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Zayne Parekh

Calgary Flames Recall Zayne Parekh

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One of the game’s top defensive prospects will debut tomorrow night against the Anaheim Ducks. The Calgary Flames announced they’ve recalled defenseman Zayne Parekh from the OHL’s Saginaw Spirit, and he’ll join the club immediately.

The Flames selected Parekh with the ninth overall selection of the 2024 NHL Draft, and there’s reason to believe he should have been selected higher. In his draft season, Parekh scored 33 goals and 96 points in 66 games with a +39 rating, easily winning the Max Kaminsky Trophy as the OHL’s best defenseman and being named the CHL Defenseman of the Year.

He followed that performance up with an even better year. Parekh scored 33 goals and 107 points in 61 games for the Spirit this season with a +42 rating, finishing fifth in the league in scoring. Not only did Parekh lead all OHL defensemen in scoring, but there was a 16-point gap between him and Sam Dickinson, who finished in second. Furthermore, the only other defenseman in OHL history to record back-to-back 30-goal campaigns came in the 1965-66 season, when an 18-year-old Bobby Orr tallied 38 goals for the Oshawa Generals.

Despite seeing his postseason end at the hands of the Erie Otters, Parekh still has a chance to play meaningful hockey down the stretch with Calgary. The Flames are four points behind the Minnesota Wild for the final wild-card position in the Western Conference with five games remaining and a game in hand.

Calgary ranks 21st in the league with 129 points contributed by defensemen. That number should improve marginally over the five remaining regular season contests if Parekh contributes even fractionally to his performance in the OHL.

Still, his position in the lineup could be up in the air. The Flames already have two top-four right-handed defensemen in MacKenzie Weegar and Rasmus Andersson, with the former having played on the left side several times. Calgary can allow Parekh a quality opportunity over the next two weeks alongside Weegar or a more defensive-minded option like Kevin Bahl or Joel Hanley. Should Parekh play as advertised, the Flames may enter the off-season one blueliner away from having an elite defensive unit.

Pacific Notes: Stone, Smith, Gourde, Parekh

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As expected, the Golden Knights will welcome back winger Mark Stone to their lineup tonight, notes Danny Webster of the Las Vegas Review-Journal.  The 32-year-old wound up missing 14 games overall due to a pulled muscle, stalling what was a very strong start to his season.  Stone had six goals and 15 assists in 13 games prior to the injury, putting him among Vegas’ top scorers along with linemate Jack Eichel.  With them being off for five days after this game, this is a good chance to test him while ensuring he’ll have ample time off to make sure he’s fully healthy.  Prior to his activation, the Golden Knights had two active roster spots so no corresponding transaction needed to be made.

More from the Pacific:

  • Sharks center Will Smith is listed as a game-time decision for Saturday’s game versus Florida, relays Max Miller of The Hockey News. Head coach Ryan Warsofsky indicated that the rookie is dealing with an upper-body injury but wasn’t sure when it happened.  Smith is off to a decent start to his NHL career, posting five goals and six assists while averaging a little over 14 minutes a night as San Jose tries to ease him in to an extent.
  • Kraken center Yanni Gourde missed tonight’s game versus New Jersey with an undisclosed injury, per NHL.com’s Mike Morreale (Twitter link). The 32-year-old has four goals and eight assists in 27 games so far while averaging just 15:29 per night, his lowest ATOI since the 2019-20 campaign when he was with Tampa Bay.  Gourde missed the final 17 minutes of action on Thursday night while the injury is not believed to be a long-term issue.
  • Flames prospect Zayne Parekh has been added to Canada’s World Junior camp roster as first reported by TSN’s Bob McKenzie (Twitter link). Calgary drafted the blueliner ninth overall back in June following a dominant showing with OHL Saginaw that saw him record 33 goals and 63 assists in 66 games.  He’s at a slightly lesser pace this season but still has eight goals and 22 helpers in 23 appearances.  Parekh will take the place of Penguins prospect Harrison Brunicke who was initially named to the camp roster but won’t be able to participate due to injury.

Flames Sign Zayne Parekh, Two Others To Entry-Level Deals

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The Flames have simultaneously signed a trio of prospects to three-year, entry-level contracts, including 2024 ninth-overall pick Zayne Parekh (as relayed by Postmedia’s Wes Gilbertson). Right winger Matvei Gridin, who they took with the 28th overall pick last week, and 2023 second-rounder Étienne Morin also signed their rookie deals.

Parekh, 18, stands the greatest chance out of the trio to be on the opening night roster in October, although it would still be a surprise. The right-shot defenseman has arguably the highest offensive ceiling of any blue liner in this year’s class, even ahead of the Blackhawks’ second-overall pick, Artyom Levshunov. He was electric for the Ontario Hockey League’s Saginaw Spirit last season, leading them across the board with 33 goals, 63 assists and 96 points in 66 games with a +39 rating. It would be an impressive feat for any draft-eligible skater, but especially from the back end.

He went a bit later than most people expected him to go, too, so there’s a fair bit of steal potential with the pick. Elite Prospects ranked him as the No. 5 prospect in the class, while TSN’s Bob McKenzie’s polling of NHL scouts yielded him at No. 8. He was the third defenseman off the board after Chicago took Levshunov and the Senators selected Carter Yakemchuk.

If Parekh does make the NHL squad out of camp, it’ll likely be on a nine-game trial to avoid burning the first year of his entry-level deal. At such a young age, another year with Saginaw would be beneficial to round out his two-way game. His ELC is eligible to slide twice, and he won’t be eligible for a full-time AHL assignment until 2026-27.

The 18-year-old Gridin also put pen to paper on his ELC, confirming he won’t be attending the University of Michigan in the fall as previously expected. Instead, the Flames will loan him to his junior club. The QMJHL’s Val-d’Or Foreurs took him first overall in the CHL Import Draft later this week, but they’re expected to deal him to the Rimouski Océanic before training camp begins, The Athletic’s Scott Wheeler reports. That would mean he’d play in the 2025 Memorial Cup, with Rimouski hosting the event. Only a few scouting sites pegged him as a late first-round pick – many more had him going in the second round. He was ranked 37th in McKenzie’s year-end polling. Gridin, a native of Kurgan, Russia, had 38 goals and 83 points in 60 games for the Muskegon Lumberjacks of the USHL last season.

Morin, 19, is a left-shot defenseman who went 48th overall in the 2023 draft. He’s a physically involved two-way threat who had a bit of a step back in his post-draft season, posting 12 goals and 37 assists for 49 points with a -9 rating in 58 games for the Moncton Wildcats of the QMJHL. He’d posted better offensive and defensive results the year prior, with 72 points in 67 games with a +29 rating. Calgary is expected to loan Morin back to Moncton for his final season of junior hockey this season, sliding the beginning of his ELC to 2025-26.

Afternoon Notes: Jeannot, Parekh, Bourque

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Winger Tanner Jeannot is once again facing trade rumors, as the Tampa Bay Lightning look to clear enough cap space for a serviceable off-season. The team is facing the loss of their franchise player Steven Stamkos with just $5MM in cap space – not nearly enough to afford the services of the future Hall-of-Famer. That could push them to try and move Jeannot’s $2.665MM cap hit, though Eduardo A. Encina of the Tampa Bay Times shares that there’s been no legitimate discussions of a move just yet. Though Encina did speak to the idea being a tantalizing one for the Lightning, with many teams around the league still interested in acquiring Jeannot.

The Lightning acquired Jeannot from the Nashville Predators ahead of the 2023 Trade Deadline, sending the Music City defenseman Callan Foote, the picks that turned into Dylan MacKinnon (2023 third-round, 83rd-overall), Jayson Shaugabay (2023 fourth-round, 115th-overall), and Kevin Bicker (2023 fifth-round, 147th-overall), as well as a second-round pick in 2024 and a first-round pick in 2025 in return. Nashville traded the Shaugabay pick back to Tampa four months later, in exchange for a 2024 fourth-round pick, and moved the Bicker pick to the Detroit Red Wings to move up in the 2023 second-round.

Jeannot scored just four points in his 20 games with Tampa after the trade, though that didn’t dissuade their faith in him, with the Lightning signing Jenanot to a two-year, $5.3MM contract last summer – a deal that avoided the arbitration hearing Jeannot filed for. The rough-and-tumble winger wasn’t able to rekindle his spark on the new deal, though, scoring just 14 points in 55 games this season. He added 75 penalty minutes and a -10 – and tallied just one assist in four postseason games.

There’s still reported interest in Jeannot around the league despite his lacking scoring. Teams like the Calgary Flames have been looped into trade rumors, though Encina emphasized that a trade isn’t likely Plan A. Tampa will need to get a hefty return in any Jeannot trade, if only to hedge their losses from a costly 2023 move.

Other notes from around the league:

  • Saginaw Spirit defenseman Zayne Parekh has won the CHL’s Defenseman of the Year Award, beating out Memorial Cup Finals competition Sam Dickinson. Parekh was dazzling this season, posting a position-leading 33 goals and 96 points in just 66 games this season. He’s just the second OHL defenseman to top 95 points since 2000, joining Ryan Ellis’ 100-point season in 2010-11. But while Ellis was already an NHL draftee, Parekh is headed into his first year of eligibility in the 2024 NHL Draft. He’s seen as one of the top defensemen in the class and should rival a top 10 selection.
  • The Dallas Stars are swapping talented young forwards, with Ty Dellandrea stepping out of the Game 6 lineup in favor of Mavrik Bourque, shares Sportsnet’s Elliotte Friedman (Twitter link). Bourque won the AHL’s ‘Les Cunningham’ MVP Award this season after posting 26 goals and 77 points in 71 games this season. Bourque formed a dynamic duo with Stars standout Logan Stankoven in the first half of the season. Dallas will look to use that pairing as their X-factor, as they face elimination at the hands of the Edmonton Oilers.

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