FLAMES BIG READ: Just how good could Zayne Parekh be?​on April 4, 2025 at 3:26 pm

The OHL was still the OHA — that’s Ontario Hockey Association — when Orr posted back-to-back 30- goal campaigns on behalf of the Oshawa Generals in 1964-65 and 1965-66.

It was nearly six decades before another point-patroller managed to duplicate that feat.

Parekh, who hails from Nobleton, Ont., and famously finished his high-school diploma a year early so he could focus on chasing his on-ice dreams, potted 33 goals with the Saginaw Spirit in his draft-eligible year. He equalled that amount this season, albeit in five fewer games.

“To hear those two names together, it’s special,” Flames general manager Craig Conroy said. “I know Zayne has got a long ways to go to do what Bobby did. But just to be able to do what he did (as a junior), it’s exciting.

“What he can do, his shot, the way that he plays, the way he plays offensively … It’s elite. To be able to be right next to Bobby Orr, I don’t know if that’s fair to the young man yet, but we know he’s got a good cockiness about him and he probably loves it. I love that about him, that he believes in himself and we believe in him, too. I can’t wait to see him when he finally ends up coming here.”

Parekh’s ETA is a hot topic in Calgary.

The Flames should probably be saving a spot on their opening-night roster for him next October. Under the existing rules, he is ineligible to skate next season in the AHL or NCAA — in one case because he’s too young and in the other because he already has signed a professional contract.

And he has little left to prove in junior. Including his 96-point pop-off as a draft hopeful, he has posted two of three highest-scoring campaigns by an OHL rearguard in the 2000s.

But could Parekh show up at the Saddledome even sooner than the fall? Sometime over the next week?

After Thursday’s 7-3 loss, the Spirit are in a 3-1 hole in their best-of-seven series against the Erie Otters in the first round of the OHL playoffs. They’ll be aiming Saturday to stave off elimination.

Through four games, Parekh leads his club with seven points. He sizzled a shot from the slot for the overtime winner in Game 3, Saginaw’s only triumph so far.

They key on examples of how Makar and Hughes — similar in body type to Parekh, who reported he is up to about 186 pounds on his 6-foot frame — use their skating ability and their sticks and their high-end hockey sense to thwart chances in their own end. They dedicated a fall session to Makar’s ability to disrupt plays and immediately transition to the attack.

“It’s a tightrope walk, for sure. You don’t want to put too much pressure on a player to think he has to be X, Y or Z,” Flames director of player development Ray Edwards acknowledged. “It’s more about, ‘These are comparables in the type of game that you play.’ It’s not necessarily, ‘Hey, you have to be Cale Makar or you have to be Quinn Hughes.’ It’s just, ‘The similarities of your game equate to their game.’ And then the next step is, ‘OK, there is a lot of similarities, but what they are able to do at the NHL level, you still have that to prove, right?’

“You take those comparables because I think he can see that in his head — those types of players. Cale wins a Stanley Cup (in 2022), and they don’t win it if he doesn’t commit to doing all those other things.

But if you sort the NHL’s leaders in giveaways, you’ll be scanning the names of some of the best in the business. When you play big minutes and when you’re a preferred option to transport the puck up ice for your team, mistakes are going to happen.

Lane Hutson coughs up his fair share, but that is easy to overlook since the Montreal Canadiens whiz kid also is threatening the record for most assists by a rookie defenceman. Hutson, who turned 21 in February, is pulling away from San Jose’s Macklin Celebrini, Philadelphia’s Matvei Michkov and Calgary’s Dustin Wolf in the Calder Trophy race.

It’s encouraging for Flames fans that when Sportsnet analyst Sam Cosentino watches the Habs, he wonders if he might be seeing a sneak preview of what’s coming to the Saddledome and eventually to the still-under-construction Scotia Place.

“I don’t think Zayne can jump in next year, or even at the end of this year, and do what Lane has done,” cautioned Cosentino, who keeps close tabs on the junior leagues as one of Sportsnet’s draft experts. “But I would say their games are very, very similar. They control it. They pass the puck with authority. They get shots through. They’re elite at running the power play. Like, this is Zayne to a T.

Lazary added that the Flames staff has “done a great job creating a relationship with us to make sure that we’re both on the same page with how we want him to play here and how we need to develop him so he can make Calgary sooner rather than later.”

“Their biggest feedback was the defending, the gap routes, the breakout decisions, the closing plays down, the not letting guys get to the net before you,” he continued. “I think Zayne has done a really, really good job and they’ve done a really, really good job of pushing him in that area. His season, I’m not shocked with the offensive side of it. But his ability and his desire to get better at the other end of the puck has been really impressive to me, as well.

“He still has a long way to go, like all (junior) players, but he’s making massive strides in that direction.”

While we don’t have a password to access these secretive stats, those strides are apparently showing in the Flames’ database of prospects analytics.

It’s safe to say they track just about everything. For example, one of the things they flagged from his draft season was that Parekh was more prone to turnovers when his team was up on the scoreboard. They have stressed the importance of sticking to safe, simple plays in those scenarios to avoid gifting any momentum to the other guys.

Parekh is, no question, a smart cookie.

Shortly after the 2024 NHL Draft, his former U16 skipper, Justin Teakle, told Postmedia that this youngster “thinks way different than your standard hockey player” and “isn’t going to just strap up his gear and go out there and be a robot.”

Since Teakle also characterized Parekh as “a coach’s dream,” you can be assured those were big-time compliments.

Not everybody, however, agrees with Conroy’s assessment that Parekh has a “good cockiness about him.” This talented teen undoubtedly is aware of the criticisms that he can come across as over-confident.

He learned in a pair of exhibition appearances in the fall that it’s really tough to stand out against established NHLers and described his first training camp with the Flames as a “humbling” experience. Even though he racked up 107 points in 61 regular-season spins with the Spirit, he stressed in a recent interview: “Success in junior doesn’t mean you’re going to have a lot of success in pro.”