EAST MEADOW, N.Y. — Zach Parise sat at his locker and stared into the abyss that is the unknown.
His Islanders had just been eliminated by the Carolina Hurricanes in overtime of Game 6 in their first-round playoff series on Friday night and while his teammates undressed and spoke with the media, his aura and locker remained unbreached.
Teammate and winger Kyle Palmieri walked over and gave him a hug, the two touching foreheads before he left. But an almost-despondent Parise remained rooted at his seat well after his teammates — and the media — left the room.
“What was going through the head? Probably the same as everyone. A little bit of shock,” Parise said during his exit interview on Monday. “Especially in that situation, losing in overtime and it abruptly ending like that. Everyone’s in a little bit of shock. All the work that you put in throughout the 82 games is over. It never gets any easier.”
Parise, however, is 38 years old and coming off a second consecutive season with the Islanders in which he’s played in all 82 games of a taxing season in which he’s performed as the team’s ultimate utility belt — getting time on the power play and penalty kill while remaining a fixture on the shutdown third line.
Now, his contract is up and the unrestricted free agent is faced with the decision most players his age are forced to encounter: Keep playing or retire.
“Of course, it’s going through my mind but I haven’t decided anything,” Parise said. “I’ll take a couple weeks and get away from stuff for a little bit and just see where it’s at. But I haven’t decided anything yet.”
There is nothing to suggest that Parise is slowing down. He scored 21 goals and averaged 16:09 of ice time in his 18th NHL season — his best campaign since 2019-20 with a Minnesota Wild team that ultimately bought out his contract a year later.
“He’s the standard,” Islanders star Mathew Barzal said of Parise. “Off the ice especially. The way…
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