Wild winger Zach Parise had microdiscectomy surgery Tuesday morning and is expected to miss eight to 10 weeks of the NHL season.
The surgery was performed by Dr. Kevin Mullaney at TRIA Orthopaedic Center, the Wild announced.
Parise missed the start of the Wild season because of ailments related to a herniated disk in his lower back. The surgery relieved pressure on a nerve, which caused leg pain and weakness for Parise.
"It's obviously tough," said Wild forward Jason Zucker. "You never want to have to go through any of that as it is. And having to do it at this point in the season is obviously tough. With the way he works, he'll be back, and he'll be back stronger than ever."
Parise, who played through the back issue last season, said he suffered a setback about two weeks before training camp. He occasionally participated in practices, but never addressed the injury directly.
For coach Bruce Boudreau, who fielded Parise-related questions on a daily basis since the team started training camp in mid-September, the surgery provided closure.
"I know very little, quite frankly, about that," Boudreau said Tuesday. "I'll let all the doctors handle it. But I'm glad he made a decision. After today, hopefully there won't be any questions about it."
The 33-year-old Parise suffered the back injury in January 2016, and ended up missing the playoffs that season. He returned to the Wild lineup last year and had 19 goals in 69 games.
In his career, Parise has played 830 games and has 318 goals and 343 assists. He was captain of the U.S. Olympic team in Sochi in 2014.
"He's a great player. The stuff he brings on the ice goes without saying," Zucker said. "He's also a great leader. He's a great guy to have around the room. We obviously miss having him. We're excited to look forward to that day when he's back playing with us."
The Wild are also missing winger Charlie Coyle, out until December because of a broken leg, and Nino Niederreiter, sidelined because of a sprained ankle.
Parise is entering the sixth season of his 13-year, $98 million contract. He and teammate Ryan Suter, who has an identical contract, are the 15th highest paid players in the NHL, according to Business Insider.
On Oct. 10, Parise told reporters the injury was not his back, but declined to elaborate. He was optimistic at that point he would return to the team quickly.
"It's more so waiting until it feels 100 percent," Parise said that day. "I feel like I've been playing too much lately at below 100 percent, and it gets to be a challenge after a while. So at least to start the season, I'd like to feel good going into the season and not be worried about an injury."
Parise's issues "came out of nowhere," he said.
"I was really surprised a couple weeks before camp and just started flaring up a little bit," Parise said. "And then you were able to see it was weird because it would come and go, and I skated with the team a couple times thinking it was gone, and it would show up again. So had to just take some time off and let it calm down.
"It's been hard. I thought I had a really good summer of training and skating and working hard on a lot of different things. So you have that excitement coming into camp and ready to play, and then you get a little setback early. But like I said, hopefully it's gone, and it's something I can just move on from and not have to worry about and not have it linger throughout the season."
