Edited Jan. 26, 2023 at 5:59 p.m.
Quoting: Db1899
It’s realistic that Parise would want to play for a contender assuming he won’t be back with the isles. He still has a lot left in the tank, I don’t think the isles not wanting to re-sign him will force him to retire
Does Parise want to win, sure. He will put it all on the line all day every day for whichever team he plays for.
But I watched Parise for in part of 9 seasons and listened to enough interviews and read enough articles about the guy to know 2 things for certain.
1) While he wants to win, it's not the end all be all for him. He would rather play for teams that have some sort of emotional significance or attachment to them for him than those that he doesn't have any ties to.
He was willing to sign in Minnesota, strictly because he was from here. We were not contenders at the time and were the farthest thing from that while he was here.
The Isles interested him for two reasons. A) His father, JP, played for the Isles back in the day. And B) Lou is the guy that drafted him in NJ and was/is the current Isles GM.
The only other team that he would likely have ties to currently is probably the Flyers because of Chuck Fletcher. Parise is the type of guy who would be more willing to get traded to Philadelphia then to a cup contender that he has no ties to.
Because the name of the game with him, is comfort. Not a cup. He's just simply not a cup chaser like Marleau was.
2) Parise has *some* gas left in the tank. But he isn't a fit for most teams in the NHL anymore due to his lack of general foot speed these days. He's slower now than he was even just a few years ago.
That's, obviously, not his fault. Father time is undefeated after all.
But the entire reason he was bought out in Minnesota is that he couldn't keep up with the play. As Minnesota was transitioning from one of the oldest teams in the league and among the slowest, to become league average in both age and footspeed.
Parise works so well on the Isles because that team is both one of the oldest and slowest teams in the league.
If he were to play for say the Avs, Canes, or maybe Boston. There's no real chance he'd be able to keep up. He be a stride or more behind everyone else, thereby making him an useless acquisition.