Prospect Info: 2024 Draft, 9th Overall, Zayne Parekh

[Dack]

So I got to see Zayne live today.

Firstly, my friends kid was playing a game before the Owen Sound/Saginaw game. When Zayne saw the kids still on the ice, he went out in his shoes and stick handled putting on a little show for the kids. They loved it and so did the parents. So while he has this reputation of attitude issues, this was pretty cool.

As far as his game goes? He was easily the best player on the ice tonight. His skating is very good. His wrist shot is unreal. 6 shots on net tonight. His passing his also very good and very accurate. Skates with his head up and he's one of those guys that it looks like he has a magnet on his stick pulling the puck to him. Constant movement and just dominant in the offensive zone.

There were 2 plays where he kind of defended a little lazy with his stick, but overall I was very impressed.

Finished with a goal and 2 assists.

I bought a month of CHLTV because I wanted to check in on how the Flames prospects were doing and I watched his last 2 games.

I echo a lot of your thoughts, Parekh is just fun to watch.

Offense
- High end shot that he uses both to beat the goalie and to try and generate deflections or rebounds.
- Always looking for cross seam passes and isn't afraid to try some of the more difficult passing options.
- Can beat defenders closing on him at the line 9/10 times but sometimes gets knocked down trying to beat players at the blueline.
- Creative and deceptive with the puck, he's a willing passer and really tries to get passes into the danger areas of the ice.
- Almost always joins the rush as a trailer. Unfortunately his teammates rarely seem to spot him streaking in.
- Very good at pinching to keep the puck in but does get caught occasionally.

Defense
- Good at defending one on one, he has a good defensive stick and he's a great skater so he rarely gets beat one on one.
- Good at timing stick lifts from behind when he does get beaten.
- Great gap control.
- Good at breaking up the rush with well times poke checks as the opponents enter the zone.
- Needs work in front of his own net, gets outmuscled there quite a bit, sometimes because he's just smaller than the opposing forward and sometimes just bad technique .
- Can lack focus when defending off the puck for long shifts.
- Altogether there's a lot of room for improvement but I see no reason he can't improve defensively and become an average NHL defender or better.

Transition and Misc
- He has a few icings a game that are just passes gone completely haywire but the majority of his breakout passes are clean and crisp, often leading to rush chances for the Spirit. Misa is undoubtedly his favorite target.
- Very good puck carrier in his own right, I wondered a bit about that because I thought he struggled at this in Flames camp but he's been great in both the games I saw at weaving through the neutral zone.
- A lot of Zayne's poor defending is really just puck management. He gets caught flat footed trying to make a play and looks bad when it end up going the other way. The Spirit do him very few favors in this regard. Not only is the majority of their defense just not very good but the forwards don't seem to cover very often. Like in the most recent game, the Attack's 2nd goal came off of a play where Parekh activated and beat the first defender with a spin and then had his shot blocked by a 2nd defender, it then went back the other way for an Attack goal. I think that if this were Weegar or Andersson it likely wouldn't have resulted in a goal against because the forwards would have covered or at least back checked hard enough that the chance would be disrupted.
- On these turnovers he does need to back check harder some of the time.

Additionally, I'll say that he has moments of complete brilliance. In the 2nd half of the Oct 27th game, Parekh was a two-way monster. He only finished with one assist but he could've easily had 2 or 3 more points. He set up teammates with numerous great passes and was generating quality looks of his own. He was also great defensively, with 2 minutes left in the 3rd period of a tie game a Spirit player took a double minor for high sticking, Zayne had multiple great breakups during the PK in regulation, including a game saving layout on a 2 on 1 to stop a cross crease pass. In OT I think he played the entirety (2 mins) of the PK in OT and forced bad decisions by the Attack multiple times using his speed and his smarts. Not even in a he was hemmed in for 2 minutes kind of way, they cleared it multiple times but since Parekh was playing on the far side he never had the chance to change, to his credit you never would have thought he'd been out there for a 2 minute shift.

Excuse the essay it's just been a while since I was this excited about one of our prospects. I look forward to watching him play and I'll try and watch some of our other prospects too. I think I only have OHL access so I can't watch Basha or Gridin sadly.

 

[Haatley]

I bought a month of CHLTV because I wanted to check in on how the Flames prospects were doing and I watched his last 2 games.

I echo a lot of your thoughts, Parekh is just fun to watch.

Offense
- High end shot that he uses both to beat the goalie and to try and generate deflections or rebounds.
- Always looking for cross seam passes and isn't afraid to try some of the more difficult passing options.
- Can beat defenders closing on him at the line 9/10 times but sometimes gets knocked down trying to beat players at the blueline.
- Creative and deceptive with the puck, he's a willing passer and really tries to get passes into the danger areas of the ice.
- Almost always joins the rush as a trailer. Unfortunately his teammates rarely seem to spot him streaking in.
- Very good at pinching to keep the puck in but does get caught occasionally.

Defense
- Good at defending one on one, he has a good defensive stick and he's a great skater so he rarely gets beat one on one.
- Good at timing stick lifts from behind when he does get beaten.
- Great gap control.
- Good at breaking up the rush with well times poke checks as the opponents enter the zone.
- Needs work in front of his own net, gets outmuscled there quite a bit, sometimes because he's just smaller than the opposing forward and sometimes just bad technique .
- Can lack focus when defending off the puck for long shifts.
- Altogether there's a lot of room for improvement but I see no reason he can't improve defensively and become an average NHL defender or better.

Transition and Misc
- He has a few icings a game that are just passes gone completely haywire but the majority of his breakout passes are clean and crisp, often leading to rush chances for the Spirit. Misa is undoubtedly his favorite target.
- Very good puck carrier in his own right, I wondered a bit about that because I thought he struggled at this in Flames camp but he's been great in both the games I saw at weaving through the neutral zone.
- A lot of Zayne's poor defending is really just puck management. He gets caught flat footed trying to make a play and looks bad when it end up going the other way. The Spirit do him very few favors in this regard. Not only is the majority of their defense just not very good but the forwards don't seem to cover very often. Like in the most recent game, the Attack's 2nd goal came off of a play where Parekh activated and beat the first defender with a spin and then had his shot blocked by a 2nd defender, it then went back the other way for an Attack goal. I think that if this were Weegar or Andersson it likely wouldn't have resulted in a goal against because the forwards would have covered or at least back checked hard enough that the chance would be disrupted.
- On these turnovers he does need to back check harder some of the time.

Additionally, I'll say that he has moments of complete brilliance. In the 2nd half of the Oct 27th game, Parekh was a two-way monster. He only finished with one assist but he could've easily had 2 or 3 more points. He set up teammates with numerous great passes and was generating quality looks of his own. He was also great defensively, with 2 minutes left in the 3rd period of a tie game a Spirit player took a double minor for high sticking, Zayne had multiple great breakups during the PK in regulation, including a game saving layout on a 2 on 1 to stop a cross crease pass. In OT I think he played the entirety (2 mins) of the PK in OT and forced bad decisions by the Attack multiple times using his speed and his smarts. Not even in a he was hemmed in for 2 minutes kind of way, they cleared it multiple times but since Parekh was playing on the far side he never had the chance to change, to his credit you never would have thought he'd been out there for a 2 minute shift.

Excuse the essay it's just been a while since I was this excited about one of our prospects. I look forward to watching him play and I'll try and watch some of our other prospects too. I think I only have OHL access so I can't watch Basha or Gridin sadly.

Pretty spot on. I'm lucky to live in Owen Sound so I get to see him live as well as on TV. I think his skating stands out more in person. He is head and shoulders above everyone on the ice. I was there to watch Zayne. But sitting in the pro Owen Sound crowd, I heard comments about him all night. Particularly on some of his wrist shots.

 

[Figgy44]

There was the spitting incident last year and this...

Calgary Flames' Zayne Parekh Faces 10-Game Suspension Following Ejection for Spearing Incident

Calgary Flames' top draft pick, Zayne Parekh, has found himself in a precarious situation after a controversial incident that has sparked widespread discussion among fans and analysts alike During a

www.footboom1.com

That turned out to be false. But being in an OHL town, fans have a lot of bad things to say about the kid.

Is this similar to Tkachuk? A hated dink on the ice, but an absolute class act to kids and staff off the ice?

 

[Anglesmith]

Is this similar to Tkachuk? A hated dink on the ice, but an absolute class act to kids and staff off the ice?

Probably. Tkachuk is a notably smart player and a lot of his shithousery is calculated. Parekh is also noted for being highly intelligent, and I would guess he is deliberate about pushing buttons.

 

[Haatley]

Is this similar to Tkachuk? A hated dink on the ice, but an absolute class act to kids and staff off the ice?

Perhaps. OHL fans hated Tkachuk too.

One thing that stands out, he was literally the only player from either team to go out with the kids. He definitely changed the minds of the parents of the players.

 

[Dack]

Tonight's game vs London was a lot of fun.

- Parekh had a couple bad pinches/jumps that lead to chances and goals against. These happen a couple times a game and make me cringe, some of them aren't even the wrong idea he just misses the puck and it turns into a chance/goal against. London's 1st goal was like this, he tried to jump on a broken play (good idea) and missed the puck leading to a goal against (although to be fair it definitely shouldn't have gone in anyways). London's 6th goal was an example of a bad decision, he pinched as the last guy back on the PP and the Knight player banked it up to his teammate for a breakaway. Now in fairness to him, they're down by 3 goals so forcing that turnover would have been huge and at best this was a 2 on 1 against since Saginaw lost the puck with 4 guys low but still you have to give him some blame for allowing a breakaway there.

I think this and his net front defense are his two biggest issues. When he's on the puck carrier he's fine. He can genuinely be hard to get around with possession, he's got a knack for poking the puck away at the blueline.

- Drew 3 penalties, including a 5 minute major for slashing from a guy mad that he'd gotten his ankles broken at the blueline.

- Has some fire to him. Blew up some poor kid that was admiring his pass as he entered the zone following London's 4th goal. It wasn't dirty but it also wasn't far off from being interference.

- He's also quick to jump into scrums to defend teammates and while he's not a Tkachuk he does have some rat-like tendencies. He likes to pretend he's getting hooked while he holds the opponent's stick, slash behind the refs back and accidentally on purpose interfere with people.

- I think partially because of this, his coach doesn't play him in the last 10 mins or so of blowout games. Misa and Saginaw's other skill guys still play but Zayne is usually sitting. Misa has a Lady Byng candidate temperament so Lazery may be more worried about guys looking to go at Parekh.

-Anyways, the buried lead is that he had 1G and 3A, all primary points, a couple highlight reel plays and actually had a 4th primary assist taken off the board because his teammate kicked in his wraparound pass. He was far and away the best player on the ice offensively IMO. Starting with about 8 mins left in the 2nd I think Saginaw had him on the ice for every single offensive zone faceoff and he'd clearly been given the green light to go out there and make something happen.


Misc

- I really like Michael Misa's game. He's a puck hound and high end forechecker with elite skating who makes a lot of really smart plays and passes. He's also got a nose for the net, good finishing skills. That said, I think his offensive production so far this season somewhat overrates how good he's been offensively. He's really good no doubt, but I think he's closer to a guy like Hischier than most of the guys who've put up 2 PPG draft seasons in recent memory. I think he's got legit 1C potential but probably more in the 10-20 range for Cs than anything higher. I didn't think he had a very good night against a very strong London team

- Sam Dickinson had 1G 5A tonight. I'm not trying to be a hater, he's an impressive player and made several really solid defensive plays but watching the game, I genuinely thought he had 1G 1A; he got points from dumping the puck in (x2) and his stick breaking on a one timer. His assist to Barkey was a great outlet pass but I think a lot of his insane production this season is just playing massive minutes on a London team where like half their lineup are NHL prospects.

 

[Ledge And Dairy]

Tonight's game vs London was a lot of fun.

- Parekh had a couple bad pinches/jumps that lead to chances and goals against. These happen a couple times a game and make me cringe, some of them aren't even the wrong idea he just misses the puck and it turns into a chance/goal against. London's 1st goal was like this, he tried to jump on a broken play (good idea) and missed the puck leading to a goal against (although to be fair it definitely shouldn't have gone in anyways). London's 6th goal was an example of a bad decision, he pinched as the last guy back on the PP and the Knight player banked it up to his teammate for a breakaway. Now in fairness to him, they're down by 3 goals so forcing that turnover would have been huge and at best this was a 2 on 1 against since Saginaw lost the puck with 4 guys low but still you have to give him some blame for allowing a breakaway there.

I think this and his net front defense are his two biggest issues. When he's on the puck carrier he's fine. He can genuinely be hard to get around with possession, he's got a knack for poking the puck away at the blueline.

- Drew 3 penalties, including a 5 minute major for slashing from a guy mad that he'd gotten his ankles broken at the blueline.

- Has some fire to him. Blew up some poor kid that was admiring his pass as he entered the zone following London's 4th goal. It wasn't dirty but it also wasn't far off from being interference.

- He's also quick to jump into scrums to defend teammates and while he's not a Tkachuk he does have some rat-like tendencies. He likes to pretend he's getting hooked while he holds the opponent's stick, slash behind the refs back and accidentally on purpose interfere with people.

- I think partially because of this, his coach doesn't play him in the last 10 mins or so of blowout games. Misa and Saginaw's other skill guys still play but Zayne is usually sitting. Misa has a Lady Byng candidate temperament so Lazery may be more worried about guys looking to go at Parekh.

-Anyways, the buried lead is that he had 1G and 3A, all primary points, a couple highlight reel plays and actually had a 4th primary assist taken off the board because his teammate kicked in his wraparound pass. He was far and away the best player on the ice offensively IMO. Starting with about 8 mins left in the 2nd I think Saginaw had him on the ice for every single offensive zone faceoff and he'd clearly been given the green light to go out there and make something happen.


Misc

- I really like Michael Misa's game. He's a puck hound and high end forechecker with elite skating who makes a lot of really smart plays and passes. He's also got a nose for the net, good finishing skills. That said, I think his offensive production so far this season somewhat overrates how good he's been offensively. He's really good no doubt, but I think he's closer to a guy like Hischier than most of the guys who've put up 2 PPG draft seasons in recent memory. I think he's got legit 1C potential but probably more in the 10-20 range for Cs than anything higher. I didn't think he had a very good night against a very strong London team

- Sam Dickinson had 1G 5A tonight. I'm not trying to be a hater, he's an impressive player and made several really solid defensive plays but watching the game, I genuinely thought he had 1G 1A; he got points from dumping the puck in (x2) and his stick breaking on a one timer. His assist to Barkey was a great outlet pass but I think a lot of his insane production this season is just playing massive minutes on a London team where like half their lineup are NHL prospects.

It's very rare that a top 10 center isn't either the #1 or #2 draft pick in their class, especially in a redraft list. So to say he is more likely to pan out as a center in the 10-20 range when he is projected to go somewhere between 3rd and 6th OA this year makes sense. You can certainly hope that he becomes EP40 but someone of Barzal's caliber is much more likely.

 

[Dack]

It's very rare that a top 10 center isn't either the #1 or #2 draft pick in their class, especially in a redraft list. So to say he is more likely to pan out as a center in the 10-20 range when he is projected to go somewhere between 3rd and 6th OA this year makes sense. You can certainly hope that he becomes EP40 but someone of Barzal's caliber is much more likely.

Absolutely. I think it would be entirely reasonable to take him at 2 as well. It's not a super strong draft class and he's got 1C upside.

 

[Bjornar Moxnes]

I still wish we got Dickinson.

 

[Yepthatsme]

It's very rare that a top 10 center isn't either the #1 or #2 draft pick in their class, especially in a redraft list. So to say he is more likely to pan out as a center in the 10-20 range when he is projected to go somewhere between 3rd and 6th OA this year makes sense. You can certainly hope that he becomes EP40 but someone of Barzal's caliber is much more likely.

Ill go one further, outside of the 1st overall pick your centre you’re drafting isn’t even likely to be a 1C, people always just overhype it pre draft saying every top 10 guy has the chance to become one.

In the last 10 years the list of centers drafted 2-10 don’t look nearly as impressive as what you hear yearly:

2020
Byfield
Stutzle*
Rossi
Perfetti

2019
Dach
Turcotte
Cozens
Zegras

2018
Kotkaniemi
Hayton

2017
Patrick
Petterson*
Glass
Andersson
Mittlestadt
Rasmussen

2016
Jost

2015
Eichel*
Strome
Zacha

2014
Reinhart
Draisaitl*
Bennett

Asterisk players are the ones who are legitimately 1Cs, and it boils down to 4 across 7 years. Thought it was too early to do 2021 or 2022, but it’s not looking good for those classes either. Ironically, they seem to be just as distributed throughout the class as they do in the top 10. Over that same time frame Larkin, Point, Barzal, Erickson Ek (borderline), Hiintz, Thompson, Thomas have all been picked in the first 2-3 rounds.

Long story short, a top 10 draft pick for a centre likely wasn’t going to be our savior anyways. Good drafting and development is.

 

[Ledge And Dairy]

Ill go one further, outside of the 1st overall pick your centre you’re drafting isn’t even likely to be a 1C, people always just overhype it pre draft saying every top 10 guy has the chance to become one.

In the last 10 years the list of centers drafted 2-10 don’t look nearly as impressive as what you hear yearly:

2020
Byfield
Stutzle*
Rossi
Perfetti

2019
Dach
Turcotte
Cozens
Zegras

2018
Kotkaniemi
Hayton

2017
Patrick
Petterson*
Glass
Andersson
Mittlestadt
Rasmussen

2016
Jost

2015
Eichel*
Strome
Zacha

2014
Reinhart
Draisaitl*
Bennett

Asterisk players are the ones who are legitimately 1Cs, and it boils down to 4 across 7 years. Thought it was too early to do 2021 or 2022, but it’s not looking good for those classes either. Ironically, they seem to be just as distributed throughout the class as they do in the top 10. Over that same time frame Larkin, Point, Barzal, Erickson Ek (borderline), Hiintz, Thompson, Thomas have all been picked in the first 2-3 rounds.

Long story short, a top 10 draft pick for a centre likely wasn’t going to be our savior anyways. Good drafting and development is.

Agree with most of this, however Byfield is right on the verge of being a 1C and Cozens definitely has that potential too.

JEE is as much of a 1C as Backlund was in his prime. He's there because the center depth on that team is abysmal. Barzal has been moved to the wing for the most part

 

[crackdown44]

Agree with most of this, however Byfield is right on the verge of being a 1C and Cozens definitely has that potential too.

JEE is as much of a 1C as Backlund was in his prime. He's there because the center depth on that team is abysmal. Barzal has been moved to the wing for the most part

Last year I would have agreed with you but they’re both off to pretty bad starts this year


Wouldn’t call either of them on the verge of being a 1C at this point

 

[Ledge And Dairy]

Last year I would have agreed with you but they’re both off to pretty bad starts this year


Wouldn’t call either of them on the verge of being a 1C at this point

Cozens can't buy a goal. The guy has over 60 shots so far and a worse S% than Kadri

Byfield played mostly on the wing last year with Kopitar. This year he's been given his own line now that Dubois is gone. I'm quite confident he will figure it out.

 

[Yepthatsme]

Agree with most of this, however Byfield is right on the verge of being a 1C and Cozens definitely has that potential too.

JEE is as much of a 1C as Backlund was in his prime. He's there because the center depth on that team is abysmal. Barzal has been moved to the wing for the most part

Cozens and Byfield are 23 and 22 respectively so they have time to figure it out, but yea neither are particularly close to becoming a 1C. Both are finally playing C, and it’s as both their teams third line options.

JEE had 64 points in 77 games last year, prime Backlund could never. He’s having a rough year but he was a beast the previous 2 years. He’s borderline but I personally believe he was there. Barzal has played wing because of the chemistry him and Horvat have, but his play at C was definitely at that level. Regardless, the point still very much stands. Good drafting and development nets you a 1C at the draft more often than just possessing a top 10 pick, which is over-hyped for getting yourself that defining centre.

 

[Backlund]

Cozens and Byfield are 23 and 22 respectively so they have time to figure it out, but yea neither are particularly close to becoming a 1C. Both are finally playing C, and it’s as both their teams third line options.

JEE had 64 points in 77 games last year, prime Backlund could never. He’s having a rough year but he was a beast the previous 2 years. He’s borderline but I personally believe he was there. Barzal has played wing because of the chemistry him and Horvat have, but his play at C was definitely at that level. Regardless, the point still very much stands. Good drafting and development nets you a 1C at the draft more often than just possessing a top 10 pick, which is over-hyped for getting yourself that defining centre.

I'm too lazy to look this up at the moment but I'm almost certain this is statistically wrong.

 

[Yepthatsme]

I'm too lazy to look this up at the moment but I'm almost certain this is statistically wrong.

Outside the 1st overall pick, very much so. Can really break it down for you honestly. Here’s a list of teams that got their current 1C with a top 10 pick that’s not 1st overall:

Winnipeg
Florida
Philadelphia
Anaheim
Ottawa
Utah

6 teams total NHL wide. Now current teams who got their 1C from beyond the top 10:

Carolina
Minnesota
Dallas
LA
Tampa
Islanders*
St. Louis
Detroit

Islanders are iffy so I’ll accept anyone saying Barzal is currently not used as the 1C, but the point still stands. Then you get 7 teams who’s current 1C they took 1st overall, and that leaves you with the majority method of getting your 1C with free agency and trades at 11 teams (12 if you don’t count Barzal which is fair and include Horvat instead). Drafting between 2-10 is actually the least likely method NHL wide to get a 1C.

Gets even funnier when you look at the stats, because of those 6 teams who drafted their current 1C 2-10: here is how they’re doing this year:

Barkov •19 points in 13 games
Scheifele •25 points in 21 games
Stutzle •24 points in 20 games

Couturier •10 in 20
Hayton •8 in 21
Carlsson •11 in 19

So 3 high end producers league wide as it currently stands amongst the 32 NHL teams. Drafting 2-10 is not as successful at getting you your top C as it’s billed, which gets MUCH worse if you exclude #2 and #3 as well.

 

[Bounces R Way]

Uhhhh not sure what kind of argument we're having but just to be clear, 20 of the top 25 centers in points per game since 2019-20 were drafted with a top 15 draft pick. Point, Aho, Thompson, Barzal(16th), and Hintz are the exceptions not the rule. Point and Aho are the only ones not drafted in the 1st round.

This team needs a 200ft franchise C if it wants to be a serious contender. It has for my entire adult life. The best way to find those is at the top of the draft. I hope Conroy packages whatever picks he needs to to get the C him and the staff want in the 2025 draft. I don't hate this re-tool idea they are trying but that is a piece that is non-negotiable in my mind. Otherwise I fear it'll just be more of the same for the Flames. Have some good fwd depth, real solid blueline, goaltending looks like it might be taken care of, but lack that center that can be the difference in a playoff series.

 

[Backlund]

Outside the 1st overall pick, very much so. Can really break it down for you honestly. Here’s a list of teams that got their current 1C with a top 10 pick that’s not 1st overall:

Winnipeg
Florida
Philadelphia
Anaheim
Ottawa
Utah

6 teams total NHL wide. Now current teams who got their 1C from beyond the top 10:

Carolina
Minnesota
Dallas
LA
Tampa
Islanders*
St. Louis
Detroit

Islanders are iffy so I’ll accept anyone saying Barzal is currently not used as the 1C, but the point still stands. Then you get 7 teams who’s current 1C they took 1st overall, and that leaves you with the majority method of getting your 1C with free agency and trades at 11 teams (12 if you don’t count Barzal which is fair and include Horvat instead). Drafting between 2-10 is actually the least likely method NHL wide to get a 1C.

Gets even funnier when you look at the stats, because of those 6 teams who drafted their current 1C 2-10: here is how they’re doing this year:

Barkov •19 points in 13 games
Scheifele •25 points in 21 games
Stutzle •24 points in 20 games

Couturier •10 in 20
Hayton •8 in 21
Carlsson •11 in 19

So 3 high end producers league wide as it currently stands amongst the 32 NHL teams. Drafting 2-10 is not as successful at getting you your top C as it’s billed, which gets MUCH worse if you exclude #2 and #3 as well.

Why did you remove the teams with 1C's drafted 1st overall? Do they not count in the top 10 for some reason? I know its not a likely outcome but its strange to remove them when you're trying to argue against the value of a top 10 pick. It skews the results in your favour. Same as removing 2 and 3. They have different values for sure and much of it depends on the particular draft class but they all count within the top 10.

League point leaders 20 games into the season don't matter for the point you're trying to make. It's a small sample size with numerous examples of how players have started off hot and cooled down or started off slow and finished near the top. "Defining centers" aren't determined by that amount of games.