
Parise, 41, played youth hockey in Bloomington before playing two seasons of prep school hockey at Shattuck-St. Mary’s in Faribault and two more seasons of college hockey at North Dakota, where he was a Hobey Baker Award finalist in 2004.
Picked by the Devils in the first round in 2003, he played the first eight seasons of his NHL career in New Jersey, helping the Devils reach the Stanley Cup Final in 2012. Weeks later, he was part of the largest off-season day in Wild history, when Parise and defenseman Ryan Suter – the NHL’s two most sought-after free agents that summer – each signed a 13-year, $98 million contracts with Minnesota.
While the newcomers reignited fan interest in the Wild, their impacts on the ice did not ultimately translate into notable success in May and beyond. Minnesota advanced past the first round of the NHL playoffs in 2014 and 2015, but won just two second round games. Both Parise and Suter were bought out of their Wild contracts in the summer of 2021.
Parise was also a key player for Team USA in the 2010 and 2014 Winter Olympics.
He played two more seasons with the New York Islanders, and joined the Colorado Avalanche mid-season in 2024 before retiring that spring. He and his family make their home in the Minneapolis suburbs and Parise has done some volunteer coaching with the Edina High School boys’ prep program.
Also included in the 2025 class for the USHHF, which has been based in Eveleth, Minn., since it opened in 1973, were photographer Bruce Bennett, Devils star Scott Gomez, women’s hockey trailblazer Tara Mounsey and former Wisconsin standout Joe Pavelski.
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