Zach Parise was selected as part of the 2025 USA Hockey Hall of Fame class on Wednesday.
The rest of the class included longtime NHL centermen Joe Pavelski and Scott Gomez — two NHL All-Stars who have a long history of facing off against Colorado in the playoffs.
The 41-year-old Parise finished his career with the Avalanche after signing with the team midway through the 2023-24 season. He dressed in 30 regular season games, accumulating five goals and five assists while playing 12:58 per game in a depth role. In the postseason, Parise dressed in all 11 games, scoring two goals and adding one assist. He played nearly 15 minutes per game in the playoffs after being elevated to a top six role because of an injury to Jonathan Drouin followed by Valeri Nichushkin’s suspension.
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Parise played 1254 regular season games in the NHL split mostly between the New Jersey Devils and the Minnesota Wild. He also spent two years with the New York Islanders and was a teammate of Brock Nelson before landing with the Avs just over 18 months ago.
In 2008-09, Parise had his best NHL season, recording 45 goals and 49 assists with the Devils. Three years later, he served as their captain as they made their way to the Stanley Cup Final before falling in six games to the Los Angeles Kings. That summer, Parise and longtime friend Ryan Suter signed matching 13 year, $98 million contracts with Minnesota. He ended up playing out nine of those seasons before he was bought out in 2022.
This summer would’ve been the end of his contract had he remained with the Wild. Parise retired following Colorado’s six-game second-round exit to the Dallas Stars in 2024.
