The Minnesota Wild have drawn praise all season long for their diversified approach to offensive dominance. But as the club heads into the home stretch of the season, they're finally getting the star power they need to truly contend for a championship.

Minnesota boasts 10 players with 10 goals or more this season. What's more, not a single one of those players has reached the 20-goal plateau, a pretty astounding fact considering nearly 30 NHLers have topped that number so far.

That depth has undoubtedly been one of the driving factors behind the Wild becoming one of the league's best this season. But it can't be the full story come playoff time.

Zach Parise's disappearance this season has helped cause his team's odd offensive situation. The former New Jersey Devils standout is the club's clear favorite to reach the 20-goal benchmark. He has eight seasons of 20-plus goals on his resume, once registering a dominant 45 tallies in a single campaign. He posted a team-leading 25 goals just last season, despite missing 12 games.

But 2016-17 has been a different animal for Parise. The former Team USA captain posted only two goals in each of the first three months of the season before upping that output to three goals over 13 January games.

Luckily for Minnesota, Parise's reclaimed his elite skill in the new year's second month and looks primed to do some serious damage over the final third of the season.

With two goals against the Detroit Red Wings on Sunday night, Parise now has four in his past six games, all of which have come in February. It's already his best month of the season, with 16 days left before the turn of the calendar. Stretching back a few more games, he's put up six points over his past eight contests.

That's excellent news for the Wild, as the surging club will need Parise at his best if they hope to continue its dominant 2016-17 effort into the postseason.

Minnesota's diverse approach is surely a huge advantage, giving it the depth to create matchup nightmares for opposing clubs every night. But that might not be quite as effective when they get a few rounds into the playoffs.

When things boil down to those tooth-and-nail postseason battles - where there isn't an inch given that's free of sacrifice - it's top-tier talent that leads the way.

Ask last year's champs, the Pittsburgh Penguins. They had exceptional four-line depth heading into the home stretch as well, but the determining factor that pushed them all the way to a Stanley Cup was their otherworldly star power. The young guns and the "HBK" line were all well and good, but the team's top three playoff scorers when all was said and done? Phil Kessel, Sidney Crosby, and Evgeni Malkin.

Simply put, you can't replace extraordinary.

So while the Wild have seen several names step up and prove their worth - and a few stars, like Mikael Granlund, climb into that elite tier - they need Parise doing what he's always done in the big leagues to take the next step.

Because when the gaps close up and the game turns into a playoff grind, that star power could be the difference between an early exit and a meaningful run at the Cup.

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