Joe Mauer is the hometown star drafted by the Minnesota Twins. Zach Parise left for a while, but was brought back home by the Minnesota Wild.
The two are considered humble, hard-working pillars of their teams and the similarities don't end there.
After Mauer and his wife, Maddie, welcomed their own set of twins into the world this year, Parise and and his wife, Alisha, are going to have twins as well, as noted at the end of an interview he did on the Wild's website. The Minneapolis Star Tribune's Michael Russo reported the Parises babies are due in January.
Parise and Mauer, who had become friends, have discussed the big news and their wives have connected also.
"They're helping us out with different things to get that have helped them," Parise told the Star Tribune.
Parise signed his 13-year contract with the Wild in July 2012 to return home where he was born and his dad was a player and coach for the Minnesota North Stars. Parise played his prep hockey at Shattuck-St. Mary's.
Parise will now be starting his own family in the Twin Cities. The Mauers had twin girls this summer. According to the Star Tribune, Parise has been told at least one of the twins is a boy and doctors couldn't determine the gender of the other baby.
Parise, along with Wild teammate Ryan Suter, has been at the U.S. orientation camp in preparation for the upcoming Olympics.
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