Zayne Parekh felt he could have done better in his first NHL training camp.
He’s his own harshest critic, but if the Calgary Flames’ first round pick — ninth overall in this year’s draft — needs to look for reassurance about how much of a jump a player can make between their first camp and their second go-around, he only needs to look at Sam Honzek.
Drafted in the first round by the Flames in 2023, Honzek left last year’s pre-season disappointed with how he’d competed. This year, though, he’s lighting it up.
And while Parekh was re-assigned to another year in the OHL with the Saginaw Spirit on Friday, he had a chance to sit down for dinner with Honzek on Thursday night and chat about their respective journeys.
“I had dinner with him last night and we were kind of talking about how much more comfortable he feels and how good he looks out there,” Parekh said. “He’s a player that has dealt with a lot over the last year-and-a-half and he’s starting to prove people wrong.
“He kind of just told me how your second time around, you kind of understand what you’re getting into and I really didn’t understand what I was getting into, but that’s an okay thing. It’s a really good experience for me and next year I’ll know what to expect finally and have a better camp.”
While Parekh wasn’t thrilled with the way he performed during his first training camp with the Flames, he didn’t look out-of-place and most 18-year-old defencemen are going to need a little more development time before they’re ready to start making waves in the NHL.
Another year with the Spirit will allow him to continue refining his game and focus on his strength and speed – not that anyone’s suggesting his skating is an issue, even now. And hopefully he’ll have a full summer to work in the gym in 2025, too. That’s not a luxury that was afforded to him this year.
He won the Memorial Cup with the Spirit, had the pre-draft combine, the draft itself, his first development camp and then was part of the Canadian team at the World Junior Summer Showcase.
It was busy, in other words, and a full summer to get some rest and recovery in before going hard in the gym will be big next year.
“It’s tough on the mind and it’s tough on the body and you kind of get drained-out a little bit,” Parekh said about his busy summer. “But it’s a lifestyle you choose and a lifestyle I love. The busier I’m staying, the happier I am.”
Parekh was critical of his training camp showing when chatting with the media on Friday and described his first go-around as being “humbling.” Skating with full-time NHLers who are a decade – or more – older and more developed than you are is going to be tough for any young player.
But Flames coaches and management were encouraged by what they saw. He led OHL defencemen in scoring with 33 goals and 63 assists last year, but there was no expectation that he was going to be able to come into his first camp and pick up right where he left off.
Arriving at camp and realizing how fast and strong you actually have to be to play in the NHL may have been humbling, but it’s only going to make him better.
“Every young guy, you want them to leave here understanding the NHL a little better and maybe recognize how hard it is to play at this level with the speed these guys play at and how much time and space is taken away from you,” said Flames head coach Ryan Huska. “In Zayne’s case, I thought he did a good job of getting better every day.
“The beauty part about Zayne is you can’t teach what he has, so once he gets used to the pace and how the game is played at the next level you’re going to see him be the same type of defenceman in the NHL as he is in junior.”
ICE CHIPS
Nazem Kadri left Flames practice after a scary-looking collision with Blake Coleman. He didn’t return, but the Flames are optimistic that he wasn’t hurt too badly.““From the way it looked I think we’re going to get off lucky,” Huska said. “It could have been a lot uglier on what I think it’s going to be.” … Defenceman Kevin Bahl participated in practice for the first time since the start of training camp on Friday. He was dealing with a lower-body injury. His focus for now is getting up-to-speed, but the Flames are expecting him to play top-four minutes … The Flames were without a couple key players at their practises on Friday morning. All listed as day-to-day, Martin Pospisil, Jake Bean and Matthew Coronato were all missing-in-action with lower-body injuries. It doesn’t sound like there’s anything long-term to be concerned about, though. “If you were to ask all of them if this were the regular season they would have been on the ice today,” Huska said.