Fiala has big fan in Parise household during career season with Wild

Kevin Fiala's recent scoring production was making him a popular figure with Minnesota Wild fans. That apparently extended to some of his teammates' homes.

"Even my daughter was starting to grow a little affection for [Kevin]," Wild forward Zach Parise said Tuesday of his daughter Emelia on a Central Division video call arranged by the NHL.
"At their school they did a local sports hero thing and they all knew the twins [Jaxson and Emelia] were my kids, so I'd say 90 percent of them wrote Zach Parise's their favorite. Except for my daughter. She wrote Kevin Fiala. So that's how things are going in my household right now."

Fiala has an NHL career-high 54 points (23 goals, 31 assists) in 64 games with the Wild this season. The 23-year-old forward was acquired in a trade with the Nashville Predators for forward Mikael Granlund on Feb. 25, 2019.
"[Former Wild general manager] Paul Fenton made a great trade. He did, and I'm glad he did it," Wild general manager Bill Guerin said in an interview with KARE 11 Minneapolis on March 10. "And Kevin's figuring out how good he can be in this league. He's a young kid. Sometimes it takes a little while to do, but he's figuring it out. Now the expectations have gone up, but we're really happy he's playing the way he is."

Fiala had at least one point in nine of his past 11 games (nine goals, seven assists) before the NHL paused the season due to concerns about the coronavirus on March 12.
"He's been playing awesome for us," Parise said. "He was on a tear before this thing ended up happening, so hopefully he can keep that momentum up that he had."
The Wild (35-27-7) are one point behind the Predators and Vancouver Canucks for the second wild card into the Stanley Cup Playoffs from the Western Conference.