Neither Mace’o Phillips nor Aydar Suniev own a pair of jeans.
Luke Misa and Trevor Hoskin have been known to rock a little denim, though.
And Zayne Parekh, who got this line of questioning started when MacKenzie Weegar dropped the bombshell reveal in April that the young blueliner didn’t have jeans in his wardrobe?
“No, eventually I’m going to have to (buy a pair), probably better to get it done now,” Parekh said. “I actually went to the mall to buy some and was going to get dress shoes, too, and I didn’t get a thing.”
Are there any conclusions to be drawn about the pants preferences of young hockey players through this extremely small sample size survey of Flames prospects? Probably not.
“I mean, obviously hockey players have big legs,” Suniev mused. “I don’t think many hockey players own jeans.”
There are bigger things on the minds of the young future Flames who have assembled this week for development camp at WinSport. For Parekh, in particular, there are a lot of eyeballs on him as he continues preparing for his second training camp.
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The No. 9 overall pick in the 2024 NHL Draft left last year’s camp calling it a humbling experience. It revealed to him, in no uncertain terms, how far he still had to go before he was ready to take his out-of-this-world junior numbers and replicate them in the pros.
In September, though, Parekh will be looking to book his place on the Flames roster for next season.
“I mean, everyone knows that for me, I’m trying to play in the NHL,” Parekh said Wednesday. “All my peers know that. I have a great support group and everybody’s pushing me every day and I’m pretty hard on myself, too. I’m going to keep working so that in the fall, it’s pretty far away but I’ve gotta have a good camp.”
On some level, Parekh needs to make the Flames roster.
He’s too young to play in the AHL, but there’s also nothing left for him to accomplish in junior. He led all CHL defencemen in scoring with 107 points last season and became the first OHL blueliner to record multiple 30-goal seasons since Bobby Orr, who did it from 1964-66.
The next step in his development needs to come playing against pros and that’s going to mean cracking the Flames roster.
The next couple months of summer training are going to be critical for getting himself ready for the challenge. He’ll be skating with a group of NHLers in Toronto that’s led by Mitch Marner while working on getting leaner and faster.
“The more pressure I put on myself in the off-season, the better,” Parekh said. “Then, come training camp I’ll kind of take that pressure off and continue.”
Calgary Flames power skating coach Danielle Fujita works with from left; Zayne Parekh, Etienne Morin and Henry Mews during the Calgary Flames annual development camp at WinSport on Wednesday, July 2, 2025.
The Flames coaching and development staff have had a lot of time to work with Parekh since they drafted him. He was with the team for development and training camp last year and then joined the team for the last week of the regular season, scoring in his NHL debut in Game 82 against the Los Angeles Kings.
“It’s getting him here, getting some data on him, just getting our hands on him, ‘How are you doing? How can we help you?’ and then ‘The next two months look like this. Be prepared for X, be prepared for Y’, “ said Flames director of player development Ray Edwards. “It’s all preparation for September.”
In September, there will be more important questions to ask of Parekh than whether or not he’s bought a pair of jeans. And by the time October rolls around, the hope is that Parekh will be talked about as an everyday NHLer and not just an exciting prospect.
“Time’s flying,” Parekh said. “I want to stay young and enjoy my days as a teenager, but they’re slowly coming to an end.”