For the first time in the playoff format of the U20 World Junior Championship, Team Canada has been eliminated in two straight quarterfinals. The expectations for Canada are always golden, an immense weight for these young players to carry. As such, all those with a rooting interest are left searching through disappointment to find reason. There is a lot of blame to go around, ranging from players on the team to the highest infrastructure of Hockey Canada.
In the end, it might be Calgary Flames prospect Zayne Parekh at the centre of it all. His being left off of the team is truly symbolic of the various shortcomings that authored Team Canada’s downfall. Let’s take a closer look at what Parekh would have brought to the ice and the accompanying paradigm shift that Hockey Canada has to acknowledge moving forward.
Parekh would have been a perfect fit
The thought that Parekh’s exclusion from the team was a mistake is not reactionary to defeat. In fact, even prior to the tournament starting many expected Parekh to be on the team. Even more than that, there seemed to be a clearly defined need for his skill set in a crucial role. The World Juniors are a short tournament, and power play success is vital, if not requisite for teams to win gold.
Simply put, Parekh is the most offensively gifted defenceman that Team Canada invited to selection camp… as a late addition. With supreme vision, puck handling, passing, shooting, and agility, Parekh is as complete an offensive defenceman as one could expect from a teenager. He was the obvious choice to quarterback the Canadian power play, which was one of Team Canada’s major issues in this year’s tournament.
To make matters worse, Team Canada did not end up with a reasonable alternative in this spot that seemed tailored to Parekh’s skillset. Oliver Bonk and Sam Dickinson are good prospects in their own right, but nowhere close to Parekh in terms of offensive talent. Dickinson has piled up points in the OHL this season but is much more of a two-way player than the offensive game-breaker Parekh is. To start the tournament Bonk was placed on the point of team Canada’s top unit, a spot he does not even play in the OHL. Perhaps if Team Canada had other defencemen with similar skill sets on the roster, Parekh’s exclusion might have been more understandable.
Compounding matters, Canada did not rely on more offensively inclined options that were on the team, including Beau Akey and Tanner Molendyk. Parekh is younger than these two players but has a much higher offensive upside. Youth did not stop Canada from selecting 2025 draft-eligible players like Porter Martone or Matthew Schaefer, or even 2026 draft-eligible Gavin McKenna. At this point, the more understandable reaction is Parekh feeling slighted or offended. Giving Parekh this spot on the power play would have made Canada a better team.
Coaching issues for Canada
A critique of Team Canada as the tournament wore on was a lack of identity. Again, this began with the team that was selected and continued with confounding coaching decisions throughout. The team was strong defensively but continually beat itself with undisciplined penalties. Parekh was hardly the only snub, joined by fellow 2024 draftee Beckett Sennecke as a cut. Eyebrows were raised after Canada cancelled practices during the tournament on multiple occasions.
In all, it might have been standout (and undrafted) Latvian goalie Linards Feldbergs who best summed up this dysfunction. When asked who would prevail in Canada’s New Year’s Eve showdown against Team USA, Feldbergs picked the Americans stating that “they play more like a team.” The coaching staff clearly did not put together a cohesive team.
Easton Cowan was relied upon as an offensive catalyst, instead of the effort-forward complementary piece his game is suited to. Despite leading the team, it was clear he was forced to play a role ill-suited to him. Cole Beaudoin, hardly an offensive force, was used on the power play instead of regular scratch Carson Rehkopf. Most egregious was head coach Dave Cameron relying quite heavily on his OHL captain Lucas Pinelli.
A team is like an orchestra, each player using their skills to fill a certain role within the team concept. There needs to be a balance of everything. In this analogy, coaches would act as conductors, putting each player in the position where they best help the team win. This clearly was not the case for this year’s team Canada. Again, omitting Parekh from a key role that this team so desperately lacked epitomizes this unfortunate reality.
Parekh is on to bigger and better things
The irony in last night’s game was how well Parekh played in the OHL’s marquee matchup between the Saginaw Spirit and Dave Cameron’s Ottawa 67’s. The OHL billed this as must-watch TV and Parekh delivered it to the fans, scoring a massive goal to open the scoring.
MISA➡️PAREKH➡️SCORES🚨#NHLDraft eligible Michael Misa feeds one to @NHLFlames prospect Zayne Parekh, and Parekh made a beautiful move to open the scoring for @SpiritHockey! This earned him the #BestofOHL clip of the night!😍#OHLxMilkUP | @OntarioDairy | #Flames pic.twitter.com/hsgcMeNWmG
— Ontario Hockey League (@OHLHockey) January 3, 2025
Parekh is likely AHL-bound next season and will likely develop into an elite NHLer in a few years. Being omitted from Team Canada at the World Juniors should be the chip on his shoulder to continue to prove the doubters wrong and that he is much better than Hockey Canada and Dave Cameron thought he was. For all Flames fans, let’s hope he does.
