Three takeaways as Zayne Parekh dazzles in Flames' pre-season win over Canucks
If that’s the Zayne Parekh we’re going to get this year, get ready for some fun this season.
The defenceman will have to do it against teams that are a lot more NHL-seasoned than the squad of mostly AHLers the Vancouver Canucks rolled out on Tuesday night at the Saddledome, of course.
But Parekh looked like a different player from the one we saw last season in the Flames’ 3-1 exhibition win. The way he skated, the way he saw the ice, the way he controlled the offensive zone … it looked a lot more like the guy who dominated the OHL two years ago than the rookie who was finding his feet in the NHL as a teenager in 2025-26.
He looked good, in other words, especially with the puck on the stick in the offensive zone.
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“Yeah, I felt the way it looked,” Parekh said post-game. “Don’t want to get too high or too low, but just trying to build my game and make plays.”
There’s only so much anyone can take from a game between a Flames group that will likely start the regular season together and a Canucks team that was largely comprised of players who will be in the AHL, but it was nonetheless an encouraging performance from the young blueliner.
“I thought he played well tonight,” said Flames head coach Ryan Huska. “I thought his first exhibition game he tried to do a lot with the puck, and tonight I thought he made plays that were there and because of that he looked really good on both ends of the ice tonight.”
On the one hand, that’s a reflection of a solid defensive performance from his teammates.
On the other, Huska wouldn’t have minded if his starting goalie got a little more work in.
“It’s the way it goes, his next game he’s going to get a lot of shots,” Huska said.
Early in the second period, Ilya Safonov gave Parekh a solid shove in front of the Flames net. The Flames obviously don’t want the 20-year-old getting too involved in the after-the-whistle stuff, so it was up to one of his teammates to come to his defence.
It’s not what you’d expect from the Belarusian winger, but he got right in there and stood on business.
5News aggregated this summary from the outlet’s public feed. The full article, with all the context, is on calgaryherald.com — the content belongs to Calgary Herald.
