At age 15, he played AAA hockey for the Thunder Bay Kings Bantam team and was a teammate of future NHL'ers Tom Pyatt and Marc Staal.

Parent was then signed by the Waterloo Siskins Jr. B. team for the 2002-03 season before being drafted by the Guelph Storm in the 1st round (8th overall) in the 2003 OHL Priority Selection.

[1] Parent is considered a defensive specialist and he has been often compared to NHL players Scott Hannan and Robyn Regehr.

[3] However, before the regular season began Parent was traded to the Vancouver Canucks along with Jonas Andersson for Shane O'Brien and Dan Gendur.

An unrestricted free agent going into the 2012–13 season due to the NHL lock-out, Parent was signed to a professional try-out contract with the Norfolk Admirals of the AHL on October 24, 2012.