It could be tomorrow. Or next week. Maybe the end of the month.
How long goaltender Tyler Parks’ stint backstopping the first-place Tucson Roadrunners will last, nobody — not even Parks himself or even Tucson coach Jay Varady — knows.
But if the way virtually his entire career has gone — going from tryout to earned roster spot, and doing it over again at nearly every stop he’s made along the way — it wouldn’t be a surprise if Parks finds a way to stick around Tucson and the American Hockey League for more than a bit.
“He’s resilient. He’s been everywhere twice. It’s a list. And, you know what, a lot of people would get weighed down by the challenge of that.” Varady said of Parks, who enters Friday’s matchup at the San Diego Gulls (15-15-2-2) and Saturday’s road outing against the Ontario Reign (16-18-3-1) as, in many respects, the Roadrunners’ goaltender-du-jour.
“It’s a credit to his mental mindset in being here,” Varady added.
Here, again, is with the Roadrunners, who despite entering the weekend still holding on to the American Hockey League’s best overall record and allowing the fifth-fewest goals per game this year, have played a league-high seven goaltenders in 2019-20. That list now includes Parks, who stopped 31 of 33 shots Saturday to earn a win in his first AHL start and help prevent Tucson from its first three-game losing streak of the season.
Parks playing, and even winning, his first start isn’t necessarily remarkable, considering the AHL is, of course, a developmental league. It’s how he got here that Varady appreciates, and amazes even the 27-year-old Parks himself.
“Up, down, up, down — it’s just been me trying to get another chance where I can,” Parks said of his now extensive development career.
In the last decade, since his junior hockey career began in the now defunct Great Lakes Junior Hockey League, Parks has strapped the pads on for 14 different teams, spanning seven different levels of hockey.
The GLJHL stint led him to the North American Hockey League junior circuit, and the NAHL to NCAA Division I. Then to NCAA D-III, then the Southern Professional Hockey League. The ECHL came next, and finally the AHL. And in many cases, it’s been rinse, lather, repeat, and do it all over again just to get noticed and earn whatever playing time he can.
“Whenever someone doesn’t believe in me, whenever someone cuts me, that gives me more motivation to just prove them wrong,” said Parks, who by all accounts, has the physical tools at 6-foot-6, 230 pounds. “I’m out here proving them wrong, but also proving something to myself — that I have what it takes.”
Added Zac Bierk, goaltending development coach for the NHL’s Arizona Coyotes — which includes overseeing goaltenders in the system, like with Tucson and the ECHL’s Rapid City Rush:
“To play his first (AHL) game at this stage in his career, and this stage of his life, is a testament to how hard he works, and how much he loves the game of hockey. … I think his story is one of perseverance and resiliency. We hear about passion for the game, and love for the game, and all those clichés or catch phrases, but he really personifies it.”
Parks recognizes why he has this opportunity with Tucson the first place. On the one hand, he’s played himself into it; in 21 games this season with Rapid City, he’s 11-6-3 with a .919 save percentage and 2.91 goals against average. That came after posting .919 and 2.68 returns in 20 starts for the Rush a year ago.
The other, somewhat larger, piece: Parks has been temporarily “loaned” from one club to another six different times in his career, and that includes this go-round, where the Rush has loaned Parks “up” to the Roadrunners.
Tucson has been in a pinch of late as the club’s regular goaltenders this season — Adin Hill and Ivan Prosvetov — have been in de facto No. 1 and backup roles, respectively, in the NHL the past two weeks while Coyotes’ regulars Darcy Kuemper and Antti Raanta nurse injuries. Translation: Parks, still wearing his Rapid City mask while playing for Tucson, knows there might be a finite chance to prove himself in this particular stint.
“I’m lucky to have a really supportive family through all of this,” he said not just of his current Tucson shot, but his entire career. “They say ‘just keep going. Just keep going. You have talent. We’ll do whatever it takes to support you.’”
Parks admits that the “up, down, up, down” gets taxing at times. But it’s worth it, he concludes.
“It might be a different level, but it’s the same game I’ve played since I was 2 years old,” he said. “so yeah, it gets tough mentally. …But I guess I just don’t know how to quit.”
