How acquired: Selected with No. 9 pick in 2024 NHL Draft<\/p>\n
2024-2025 season: Calgary (NHL): 1 GP, 1-0-1; Saginaw (OHL): 61 GP, 33-74-107<\/p>\n
The 19-year-old was the top scoring defenseman in the Ontario Hockey League last season and had a memorable NHL debut in the Flames\u2019 final game. Parekh scored a goal and showcased his offensive ability in a 5-1 win at the Los Angeles Kings on April 17.<\/p>\n
Parekh is expected to get a long look at training camp this season and will be given every opportunity to earn a roster spot.<\/p>\n
\u201cHe\u2019s coming in as a 19-year-old this year trying to make an NHL roster as a defenseman, which is extremely hard, but there are certain things that he brings to the table that are hard to teach and a lot of teams don\u2019t have,\u201d Flames director of player development Ray Edwards said. \u201cSo, when you have those attributes, you have to use them to the best of your ability, understanding there are certain parts of his game that we have to keep grinding away on.\u201d<\/p>\n
If Parekh is not able to earn a spot with Calgary, he is ineligible to play in the American Hockey League and would have to return to junior, where he won the Memorial Cup with Saginaw in 2024. Regardless, the Flames are excited about the young prospect and believe he has the ability to develop into an elite NHL defenseman.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe like his skill, his hockey sense and the moment is never too big for him,\u201d director of amateur scouting Tod Button said. \u201cHe plays with a lot of swagger, and he has a lot of confidence. Last year, coming off a Memorial Cup championship, he didn\u2019t get a lot of time to train, so this summer he can get a full summer of training and put the requisite weight and strength to make the jump to the next level.\u201d<\/p>\n
Projected NHL arrival: This season<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"How acquired: Selected with No. 9 pick in 2024 NHL Draft 2024-2025 season: Calgary (NHL): 1 GP, 1-0-1;…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":44640,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[433],"tags":[49,48,448,82],"class_list":["post-44639","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-nhl","tag-ca","tag-canada","tag-nhl","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/44639","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=44639"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/44639\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/44640"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=44639"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=44639"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=44639"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}