DA Yay, more Parayko love! I just have a few quick corrections/additions:
The Blues old coach was Ken Hitchcock, not Mike (you may be thinking Mike Babcock--multiple cocks = confusion for all).
Pietrangelo is still with the Blues and was named captain last summer after Backes left. He and Parayko also haven't been paired together very often because they're both RHD and Pietrangelo is pretty much always going to be on the top pairing unless he's injured, so it makes sense to have them on different pairings. (As an aside, everyone should definitely write more Petro, since he's a goofball who is way too into fantasy baseball and he does stuff like randomly wearing one of Jake Allen's shirts around because it ended up in his laundry (maybe) and he thought it fit well. Or just didn't notice until Darren Pang pointed it out: http://www.foxsports.com/midwest/video/834547779586)
Parayko was mostly paired with Gunnarsson during his rookie season, and Gunnarsson used to spend a lot of time giving him a run-down about opposing teams and players before games. This article is about Parayko and Gunnarsson, if you haven't seen it already: http://www.sportsnet.ca/hockey/nhl/whats-it-like-to-be-a-rookie-when-colton-parayko/
They also paired him with Shattenkirk and Edmundson a decent amount his rookie season. He mostly plays with Edmundson on the 2nd pairing now, and while Edmundson and Fabbri are basically married like you said, they're all pretty cute together. Pictures of Edmundson and Parayko standing next to Fabbri are always pretty amusing, too, given the height difference.
And he's actually 6'5, not 6'4! And may possibly be closer to 6'6ish, if Darren Pang (the Blues color commentator) is to be believed, since he's mentioned it during games. Panger is also prone to exaggeration and 5'5 himself, so he may not be a great judge there. I'm pretty sure everyone looks tall to him.
Major junior isn't actually the same as AAA, or Midget AAA. In Alberta, it would go Midget AA - Midget AAA - Junior A - Major Junior (this is ignoring all the stuff below Midget AA to keep the list from getting too long). Parayko didn't play for a Midget AAA team--in Alberta that would be the AMHL, which is generally where players need to be if they want to move on to the WHL (Major Junior) or the AJHL (Junior A). For players who want to go the Major Junior route to the NHL, they'd usually (not always) play Midget AA, then Midget AAA, then hopefully get drafted into the WHL and either move up to play there or play Junior A for awhile and then move up. There are some players who go the NCAA route who do Midget AA, Midget AAA, Junior A, and then NCAA. Parayko is a pretty neat case, like you pointed out, because he did Midget AA and didn't make Midget AAA, but decided to go ahead and paid to try out for Junior A with the Oil Barons and managed to make it, and then was scouted by the Blues while flying under the radar. There's a pretty good article about it here: http://www.sportsnet.ca/hockey/nhl/colton-parayko-became-blues-best-kept-secret/
He also managed to surprise a lot of people when he made the roster out of training camp last year and actually stuck around. He'd only played a few games in the AHL at the end of the previous season and most of the people who followed the team's prospects knew he was good and were pretty hopeful about him, but thought he'd spend at least a year down in the AHL developing a bit more.
So, yeah, he's pretty awesome. And also adorable, super polite (a lot of the players and even the Blues radio and TV announcers have brought up how polite he is--he folds the towels before he hands them back to the trainers on the bench and has been known to help the staff carry bags and equipment in at away games), and not super great about the whole being in front of a camera thing. His episode of Zero to Sixty actually discusses/showcases the last two (plus Patrik Berglund eating--please stop coming to these things with food, Bergie): https://www.nhl.com/blues/video/zero-to-sixty-parayko/t-277437432/c-47567503
Re: Fandom Goggles
The Blues old coach was Ken Hitchcock, not Mike (you may be thinking Mike Babcock--multiple cocks = confusion for all).
Pietrangelo is still with the Blues and was named captain last summer after Backes left. He and Parayko also haven't been paired together very often because they're both RHD and Pietrangelo is pretty much always going to be on the top pairing unless he's injured, so it makes sense to have them on different pairings. (As an aside, everyone should definitely write more Petro, since he's a goofball who is way too into fantasy baseball and he does stuff like randomly wearing one of Jake Allen's shirts around because it ended up in his laundry (maybe) and he thought it fit well. Or just didn't notice until Darren Pang pointed it out: http://www.foxsports.com/midwest/video/834547779586)
Parayko was mostly paired with Gunnarsson during his rookie season, and Gunnarsson used to spend a lot of time giving him a run-down about opposing teams and players before games. This article is about Parayko and Gunnarsson, if you haven't seen it already: http://www.sportsnet.ca/hockey/nhl/whats-it-like-to-be-a-rookie-when-colton-parayko/
They also paired him with Shattenkirk and Edmundson a decent amount his rookie season. He mostly plays with Edmundson on the 2nd pairing now, and while Edmundson and Fabbri are basically married like you said, they're all pretty cute together. Pictures of Edmundson and Parayko standing next to Fabbri are always pretty amusing, too, given the height difference.
And he's actually 6'5, not 6'4! And may possibly be closer to 6'6ish, if Darren Pang (the Blues color commentator) is to be believed, since he's mentioned it during games. Panger is also prone to exaggeration and 5'5 himself, so he may not be a great judge there. I'm pretty sure everyone looks tall to him.
Major junior isn't actually the same as AAA, or Midget AAA. In Alberta, it would go Midget AA - Midget AAA - Junior A - Major Junior (this is ignoring all the stuff below Midget AA to keep the list from getting too long). Parayko didn't play for a Midget AAA team--in Alberta that would be the AMHL, which is generally where players need to be if they want to move on to the WHL (Major Junior) or the AJHL (Junior A). For players who want to go the Major Junior route to the NHL, they'd usually (not always) play Midget AA, then Midget AAA, then hopefully get drafted into the WHL and either move up to play there or play Junior A for awhile and then move up. There are some players who go the NCAA route who do Midget AA, Midget AAA, Junior A, and then NCAA. Parayko is a pretty neat case, like you pointed out, because he did Midget AA and didn't make Midget AAA, but decided to go ahead and paid to try out for Junior A with the Oil Barons and managed to make it, and then was scouted by the Blues while flying under the radar. There's a pretty good article about it here: http://www.sportsnet.ca/hockey/nhl/colton-parayko-became-blues-best-kept-secret/
He also managed to surprise a lot of people when he made the roster out of training camp last year and actually stuck around. He'd only played a few games in the AHL at the end of the previous season and most of the people who followed the team's prospects knew he was good and were pretty hopeful about him, but thought he'd spend at least a year down in the AHL developing a bit more.
So, yeah, he's pretty awesome. And also adorable, super polite (a lot of the players and even the Blues radio and TV announcers have brought up how polite he is--he folds the towels before he hands them back to the trainers on the bench and has been known to help the staff carry bags and equipment in at away games), and not super great about the whole being in front of a camera thing. His episode of Zero to Sixty actually discusses/showcases the last two (plus Patrik Berglund eating--please stop coming to these things with food, Bergie): https://www.nhl.com/blues/video/zero-to-sixty-parayko/t-277437432/c-47567503