Calgary Flames fans growing increasingly frustrated over Zayne Parekh's usage
Zayne Parekh’s rookie season with the Calgary Flames has gotten off to a slower start than fans were hoping to see.
The offensively gifted blueliner has recorded just one assist on the season and has had his fair share of miscues defensively.
Such mistakes will happen to a player of his age, of course.
Zayne Parekh had a rough go of it on the power play at the end of the 1st period and I think this is the reason why he barely saw the ice in the 2nd.
I know Parekh needs to lessen the amount of turnovers, but the only way to learn is to play him and show that you trust him. pic.twitter.com/E9JBmEgP3H
— Robert Munnich (@RingOfFireCGY) November 3, 2025
Parekh is just 19 years old. In a perfect world, he’d be playing in the AHL, but under current NHL guidelines, that isn’t a possibility. Sending him back to the OHL, a league in which he recorded 107 points in 2024-25, doesn’t do much, if anything, for his development.
With a full season in the AHL out of question, the best choice the Flames can make is to keep him on their roster. Fans agree entirely with that step. What they disagree with is how he’s being used.
Parekh is set to sit as a healthy scratch on Wednesday night versus the Columbus Blue Jackets. It will be the third time in four games that he’s been subjected to watching from the press box, and the fifth time already this season.
For a Flames team that is dead last in the NHL standings at 3-9-2, having Parekh, the organization’s top prospect in quite some time, continue to sit out games is puzzling.
Perhaps frustration is the better word, as it describes plenty of fans’ perspectives right now.
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You can understand the Flames not wanting to throw Parekh right into the fire on a nightly basis so as not to ruin his confidence. If the AHL were an option, he would almost certainly be with the Calgary Wranglers at this time.
With that not being a possibility, you have to think that giving him continued reps at the NHL is what’s best moving forward. Yes, there will be rough patches, as there is with every young player adjusting to the league. Those bumps along the road outweigh continuously scratching him, however, making it imperative that they find a way to get him in the lineup on a more consistent basis going forward.
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