Zayne Parekh is blossoming into a star with the Calgary Flames
The Calgary Flames haven’t had a young skater as exciting and talented as Zayne Parekh in a long, long time.
It doesn’t matter if he’s actively in scoring position or just taking possession in his own zone. Whenever Parekh gets the puck, the Scotiabank Saddledome crowd takes notice — and gets loud.
Through 19 games in the 2026-27 regular season, Parekh has been the driving force behind the Flames’ power play converting at a 29.5 percent clip, the fourth-best rate in the entire National Hockey League. He’s already the best PP quarterback to play in Calgary in years, walking the line and setting up his teammates with the ease and confidence of a player 10 years his senior.
Even on the nights he doesn’t score, Parekh does things that bring Flames fans out of their seats. The 20-year-old rearguard came within an inch of scoring a goal-of-the-year candidate in Wednesday’s 3-1 loss to the New York Rangers, slicing through the entire opposition on his way from the blue line to the goal line before being robbed on a dangerous wraparound attempt by goaltender Joonas Korpisalo.
“That was a heck of a play by him,” Korpisalo told reporters after the game. “He got me swimming. It’s just straight desperation. Dropped my stick to get my leverage, get my blocker there and I got lucky.”
“I think he makes a lucky save on it, to be honest,” Parekh agreed, coyly, in his own media availability. “I was laughing at the play too, a little bit. It seemed a bit outrageous … kudos to him.
“‘Almost’ — that’s the key word these days. It just feels like it’s almost working for me, but I can’t finish some of these off,” Parekh added. “Matty [Coronato] was loving it, I was sitting beside him after and he thought it was hilarious.”
That play wasn’t a one-off. Far from it. Parekh was consistently dangerous throughout Wednesday’s game, finishing with three shots and four scoring chances in a team-leading 22:43 of ice time. The numbers even look good at 5-on-5, where the Flames outshot the Rangers 9-3 with Parekh on the ice.
Had Parekh buried that chance on Korpisalo, it would’ve been his fourth point in three games. He collected two assists in the Flames’ 5-3 loss to the Anaheim Ducks on Nov. 6, and then scored one of the nicest goals of his young career against the Philadelphia Flyers two nights later.
Once Parekh took control of the puck up high, he beat three Flyers defenders with ridiculous moves before unleashing a wicked shot against former teammate Dan Vladar, who didn’t stand a chance.
The Flames took a home-run swing when they selected Parekh with the No. 9 overall pick in the 2024 NHL Draft, and the ball looks to be well on its way toward clearing the fences. That draft was held at the Sphere in Las Vegas, and if it were done all over today, it’s hard to believe Parekh wouldn’t be taken significantly higher.
During his time with the Saginaw Spirit, Parekh led the team to its first Memorial Cup championship while reaching offensive heights that most players could only dream of, becoming the first defenseman in OHL history to score 30 goals in back-to-back seasons. (For the sake of being pedantic, it’s worth noting that Bobby Orr also accomplished that feat with the Oshawa Generals in the 1960s, albeit in the related, but distinct, Ontario Hockey Association).
After dominating with 107 points in his final season with the Spirit, Parekh had nothing left to achieve at the OHL level and moved into the pro ranks for the 2025-26 campaign. Unfortunately, he wasn’t quite ready for primetime with the Flames, but as a 19-year-old former junior player, he also wasn’t eligible to play for the AHL’s Calgary Wranglers on a full-time basis.
Stuck between a rock and a hard place for much of the year, Parekh did what he could to hold his own amidst long stretches in the press box and on injured reserve, and it wasn’t all for nought. Controversially snubbed by Hockey Canada for the previous year’s World Juniors, Parekh played a starring role at the 2026 tournament, scoring five goals and 13 points in seven games to help Canada win bronze. His overall game improved by leaps and bounds upon his return to the NHL, and he scored a highlight-reel goal against the Los Angeles Kings in the 2025-26 season finale to give Flames fans something to daydream about over the summer.
Parekh’s evolution into a top-four (and, eventually, a top-pair) defender has continued into the early stages of the 2026-27 season, especially in the wake of the awful news earlier this week that Kevin Bahl is done for the year with a ruptured Achilles tendon. No Flames defenseman has picked up more slack over the past three games than Parekh, whose average ice time has increased from 17:40 pre-Bahl injury to a team-leading 22:14 since.
Despite consistently being knocked for his off-puck play since his time in Saginaw, Parekh has grown considerably as a defensive presence across his 57 games to date in a Flames sweater. He’s become one of the club’s most adept defenders at combating odd-man rushes and other controlled zone entries, and his on-ice numbers reflect that. According to Natural Stat Trick, the Flames have allowed 2.44 expected goals per 60 minutes at 5-on-5 with Parekh on the ice; Yan Kuznetsov, Parekh’s on-and-off partner, is the only Flames defenseman who fares better in that category.
The 2024 draft class was always viewed as being loaded with high-end defensemen. By conventional wisdom, defenders take longer to develop than forwards, but Parekh already looks to be one of the most impactful players from that draft at any position. He’s the engine of the Flames’ improving offense and the crown jewel of a stacked blueline that also features Bahl, Simon Nemec, and Carson Carels.
Carter Yakemchuk, Zeev Buium, Artyom Levshunov, Sam Dickinson, Anton Silayev, and Adam Jiricek each have significant upside. Their teams are lucky to have them. But when all is said and done, don’t be surprised to see Parekh cement himself as the best defenseman from the 2024 first round. What he brings can’t be taught, and if the Flames succeed in rebuilding themselves into a Western Conference contender, Parekh could be their answer to the likes of Cale Makar and Quinn Hughes.
Parekh has all the talent in the world. Discount him at your own risk. He’s that good.
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