Former Wild star Zach Parise makes his return to Minnesota | Brainerd Dispatch

The 37-year-old winger is now a member of the New York Islanders, signing there in September after the Wild decided to buy out the remainder of his contract in July.

Is any sort of revenge on Parise’s mind with the Wild and the Islanders facing off Sunday night at Xcel Energy Center?

“No, I’ve moved on,” Parise said before the game. “It’s been a long time. I love where I’m at. We’ve got a great hockey team here. As I was saying earlier, it’s a really fun group of players to be around, and that’s made the transition that much easier.”

Still, Parise admitted it’s a little weird playing against his former team. He spent nearly a decade with the Wild after he and defenseman Ryan Suter signed matching 13-year, $98 million contracts on July 4, 2012.

“There’s going to be a lot of different feelings and emotions going in there as a visitor,” Parise said. “When you’re playing against the guys that you’ve been teammates with for so long, it’s a little weird. But we’ll worry about the game and getting the win.”

As much as Parise is trying to treat this like a business trip, he’s looking forward to saying goodbye to the Wild fan base once and for all. He never got that chance last season due to COVID restrictions throughout the league.

“To go back to what I would imagine will be a sold-out crowd, I think it’s going to be great,” Parise said. “They have such a good fan base there. Just loyal fans that love the team. It’s a fan base that was always great to me and my family when we were there. I’m excited to go play in front of them again. It’s been a long time since they’ve been able to have those sold-out crowds there that we were so accustomed to.”

The hardest part about Parise’s transition so far has been being separated from his family. With so many moving parts this season, he and his wife Alisha decided it was best if she stayed in Minnesota with the couple’s 7-year-old twins, Jaxson and Emelia, and 3-year-old son Theodore.

This is the first time in Parise’s career that he’s been away from his family for an extended period of time. The family met him in Nashville earlier this season and he recently hustled back to Minnesota for a quick visit. Obviously, the game between the Wild and the Islanders will give Parise a chance to see them, too.

“As a parent, you’re so accustomed to being with them all the time and bringing them to their hockey and their gymnastics and their sports,” Parise said. “As a parent, you really miss that stuff. It’s an important time in their lives. We’re making the best of it.”

As for how he’s settling into his new role with his new team, Parise couldn’t be happier.

“It’s been great,” said Parise, who plays on a line with Jean-Gabriel Pageau and Oliver Wahlstrom. “You can really see how close knit a group this is. They’ve really made the transition really easy for me. It’s a group of players that gets along really well, and I think it really translates onto the ice. I’ve really, really enjoyed my time out here so far.”