Detroit Red Wings: Throwing it back to the summer of 2012

The Detroit Red Wings missed out on Zach Parise, but his time in Minnesota has not been the most desirable.

Since skipping out on Hockeytown and taking his talents to Minnesota, Parise’s ranks as a scorer have not quite been the same. He has found the back of the net, but it has not been the performance the Wild had hoped for when they signed him to a 13-year contract.

Over nine years with the Wild, Parise logged 558 games where he had 199 goals and 201 assists for even 400 points. His best season in a Wild uniform came in 2014-15, where he logged 33 goals and 29 assists for 62 points over 74 games played.

More recently, though, in 2020-21, Parise logged 45 games with just seven goals and 11 assists for 18 total points. Not quite the performance you want out of a player that you are paying $7,538,462 a season.

One of the main issues for Parise’s streaky scoring was health. He has not always been able to stay healthy. Over the nine seasons that he played for the Wild, he only crossed the 70 games plateau in three of the seasons.

Sure, this season, it was impossible to play 70 games with the season being shortened to 56 games, but even then, he only played in 45 games, putting him on pace for less than 70 games once again.

A player that you sign to a 13-year deal, paying $7.5 million annually, should be expected in the lineup as often as possible. The Detroit Red Wings may have dodged a bullet with this one.