Think for a second about Zayne Parekh’s summer.
First, the 18-year-old won the Memorial Cup with the Saginaw Spirit in early June.
A few days later, he was at the NHL’s Draft Combine.
By the end of the month, he was hearing his name called ninth overall by the Calgary Flames in the 2024 NHL Draft.
A week after that, he was skating for the Flames’ development camp at WinSport.
In late July and early August, he was skating with Team Canada at the World Junior Summer Showcase.
So yeah … not a lot of downtime for a player who — it bears repeating — is still a teenager.
To be clear, everything we just listed is a positive and an experience Parekh will surely cherish for a long, long time.
There are challenges that come along with a schedule like that, though.
“It’s been a tough summer in the sense that, from a development standpoint, it’s been so busy,” said Ray Edwards, director of player development for the Flames. “With him, it’s Memorial Cup, which you want. It’s draft combine, development camp, world juniors, we haven’t been able to get him for three months of hard training.
“That’s been the biggest challenge, but with him, his willingness to buy into what we want him to try to do, he’s all in.”
Parekh has used his limited time off to work extremely hard. When he was drafted, he was listed at 181 lbs., and on the first day of the Flames’ prospects training camp on Thursday, he said he was stepping on the scale at 185 lbs.
And there’s no doubting the young offensive-minded defenceman’s commitment. He showed up a couple weeks early to skate in Calgary with some of the Flames veterans, eager to learn and get a firsthand look at the standard he needs to rise to if and when he’s going to play in the NHL.
“For me, I think the biggest thing that I took is just kind of the culture here,” Parekh said of his time skating with the veterans in Calgary. “Everyone’s so kind and open and for a young 18-year-old to come in and step in with a bunch of older guys and for them to treat me as just another guy, it means everything. How much detail there is being an NHL player, there’s obviously a lot, and you see how good these players are and you’re trying to emulate them.”
The big question surrounding Parekh is how long it’s going to take for him to be skating with those Flames veterans in NHL games.
He’ll be playing with the rest of the Flames prospects at the annual NHL Young Stars Classic, which kicks off for the group when they take on their Winnipeg Jets counterparts on Friday. The game will be streamed live on the team’s website.
From there, it will be Parekh’s first NHL training camp.
Chances are, he’ll be returning to the OHL for another season with the Spirit once that’s over. There has been some speculation about whether he might be able to crack the Flames roster, but that’s probably a long shot.
Parekh’s a young defenceman with time on his side and it won’t do him the slightest bit of harm to spend another year chasing another championship in junior.
“I’m obviously trying to get better every day and do my thing, but staying patient,” Parekh said. “I’m not going to step in the league next year and be a point-per-game defenceman, there’s got to be a lot of patience there and trusting your process and leaning back on the people you love.”
Another year with the Spirit to focus on development and improvement will only help Parekh, and hopefully a full summer to train for the leap to the pros will help him out in 2025, too.
This past summer was one for the ages, to be sure, and while it was definitely busy, the Flames love where his head is at as he prepares for another big year.
“He understands the areas we need to work on with him for him to be an NHL player,” Edwards said. “He and I have had that conversation and he’s gone, ‘I get it. I know why you drafted me but I know what I have to do to get here as far as I can.’ His willingness is to be, ‘OK, whatever you guys need me to do, I’m in’. “