Kyle Palmieri was the only person to interact with Zach Parise as he sat in the Islanders’ dressing room Friday night following the team’s elimination from the Stanley Cup playoffs.
As Parise sat with his hands folded and vacantly stared forward, Palmieri walked over, gave him a hug and touched his head to his teammate’s.
The other Islanders made a collective decision to leave the 38-year-old Parise to his thoughts.
It has been no secret this could be Parise’s last season.
He talked openly about his situation to anyone who asked.
His family is still in Minnesota.
He has been in the NHL for 18 seasons and, at this point, is playing for the love of the game.
He’s taking a minimum salary with the Islanders and still drawing a paycheck from the Wild, who bought out his deal in 2021.
At times, especially toward the end of the season, Parise seemed ready to do it all again in 2023-24.
But exactly where he will be playing is a question that will be asked at the Islanders’ breakup day, and there may not be an answer until later in the summer.
There’s little question that the Islanders would like to have him or that he would like to play for the Islanders (presumably for the league minimum again) if he doesn’t retire.
Parise finished third on the team with 21 goals and added 13 assists. There’s not much doubt he can be a valuable bottom-six player, with the occasional first- or second-line cameo. And no one can say a negative word about his dressing-room presence.
But it is a call to be made by Parise and his family, no one else.
Parise has a twin boy and girl, age 9, and another son who will turn 5 next year. His wife, Alisha, stayed with them in Minneapolis during the season, and after the Islanders lost to the Hurricanes on Friday, Parise will join them for the summer.
Throughout the season, it was obvious how much Parise loved being a part of the Islanders and partaking in the routines of NHL life. He spoke more than once about trying to take in everything he took for granted as a younger player, not knowing when the end would come, and how much fun he was having.
But coaching his kids’ hockey teams could be fun, too.
“I did some helping out with them in the summer, just the team that [his older son] plays on,” Parise told The Post early in the season. “I could 100 percent see myself coaching them when I’m done. It’s fun and I like being around it and seeing them out there for sure.”
While he was with the Wild from 2012-21, it was easy to get the best of both worlds. This season, though, required meticulous planning around school breaks so he could spend time with his kids.
“They’re busy right now,” he said early in the season. “They got a lot of stuff going on. It’s just a bummer missing out on a lot of that.”
Parise’s 1,224 regular-season games are 13th among active players, but unlike a lot of others who have been around that long, his résumé is missing a Stanley Cup title. He has not even made it past the first round of the playoffs since the 2011-12 Devils lost to the Kings in the Stanley Cup Final.
That, too, holds an allure, and Parise knows that there is a ticking clock on how long he will have the physical acumen to compete for the Cup.
“You just enjoy the moment,” he said in an early April conversation. “You leave everything out there cause, again, you don’t know if it’s gonna be your last crack.”