The Brossard, Quebec native built a 10-foot-tall snow sculpture of former Canadiens goalie Ken Dryden standing in front of a 5-foot net in his yard.
Dryden was the second Canadiens-themed sculpture Parker made this winter. His other creation was a 16-foot Olaf, the snowman from the Disney film "Frozen," draped in a Canadiens flag. He received the flag from the Canadiens after he built an igloo-style sports bar he called "The Ice Castle" in his backyard, which received national attention in 2018.
"I've sort of become known over the winter months for creating different things," Parker told NHL.com. "My neighbors all look forward to what kind of crazy thing I'm going to come up with next.
"The goal was to just make people smile after a tough year."
Parker, a Canadiens season-ticket holder since 2016, got the idea from a friend who saw a Western New York artist create an oversized likeness of a Buffalo Bills football player. He sat on it initially, telling his friend he'd do it "next year," then thought to make a sculpture of Montreal goalie Carey Price before deciding to do one of Dryden, who won the Stanley Cup six times in his nine-season tenure with Montreal in the 1970s.
"I was like we're all in this COVID situation, what am I doing sitting there watching TV?" Parker said. "That's all there is to do, and I'm a guy who likes to move. So I said why wait until next year? Now is when we have all the free time."
Parker chose Dryden because his stance is so well-known in Montreal that he believed neighbors would recognize the goalie's likeness while driving past the house. He dedicated his nights and weekends to the statue after working his day job as a sales rep for a building and hardware company.
"Everyone jokes with me and says, 'Hey Parker, you have too much time on your hands,'" Parker said. "Well I have a day job. But we're in COVID. We can't have company over. We can't go see anyone. It's what we do with our evenings and weekends. What makes me a little different from you is I want to move and do stuff, and they want to watch TV."
Dryden and his net, like the giant Olaf, took two weeks to complete. The sculptures are made entirely of spray-painted snow, which Parker hardened with water and shaped using a chainsaw. He collected the snow with the help of his neighbor's shovel.
"I would truck it back and forth from the [road's] center median to my yard," Parker said. "That was the longest process."
Parker is adamant that he isn't an artist but was pleased with the finished product.
"I'm quite happy with it," he said. "It turned out pretty cool."
