From the second the Saginaw Spirit season ended, Zayne Parekh watch began in Calgary. After a few days of nothing but silence, the Flames finally announced Parekh’s recall yesterday and made it official that the 2024 ninth overall pick would be joining the team. Not soon after, cold water was poured directly on any excitement.
The Zayne Parekh era is about to begin, as the 19-year-old has officially been summoned by the Flames, as expected. Don't expect him to play this season unless the Flames are mathematically eliminated, but there's value in him soaking things in with the team.
— Eric Francis (@EricFrancis) April 8, 2025
While this comes from Eric Francis and not directly from the team, he’s as connected as anyone to the organization and his statements often align.
As is the tradition in Calgary, the organization will prioritize veteran players and an out-of-date, old-fashioned philosophy. In Zayne Parekh, the organization has its best defence prospect in over 20 years. Despite that, they refuse to play the reigning CHL Defender of the Year in games that mean something. It doesn’t make sense, and it continues to hurt the franchise more than it helps.
The Calgary Flames can’t score
I understand the sentiment behind easing in a player like Parekh. You don’t want to throw him to the wolves and throw off team chemistry. However, the argument out there is that the Flames can’t afford to throw a rookie into the lineup and risk their chances of winning. That philosophy is flawed from the get-go, but it especially doesn’t make sense when you’re a team like the Flames.
Not only would Parekh almost certainly not hurt the Flames’ chances of winning, he’d very likely make them better. This is a player who posted 203 points in the OHL over the past two seasons and just finished off one of the greatest junior careers in CHL history by a defenceman.
He quite literally broke a Bobby Orr record just a month ago. Parekh is arguably the best offensive defenceman prospect in the world at the moment, and pretty much any team in the league would benefit from adding him to their lineup—especially a team as poor offensively as Calgary.
| Stat | Calgary Flames NHL rank |
|---|---|
| Goals For | 30th |
| GF/GP | 30th |
| 5v5 GF | 31st |
| PP Goals For | 18th |
The Flames can’t score. They’ve set franchise records this season for how little they score and are currently tracking for one of their lowest-scoring seasons this century. They sit 30th in the NHL in goals and are two days removed from being 15 minutes away from getting shut out by the league-worst San Jose Sharks. Why the team would refuse to use one of the premier U20 offensive talents in the world to help them in their playoff push is beyond me.
A blueline that lacks talent
If the Flames had a loaded blueline group that was clicking on all cylinders this year, it’d make sense why they’d be hesitant to drop Parekh into the fold. The issue is that their blueline has the opposite problem. They’re just flat-out bad. Outside of MacKenzie Weegar, the team has received almost nothing offensively from their blueline group.
Why a 107-point OHL defender and reigning CHL defender of the year wouldn’t be thought of as an offensive boost for a team hungry for goals is beyond me. Below are the current totals from Flames defenders since the 4 Nations break.
| Defenceman | Goals | Assists | Points |
|---|---|---|---|
| MacKenzie Weegar | 1 | 12 | 13 |
| Rasmus Andersson | 3 | 6 | 9 |
| Kevin Bahl | 1 | 4 | 5 |
| Joel Hanley | 2 | 2 | 4 |
| Brayden Pachal | 1 | 2 | 3 |
| Daniil Miromanov | 1 | 1 | 2 |
| Jake Bean | 0 | 0 | 0 |
Not exactly budding offensively. Weegar is the only blueliner in double digits over the past 22 games. Kevin Bahl’s five points are somehow the third highest total on the blueline in that same span, a shocking fact considering Bahl is a defence-first player.
Jake Bean, in particular, has been dreadful, posting zero points since the 4 Nations break. In fact, the last time he registered a point was back on January 30. He’s since gone 24 games without contributing anything on offence. It’s hard to find the justification for keeping a player like that in the lineup over one of the most dynamic defence prospects in the world, especially when your team is starved for goals.
Going back to the well and sticking with the group that has got you into ninth place in your conference and 30th in the NHL in goals makes little to no sense. You quite literally have nothing to lose by giving Parekh a shot.
An organizational issue, not an NHL issue
The Flames are quite alone in immediately shuttering their elite prospects. Other teams in the league have benefitted from putting their top talent on the ice, regardless of age.
Colorado Avalanche – Cale Makar
Who else remembers when Cale Makar came straight from the NCAA into the Avalanche’s lineup in round one back in 2018–19? Calgary Flames fans certainly remember. Coming off an incredible pre-NHL career, the high-flying Avs immediately dropped Makar into their lineup in the 2019 playoffs.
The rest is history.
You’d think a team who was embarrassed by a 20-year-old Makar and the Avs in 2019 would take a lesson from that beatdown in the first round. Apparently not.
Montreal Canadiens – Lane Hutson
How about out east in Montreal? Last season, they dropped the tiny Lane Hutson into their lineup, a defender who Parekh has 20 pounds on. In October, he immediately joined their blueline from game one and as a key piece of their roster. Fast forward to now and he’s currently one of the most productive rookie defencemen in NHL history, and is carrying a weak Habs blueline to a playoff berth. Were there bumps along the road? For sure, but Hutson has got better every month and his defensive game has already taken huge strides from simply getting the chance to play night in, night out.
Even more examples
How about in St. Louis, where one of the hottest teams in the NHL added Jimmy Snuggerud to their lineup without hesitation, or in Washington, where the East-leading Capitals couldn’t wait to get top prospect Ryan Leonard into their lineup as soon as they could. If some of the NHL’s best teams can add young talent and make it work, why can’t the third-lowest scoring team in the NHL?
Important games be darned
The argument that these games are too important to insert Parekh and risk mistakes is asinine. If you’ve watched even a handful of Flames games this year, you would’ve seen countless mistakes and blunders from the various veterans on the blueline. This isn’t a stacked blueline, this is one of the worst defence groups in the entire NHL.
What exactly does the organization have to lose? They’re currently outside the playoff picture. By inserting Parekh, the worst that could happen is they fall from outside of the playoffs… to outside of the playoffs.
It’s clear the Flames’ insistence on holding out young talent is not an NHL-wide issue. It’s an organizational issue. Almost no other team in the league operates like the Flames do when it comes to trusting their young talent. It’s surely one of the reasons the organization has won a grand total of two playoff series in 20 years.
A flawed philosophy
We now know the Flames have no intention of playing Parekh until the games are meaningless. Isn’t this the same organization that refuses to tank so they can supposedly get young players playing in meaningful games and gaining valuable experience?
Yet, when they have the opportunity to do just that, they refuse to play their young talent in meaningful games because they don’t have enough experience. It doesn’t make sense, and it once again shows a fundamental issue within the organization.
