After years of working his way up through the minors, journeyman Zac Dalpe doesn’t consider himself “an older guy” at this point in his career. Still, at 27, Dalpe knows he’s certainly matured since his career started.

That maturation has been key for Dalpe early in this season, allowing him to play looser, and in turn more effectively, as he has settled into his role as the fourth-line center for the Wild.

Dalpe said his years of experience have helped him better understand the highs and lows of a season. It’s also helped him realize the importance of striking a good work-life balance.

Not that the latter is too hard for him at the moment.

Dalpe and his fiancé, Cassandra, are expecting their first child in March. He said he’s already seen improvement in his play since coming to the realization that he’s going to become a father.

“It keeps me even-keeled,” Dalpe said. “I might have a bad game or something and I come home and call my fiancé and ask how the baby is doing. That helps me not get too high or too low to have a whole other life away from the rink.”

That wasn’t always the case for Dalpe, who said early in his career he “brought the rink home” a little too much. He would allow a rough game to turn into a rough week.

“Now I get home and have a pregnant fiancé,” Dalpe said. “It’s a whole other world. It’s a world I want to be in. I don’t want to say it makes me forget about what happened at the rink. It just helps me not dwell on certain things too much.”

Dalpe said learning about the baby was an even more emotional experience after losing his mother, Lisa, to kidney cancer a little more than a year ago.

“There’s not a minute that goes by that I don’t think about her,” Dalpe said. “I know that she had something to do with the timing of this pregnancy. It couldn’t have come at a better time for my family. I’m a firm believer that if one life leaves, another one enters.

“I think with what went on with my family last year, we deserve another life in our family,” he added. “I’m over the moon to be expecting in March.”

Dalpe, meanwhile, is focused on continuing to prove he belongs in the NHL. After years in the minor leagues, he takes nothing for granted.

OFFSEASON TRAINING

Dalpe credited his younger brother, Ben, with helping him get ready for this season. Ben plays on the men’s hockey team at Clarkson (N.Y.) University and lived with Zac this summer at his condo in Paris, Ontario, their hometown.

“It was fun,” Dalpe said. “It was downtown Paris, and we were raised as country kids. So going into town when we were younger was always a big deal. We spent a lot of time going out to eat, going out for drinks, or whatever.”

Ben said his older brother was really big into nutrition and that he was sure that both of them were eating well in the offseason.

“He was the one doing the cooking,” Ben said. “He pretty much cooked breakfast every morning. Then we would go to this health food store for lunch. Then he would cook dinner for us.”

Dalpe’s specialty?

“He makes some pretty good scrambled eggs,” Ben said with a laugh. “I was usually making the coffee and he was making the food.”

The brothers also trained together in the offseason, something Dalpe said helped prepare him for his current role with the Wild.

Ben likes to think his older brother owes at least some of his success to him.

“I’m more of a defensive type of player, so I like to think I taught him some things,” Ben said.

“It’s been cool to watch him fight every year for an NHL spot,” Ben added. “It really motivates me.”

PROVING HE BELONGS

Bruce Boudreau, who had a long journey through the minors himself, admits he has a soft spot for a player like Dalpe.

“It looks familiar,” the coach said last week. “You have a little extra place in your heart for the minor league guys that come up, that have played most of their life in the minor leagues, and then they come up and they end up doing a really good job when given the chance.”

Dalpe is getting that chance now, knowing that over the course of the season there are going to be good games — like the one against the Toronto Maple Leafs last week where he ignited a third-period rally — and there are also going to be bad games — like the one against the New York Islanders where he finishes as a minus-2.

Dalpe, however, isn’t going to dwell on either of those performances. He knows better by now. Instead, he’s going to continue to work to prove he belongs.

“I know I’m not a mainstay,” he said. “I literally work from day to day. That’s the way my parents raised us. That is how I’m going to continue to approach it.”

Dalpe said at the moment his fiancé is back home in Paris. The plan is for her to move to wherever he is in December — hopefully still with the big team in Minnesota.

“That is kind of the plan and we’ll go from there,” he said. “Either way it’ll be a U.S. baby come March. I know I’m supposed to enjoy this process (in the NHL), and I am,” Dalpe added. “At the same time, I can’t wait to meet our baby boy or baby girl.”