Is Zach Parise this season’s Eric Staal for the Minnesota Wild?

Last season, Eric Staal produced at a near point-per-game pace for the Minnesota Wild; thus far this year Zach Parise is having very similar results.

Given they are both nearing their mid-thirties, you’ve got to question whether Zach Parise‘s current scoring rate is sustainable, especially as we’ve seen Eric Staal off the pace to start the year with the Minnesota Wild.

Looking at Eric Staal‘s game, he is a two-way center who was getting his goals partly as a result of having good line-mates to back him up and having a career year due to increased starts in the offensive zone making it easier to score.

Zach Parise, by comparison, has missed plenty of games over his time with the Minnesota Wild courtesy of injury. That is the first thing that will be at the back of the mind when we look at his impressive start to the season.

That nature of being slightly injury-prone is only amplified by the fact he gets a lot of attention, particularly of the cross-checking and slashing variety in front of the opposition’s net.

His style of play leaves him susceptible to injuries but also rewards often as he is able to be a net-front presence, topping up on tip-in and goal-mouth scramble goals.

Last year, Eric Staal was a revelation and his scoring was much-needed by the team. 76 points, including 42 goals was a fantastic return but was scored at a shooting percentage of 17.36%; both unsustainable and also way above previous career averages for the player.

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Likewise, 10 points in 8 games is great going so far for Zach Parise, especially as he’s bang-on his average shooting percentage of 12%; hence we shouldn’t fear regression there.

The key to Parise maintaining this form will rest a lot on his line mates.

Minnesota Wild head coach Bruce Boudreau needs to give him regular partners so they can build some chemistry.

Boudreau has a tendency to throw the lines in the blender the moment they stop contributing; this is unlikely to benefit Zach Parise in any way.

It seems likely right now that Nino Niederreiter, Mikael Granlund and Mikko Koivu will continue to be Parise’s most regular line-mates; if Nino can find his game, which appears to be missing thus far, that can only be a positive for him too.

If all is well though, I don’t see why, even in his thirties, Parise can’t produce a season on par with at least his late New Jersey Devil days. In his final season there, he racked up 69 points, after originally breaking out in the 2008-09 season with a 94 point year.

I’m not about to expect 94 points, but I think he can easily equal Eric Staal’s 76 point total from last year. He’s sitting on 9 points in his last six games; if he carries on like that, he’ll have no concerns whatsoever.

It’s hard to imagine an injury-free season for a player that hasn’t seen a full 82 games in the past 6 years, but if he can manage that, Zach Parise could well be the leading scorer on this Minnesota Wild team.

Statistics courtesy of Natural Stat Trick and Dobber Sports.