Colton Parayko is living the dream. The St. Albert minor hockey product is a National Hockey League rookie playing like a veteran on defence for the St. Louis Blues.
Colton Parayko is living the dream.
The St. Albert minor hockey product is a National Hockey League rookie playing like a veteran on defence for the St. Louis Blues.
Parayko, who turns 23 on May 12, fired his second playoff goal in Monday's thriller against the Stanley Cup champion Chicago Blackhawks in St. Louis.
The first defenceman in team history to score a goal in game seven made it 2-0 at 13:43 of the opening period against netminder Corey Crawford, as the Blues went on to win 3-2 and will now play the Dallas Stars in the next round.
It was also Parayko's third point of the playoffs after producing nine goals and 33 points in 79 games and was an impressive plus-28.
“You can't quite believe you're here playing against guys you grew up watching. It's surreal,” Parayko told Sportsnet.ca.
Parayko's powerful point shot, which has been compared to the mighty blasts by Al MacInnis, a Hall of Famer and the Blues' vice-president of hockey operations, also lit the lamp on the power play in game three, as the Blues grabbed a 2-1 series lead with the 3-2 decision in Chicago.
Ironically, it was MacInnis who phoned Parayko to inform the former midget 15 Flyer and midget AA Crusader the Blues had drafted him in the third round, 86th overall, in the 2012 NHL entry draft.
“I know there's some high end, top of the line rookies out there, but if you watched this kid game in and game out it would blow your mind,” MacInnis told the Calgary Sun recently. “The way he's played since day one, it's hard to believe it's his first year. He hasn't had much publicity but there aren't many defencemen who come into the league and play this well and at a consistent basis. It has been unreal.”
Playing with poise has Parayko playing a ton of minutes and in key situations.
“What impresses me most about Colton is he's not overwhelmed by the moment,” head coach Ken Hitchcock told Jim Matheson of the Edmonton Journal.
The six-foot-six, 226-pound defenceman is being touted as an All-Rookie Team defenceman and is on the radar screen for Team North American, featuring the best players 23 years and younger as of Oct. 1 from Canada and the United States, at the 2016 World Cup of Hockey, Sept. 17 to Oct. 1 in Toronto.
Parayko started his NHL career with a bang with two goals in his third game with the Blues. The Paul Kane High School alumnus broke a 2-2 tie in the second period against netminder Jonas Hiller of the Flames in Calgary on the power play and scored the eventual 4-3 winner with 32 seconds left in the period. Both goals were point shots through traffic.
The Blues drafted Parayko on the advice of Marshall Davidson, an amateur scout who watched him play for the Fort McMurray Oil Barons in the Alberta Junior Hockey League.
Parayko was signed to a two-year entry-level contract in March, 2015 after three seasons with the University of Alaska-Fairbanks Nanooks. The Western Collegiate Hockey Association first all-star team and NCAA West Second All-American Team defenceman in 2014 and 2015 was assigned to the Chicago Wolves, the AHL affiliate of the Blues, and collected four goals and seven points in 21 league and playoff games.
In the preseason, Parayko led the Blues' defencemen with six assists.
During the playoffs, Parayko has been trying to finish three university courses online – international business, a business continuity strategy course and a spot marketing class – while working on his degree in business administration.
“Finals are first and second week of May. I'll take two more classes in the summer. I could have taken five courses this year because I left school a year early but I didn't want to take a full load,” Parayko told Matheson, who covered the series between the Blues and Blackhawks for the Journal. “I mean, my focus 100 per cent is on the playoffs and this is fun, but after my treatments and the meetings I've had some extra time so I started studying.”
