Islanders Zach Parise's Starting to See Production

The hardest worker on the New York Islanders is finally starting to get rewarded with points. Zach Parise was brought in by Lou Lamoriello to provide veteran depth on the third line. While he might not be that 25 goals a year player anymore, he still had a role to play and so far he's played it very well.

The effort was there from day one, he was always around the playing and coming close to creating things but for whatever reason the pucks weren't finding the back of the net. It took Zach eight games to get on the scoresheet and 23 games to find the back of the net.

Parise recently said that he's a second-half player, which is true, but the production has finally began to find Zach. Over his last 12 games, Parise has eight points (3 goals, 5 assists) which is a .67 points per game pace over a full season.

Though 40 games this year, he has 14 points (4 goals, 10 assists) which puts him on pace for 29 points and eight goals. With how well he's played recently, I think we see Zach get over 30 which would be a very nice return on his value.

As a reminder, Parise's one-year deal is at the league minimum of $750,000. The Athletic had Parise's market value at $3.8 million with his he was playing for this team and it's hard to argue against that logic, the Isles have cashed in on that deal and then some.

How many league minimum guys are doing that on your third line? Again, Parise is not the most important player on the Islanders. I wouldn't even put him in the top-five most important forwards but in terms of depth, it really doesn't get much better.

If the Islanders are out of it they may be forced to sell him at the deadline. Hopefully, they get themselves back in the race here because I don't want to see Parise go anywhere, even at age 37.