Parekh prioritizing personal growth

One of the NHL’s top prospects wants you to want to have dinner with him.

Calgary Flames’ blueliner Zayne Parekh, the 19-year-old who matched Bobby Orr with multiple 30-goal seasons in the Ontario Hockey League and scored in his NHL debut at the end of last season, is spending a lot of time trying to evolve off the ice.

“It's been a tough month for me off the ice, kind of just reinventing myself as a person, trying to be a guy I want to have dinner with,” he said at Flames’ development camp this week.

“Working on myself off the ice, I think, is really important, and something I'm taking really serious. You’ve just kind of got to keep growing as a person. I think for me it's completely aside fro Taylor Fritz m hockey, and it's not even close to having anything to do with hockey, but learning how to communicate with people better, and listening…it’s given me something to do over the past month.”

It’s the type of introspection that’s rare to find in a teenager.

“When you do some self-reflection, and some things happen, it's better to learn young than kind of grow up and have to change those things when I'm 35,” he said.

Flames’ director of player development Ray Edwards said he has noticed a change in Parekh, who readily admitted how overwhelmed he was in his first NHL training camp last September.

“Everything you do, you learn,” Edwards said. “Whether it’s training camp or development camp, whether it’s a Zoom call in December where we’re talking about killing plays, that’s what you want.”

It was just one game, but Edwards says that a small taste of the NHL can go a long way for a prospect. Parekh and Aydar Suniev made their debuts in the season finale in Los Angeles in April. Edwards feels the confidence they gained is invaluable.

“That does nothing but help them,” Edwards explained. “And then obviously Zayne went to [World Hockey Championships], ...He’s feeling good about himself. He knows he had success there. Good summer and you come to camp feeling really good.”

Parekh said he’s far more comfortable around his future teammates. He said that veteran MacKenzie Weegar spoke with him for three hours at an end-of-season function about the team’s culture and future.

Weegar even insisted that Parekh buy jeans after Parekh showed up to the spring get-together in joggers (Parekh insists he doesn’t own a single piece of denim), but the rookie has yet to heed the advice.

“I actually went to the mall to buy some. I was going to get dress shoes too, and I just didn’t get a thing,” he said, chuckling when a reporter brought up that the Calgary Stampede is right around the corner.

“I’ve gotta go [buy some]. Eventually, I’m going to have to. Probably best to get it done now.”

Parekh is embracing a summer where he can train properly, relax, and get his mind right ahead of a training camp that general manager Craig Conroy has left wide open for rookies to earn roster spots.

“I didn't have a lot of time last year to prepare for camp, and I was in over my head,” he said. “Especially when you're kind of nervous and, [thinking] ‘Hopefully I don't mess up or make a mistake,’ you're kind of attracting those thoughts, and it's going to come.”

It’s a different story heading into his second one, and the perspective he’s gained beyond the rink will make it that much better. He feels he belongs now.

“I think this time around, I'm more confident,” Parekh said. “I mean, I got a taste at the end. I understand kind of what it takes to play in the NHL. I got a little grasp of it, so hopefully that'll help.”