Casual 4pt night for Parekh all of them on the powerplay. Probably would run a better PP than any of the gumps we have now or anywhere else in this org.
1G away from becoming the first dman in major junior history to score 30Gs in his draft season and his D+1.
When the highlights are posted you'll want to see his 4th assist on Mangone's goal. His vision is insane.
For a brief update as someone who watches most Saginaw games (Saginaw is really fun).
- Parekh is too good for the OHL offensively. His only quiet offensive games are the ones where Saginaw never really has the puck. I've noticed teams play him very tight off of the puck because the easiest way to defend him is basically just not letting him touch the puck. He's basically got "gravity" to steal a basketball term. Hell, earlier this month I think I actually saw the Sault St Marie try out what I can only describe as an umbrella PK (think the guy in front as the handle and then man on man for the 3 high guys on the PP), it took like two passes before Zayne recognized how aggressive they were being and hit one of the two low guys which turned into an easy goal.
- Chernyshov is a beast and his addition to the Spirit has turned them into an absolute wagon. Him being so good on the half wall lets Parekh get a lot more easy points than he was during the first half of the season. In the early months if Parekh got a point it was basically because he was primarily responsible for creating a goal. He still does that now but he's also getting rewarded for just moving and distributing the puck well on the PP.
- Defense is a work in progress but I do think it's progressing. He's getting better at things like breaking up passes and boxing out. Gets caught up ice once or twice a game but I think when he's (analytically) the best offensive player in the league you can live with that.
- I like his defending against the rush when he's aggressive. He's good at denying entries due to his lateral mobility. Same thing on the PK, he likes to rush unsuspecting players as they receive the puck and he often succeeds in stealing it because he's on them before they've even picked their heads up.
- Seems much stronger. Not NHL strong, but he doesn't get manhandled on the regular like he used to.
- The area I've seen the biggest improvement in is his breakout and puck retrievals. He's using his feet a lot more and his success rate has skyrocketed. There's been multiple goals in the last month or so that come off of a rush that started with Parekh beating somebody with his feet and then making a nice pass in transition. For example, the 6th goal in tonight's game came off of a nice backhand sauce from him to spring a 3 on 2.
I've also watched most of the Flames other CHL prospects, though only a handful of games for each.
