Flames assign Zayne Parekh to AHL’s Wranglers on conditioning loan
The Calgary Flames have assigned defenseman Zayne Parekh to the AHL’s Calgary Wranglers on a conditioning loan, the club announced Saturday morning.
Parekh, 19, has appeared in 11 games with the Flames this season, collecting one assist and averaging 14:46 of ice time. The 6′ right-handed defender also played a starring role for Team Canada at the 2026 IIHF World Junior Championship, racking up five goals and 13 points in seven games and winning a bronze medal.
The Flames originally selected Parekh with the No. 9 overall pick in the 2024 NHL Draft. As a teenager drafted from the OHL’s Saginaw Spirit, Parekh is ineligible to play for the Wranglers on a full-time basis per the terms of the NHL/CHL agreement but will be able to join them on an interim basis as he recovers from an upper-body injury he sustained at the World Juniors.
#Flames Roster Update: Forward Matvei Gridin has been recalled from the @ahlwranglers. Additionally, forward William Stromgren has been assigned to the Wranglers. Defenceman Zayne Parekh has also been assigned to the Wranglers on a conditioning loan.
Parekh previously sustained a separate injury against the Chicago Blackhawks on Nov. 7 that kept him sidelined until the World Juniors. He set a new record for most points in a single World Junior tournament by a Canadian defenseman and came within one point of matching the all-time single-tournament points record for a defender, set by Swedish rearguard Peter Andersson — father of Flames teammate Rasmus Andersson — in 1985.
One of the most gifted young offensive defensemen in an NHL system, Parekh scored 33 goals in back-to-back seasons with Saginaw, becoming the first OHL defender to do so since Bobby Orr (back when the league was called the OHA). He made his NHL debut with the Flames in their 2024-25 season finale against the Los Angeles Kings, scoring his first NHL goal in a 5-1 victory.
Parekh is now eligible to play for the Wranglers after sitting out the last five Flames games. As explained by FlamesNation‘s Ryan Pike, Parekh’s conditioning stint with the Wranglers can last up to two weeks, or until Jan. 30. The Wranglers are slated to play their next game against the Bakersfield Condors at the Saddledome on Sunday afternoon.
In related transactions on Saturday, the Flames assigned winger William Stromgren to the Wranglers while recalling winger Matvei Gridin to their NHL roster. Gridin, another Flames 2024 first-rounder, has 28 points in 32 games with the Wranglers this season and was recently named an AHL All-Star. (Despite also being 19 and playing for the QMJHL’s Shawinigan Cataractes in 2024-25, Gridin’s AHL eligibility is not governed by the NHL/CHL agreement as the Flames drafted him from the USHL’s Muskegon Lumberjacks).
Gridin is expected to play for the Flames on Saturday afternoon as they take on the New York Islanders at the Saddledome as part of Hockey Day in Canada, but all eyes in Calgary are fixed on Andersson, who may or may not be in the lineup as trade rumors continue to swirl around the bottom-feeding Flames.