Has Zayne Parekh’s professional debut with the Flames been a disaster?
Calgary Flames’ defenseman Zayne Parekh thrived at the 2026 World Junior Championships for Canada, finishing the tournament with five goals and eight assists for 13 points in seven games, helping them earn a bronze medal.
But the 20-year-old blueliner has struggled at the professional level. In 23 games with the Flames this season, he’s recorded just two assists while averaging around 16 minutes per game. He was injured in November and kept out of the Flames’ lineup until February, and in the 12 games since, has one assist.
On Friday’s episode of Daily Faceoff LIVE, Tyler Yaremchuk and former NHL goaltender Carter Hutton are joined by Daily Faceoff prospect analyst Steven Ellis to discuss Parekh’s first professional season and where he goes from here.
Tyler Yaremchuk: This is a guy who has battled injuries, they’ve moved him up and down from the NHL to the AHL, they sent him to the World Juniors, but he’s played just 27 professional games this season.
Is calling this season “a disaster” for Parekh fair or a bit of a hyperbole?
Steven Ellis: A little bit of somewhere in the middle. On the one hand, he’s a guy who has been known for his offense and we have not seen that in the NHL, this year. But we’ve also seen him play really well in the NHL, and he played, very, very well at the World Juniors. He’s still able to show those skills, but it’s not at the NHL level yet.
The one thing to look at here is, going forward with 19-year-old CHL players being allowed to play in the AHL, this would have been something that would have been so big for his development. He would have looked good in the NHL as a 19 year old, and maybe had the odd callup, but it feels like when he makes mistakes, he gets penalized for it.
Given that the Flames are not a good team, and he’s not performing well, it just feels like, no matter what, it’s a sour situation. I’m still very high on him, he just turned 20 years old, he’s been dominant at all levels, but I feel like this has been kind of a lost season.
Had he been able to play college hockey, or in the AHL, it would have been better for his development. But not of that was on the table because he signed his professional contract before they added the CHL-AHL rule.
You can watch the full segment and the rest of the episode here…