In the PHWA’s second year of Midseason Awards, Zach Parise received a third place vote for Comeback Player of the Year. The award is defined as “the player who returned to a previous high level of performance that was interrupted by subpar play, long-term injury or major illness.”
For Parise, injury has plagued him on and off in his career, but a back injury in 2016 eventually resulted in surgery that kept him out of the lineup to start the 2017-18 season. Returning from the microdiscectomy, he put up just 9 points in his first 24 games.