Can the unbreakable Zayne Parekh become an elite defender in the NHL?

Credit: Natalie Shaver/OHL Images

Zayne Parekh is the epitome of a modern-day NHL defenseman.

He’s an excellent skater. He’s all-in on offense all the time. He’s got tremendous hockey sense and handles the puck as well as anyone. This draft class might not have a defenseman with a higher ceiling than Parekh.

But can he actually play defense? Because we’ve seen plenty of high-end offensive defensemen in recent years fall flat because they can’t play their actual position.

And that was a concern with Parekh heading into the season. He grew up as a dominant offensive defenseman, but he would get caught making mistakes in his own zone and not having the ability to clean it up.

Fortunately, that’s not much of an issue today.

Parekh is considered to be a potential to- five pick in the 2024 NHL Draft, with the Saginaw Spirit star being the clear No. 1 offensive defenseman available in the draft class. It’s hard to stand out in a class full of high-end defensemen, but scoring 33 goals and 96 points in one of the most productive efforts by a draft-eligible defenseman in the 21st century is a good way to do that.

Parekh was a leader on the Spirit all season long, using his game-breaking offensive stylings to stun opponents. He was a big part of Saginaw’s Memorial Cup championship a few weeks back, capping off an incredible year that started with Parekh winning gold with Canada at the Hlinka Gretzky Cup.

For Parekh, his confidence never wavered. There might not be a player who believes in themself more than the dynamic, puck-moving 17-year-old. You need that if you play the high-risk, high-reward game he does.

“There’s a lot of good defensemen (in the draft class),” Parekh said at the NHL Draft Combine. “For myself, I think I play a different style of hockey from most of them. The way I play, I like to drive pace and make plays and try and be creative in the way I play.”

Parekh’s play style makes him one of the most entertaining players to enter the draft in a while. It was the third most productive U-18 season ever by an OHL defender, and he still has at least another year to go in major junior. There’s no reason to doubt that he won’t become the fourth defender in OHL history to break the 120-point barrier next year and become just the second behind Paul Reinhart in 1978-79 to hit 50 goals. Ryan Ellis is the only player since 2000 to register at least 100 points, doing so on the heels of a 76-assist campaign in 2010-11.

“Parekh’s better and more dynamic than Ellis was,” one scout said. “If he stays healthy and Saginaw remains competitive, he’s going to be breaking records for this century.”

But again, to revisit the point: what about his defense?

Scouts aren’t too concerned anymore. Heading into the season, there were questions about whether Parekh tried to do too much with the puck and whether that killed him in his own zone. But he’s got the toolkit to make everything work at both ends, and that starts with his skating. Parekh isn’t an explosive skater, but he moves well side-to-side and can start and stop on a dime. He’s a manipulator offensively in how he makes you think he’s doing one thing before doing another, and he’s figured out how to use that to his advantage going the other way, too.

“He doesn’t have the size, the reach or the competitiveness in the D-zone you’ll find from others, and I’m not sure it makes sense for him to stray from what works,” one scout said. “He’s so offensively gifted and that’s his strength. He needs to play to it to be as dominant as he is. But will that hurt him in the NHL? Maybe.”

Parekh still thinks there’s room to improve, but he’s confident he’ll be fine once he cracks an NHL roster.

“I truly believe I will get to the point where I am a capable defender,” Parekh said. “It may take a little bit for me, but I believe in myself and I believe in my abilities.”

Parekh isn’t big like Sam Dickinson or Anton Silayev, but he’s often physically engaged. He blocks shots and is never afraid to land a big hit on a stronger player on the rush, either. But there’s another foundational element to his game that makes him effective, given he has to find other ways to engage defensively since he’s not a shutdown option like Silayev. Parekh used to shy away from the more physical elements of the game, but he takes everything head-on now to the point where he doesn’t have many glaring weaknesses on the defensive side.

“What he understands is he has to break up the plays before they get to the dot. So he has to break these plays up,” said Shane Malloy, who hosts Hockey Prospect Radio on Sirius XM. “With his gap control, his angling, his stick and anticipating the play, he has to break plays up earlier because he doesn’t want to have to defend below the circle.”

Opposing teams knew Parekh was a danger any time he hit the ice, and would throw their biggest and toughest players at him to try and get him off his game. But Parekh never cracked – he handles pressure so calmly and tactfully.

“I’ve never seen a player get more targeted by sticks and hits in the OHL, and the kid kept coming back,” Malloy said. “He shows a level of determination that I appreciate because sooner or later, people will break, and this kid doesn’t break. He’ll get punished at the NHL level, and he’ll be like, ‘Whatever, that’s not new to me.’ He already has that strong mentality.”

Talking to some of the same scouts about Parekh in August and then again in June, most seem to think Parekh’s game is so advanced that he’ll have no issue becoming an impactful NHLer. The league continues to get faster and more skilled, and Parekh thrives in those scenarios. Some teams aren’t fully convinced he’ll be as good defensively as some of the other draft picks this year, but others consider him a top three prospect in this class.

Once the first defensive domino drops – whether it’s Parekh, or someone else – things get fun. Parekh would be the top young defenseman on most NHL teams, and it wouldn’t be shocking if he was playing 20 minutes a night in the show two years from now. There’s so much talent and so much upside, and he’s genuinely one of the most fascinating prospects in this draft.

“The teams that pass on him are going to kicking themselves in a few years,” another scout said.

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Can the unbreakable Zayne Parekh become an elite defender in the NHL?

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