Zach Parise has been in this position before. Eighteen NHL seasons have come with their fair share of down-to-the-wire playoff races, including the 2012-13 season, when the Wild’s playoff berth was still in question in the final game.

What’s different about this one, though, is the degree of introspection Parise has at age 38.

“You enjoy it at any age, really. I think sometimes when you’re young, you might take it a little for granted,” Parise told The Post following Wednesday’s practice. “If you don’t make it, you always have that, ‘Well, there’s next year.’ It goes by fast.

“So now, I think you never know when it’s gonna be over. You just enjoy the moment. You leave everything out there because, again, you don’t know if it’s gonna be your last crack.”

For all the thought that Parise could retire following this season, as well as his own acknowledgement that he would need to make a decision, he seems ready to run it back.

With 21 goals this season and a valuable role on the Islanders, there’s a place for him. Barring something unforeseen, he doesn’t sound like someone about to give that up.

Certainly, the Islanders should have a place for him on a similar deal to the one-year, $1.5 million contract he signed for this season (Parise still is getting a hefty paycheck from the Wild after getting bought out of his deal there in 2021).

And for a team that is set to navigate a cap crunch following this season with a general manager as loyal as Lou Lamoriello, it’s hard to see the Islanders doing anything but jumping at the opportunity to do that.

If Parise can play like this at 38, why couldn’t he do so at 39?

“The fortunate thing,” Lamoriello said Saturday in Tampa, “is that I’ve seen him do that when he was 18. There’s nothing he leaves out on the ice. He comes to play every night, he’s got a smile on his face. He loves the game. I’m happy for him that he’s having the success he’s having because the way he competes, he deserves that.”

More important than merely being effective, Parise is still very much enjoying himself.

“You’re playing meaningful hockey,” he said. “I’d love to sit here and already have clinched a [playoff] spot, but that’s not where we are. That being said, we control, with how we play, where we end up. So it’s fun.

“It can be stressful scoreboard-watching all the time, know what I mean? Just kinda seeing what everyone else is doing around the league. There’s nothing better than this time of year in hockey with the playoffs around the corner.”

Granted, the next four games could considerably change how much fun anyone around the Islanders is having.

Heading into Thursday’s games, the Panthers and Islanders are tied with 87 points, but Florida holds the first wild-card spot with a one-game edge in the regulation wins tiebreaker (34-33).

The Penguins are one point behind, and all three teams have four games left. The Sabres, five points behind Pittsburgh with six games left, still have an outside shot.

“That’s the great thing about sports,” Parise said. “When you get to crunch time and playoff time, just the importance of the game, what’s riding on them, if there’s one that sticks out in my mind, at the end of the [2013] season, we had to win the 82nd game to get into the playoffs. And we did, and it was great.”

The difference now, though, is the level of appreciation he has for every moment in his life as a professional hockey player.

All season, he’s lingered in the dressing room after nearly every practice and every game, freely and honestly answering questions about himself.

He is trying to enjoy every bit of it. More than that, he is succeeding.

“One hundred percent, no question,” Parise said. “I think now more than ever — even last year despite how we did as a team — but now more than ever, just enjoying the day-to-day of being in the NHL. And being here. And again, when you get to a certain age, you just don’t know when it’ll be over. I think you just enjoy the day-to-day as you get older.”

We have a feature out on Sports+ delving into Ilya Sorokin’s backstory and his time in Novokuznetsk, Russia.

One of the fun things about reporting it that didn’t make it into the story was getting to ask people about life in southwestern Siberia.

Less for the story and more for my own interest, I asked a few of his former teammates what they did there for fun.

“I don’t even know what we did for fun,” Cade Fairchild said. “I remember we had a ping-pong table upstairs, so we’d go upstairs and play ping-pong, but it was hockey. People ask me that all the time, how was it? Was it hard?

“The easiest part for us was the hockey because there’s no language in hockey. It’s the same thing. I think that’s where we connected, Ryan [Stoa] and I especially, connected with Kirill [Kaprizov] and Sorokin, but those guys, just like us, they’re trying to be the best players they could be.”

The Islanders got a big break with Andrei Vasilevskiy starting against the Rangers on Wednesday.

That means Brian Elliott likely will be in nets for a Lightning team that doesn’t have much to play for at UBS Arena on Thursday, giving the Islanders a golden chance for two points.

Your viewing guide for Thursday’s relevant games in the East wild-card race, along with MoneyPuck’s win probabilities:

Ottawa (32.7%) at Florida (67.7%), 7 p.m.

Sabres (44.2%) at Red Wings (55.8%), 7 p.m.

Wild (45.7%) at Penguins (54.3%), 7 p.m.

Lightning (43.8%) at Islanders (56.2%), 7:30 p.m.