The Calgary Flames announced two transactions today, placing forward John Beecher on injured reserve and recalling Zayne Parekh from his loan to the Canadian National Junior Team. The two moves keep the Flames at 23 players on their active roster.
The Flames announced that Beecher has suffered an upper-body injury and is expected to miss time on a week-to-week basis. Beecher suffered the injury during the Flames’ Jan. 3 loss to the Nashville Predators. Beecher earned a one-game suspension for roughing in that game, a suspension he served during the Flames’ game yesterday against the Kraken.
When he was last in the Flames’ lineup, Beecher was the team’s fourth-line center. He has two points in 19 games since the Flames claimed him off of waivers from the Boston Bruins, and he is averaging 9:38 time on ice per game. That includes just under 90 seconds per game of short-handed ice time.
This injury comes at an unfortunate time for Beecher, as he’s a pending restricted free agent with arbitration rights. Presumably, he’s been playing out this season with the hopes of earning a spot in the Flames’ long-term plans.
With his size, faceoff ability (he posted a 53% faceoff win rate as a Bruin) and above-average speed, Beecher has many of the qualities teams want to see out of bottom-six centers. But so far in his career, the 2019 first-rounder hasn’t been able to firmly establish himself as a quality NHL defensive center.
The Flames, as well as Beecher, were likely hoping that a change of scenery away from Boston would help him take the next step in his career, but so far, that hasn’t really happened. This injury will only further decrease the odds that he’ll be able to take that step forward as a Flame.
As for Parekh, this move allows him to re-join the pro ranks after a solid run at the World Junior Championships. Parekh led the tournament in scoring by a defenseman with 13 points in just seven games. While the Canadians had to settle for a Bronze medal after falling to Czechia in the semifinals, the tournament nonetheless gave Parekh the opportunity to restore some confidence in his abilities as an offensive defenseman.
Widely seen as one of the most dynamic offensive defensemen prospects in the sport, Parekh only managed one point in 11 games after making the Flames out of camp. Parekh got used to scoring nearly two points per game during his days in the OHL, so getting the chance to once again compete against his peers could allow the 2024 No. 9 pick to return to the pro ranks ready to hit the ground running. The Flames, who rank No. 30 in the NHL in goals scored, could certainly stand to benefit if Parekh can find a way to translate his dynamic ability to the NHL level.