With most of their veterans left at home, expectations could only be set so high for the Calgary Flames’ pre-season matchup with the Winnipeg Jets on Saturday night.
If anything, it was a useful opportunity to see how the younger players at Flames training camp handled themselves against a Jets team that finished with more points than any other club in the NHL last season.
And in the end, the Flames left Winnipeg with a 4-2 loss that happened to feature goals from two of the most exciting prospects in the system.
“I thought we had stretches where we did some fairly good things,” head coach Ryan Huska told reporters in Winnipeg. “I did like the performance of a number of our players tonight.”
Here’s three takeaways from Saturday night’s action:
Calgary Flames forward Zayne Parekh smiles during the first day of training camp at the Scotiabank Saddledome on Thursday, September 18, 2025.Gavin Young/Postmedia
1. PAREKH POWERING UP
Zayne Parekh had some eye-catching moments on the power-play in Winnipeg.
He seems to be gaining confidence as pre-season grinds on, and his vision and ability to skate with the puck in the opposition zone definitely stands out. He’ll get power-play time this season, you have to think.
His goal, though, didn’t come from anything fancy. Like coaches have been telling players to do forever, Parekh collected the puck just inside the blue-line and fired a wrist shot on net.
With Adam Klapka setting a screen, the puck took a bounce off a Jets defender and into the back of the net.
Parekh is rightfully a work-in-progress, but there were definitely moments Saturday night when Flames fans started to feel pretty excited for what’s to come.
“He played a lot of minutes,” Huska told reporters. “I feel like every game he’s played, he continues to get better … He seems like he’s becoming more and more confident again, which is something we were hoping to see. That’s why we wanted to get him as many opportunities as we could in the exhibition season, to make sure he was feeling good about his game.
“He brings something to the table that we don’t really have on the back-end, the way he walks the blue-line and runs the power-play.”
2. TOUGH NIGHT IN NET
It certainly wasn’t Devin Cooley’s best night in net.
He stopped only 25-of-29 shots, although a couple of the goals weren’t entirely his fault.
The Jets’ opener came from former Flames winger Walker Duehr and took a weird bounce, while Nikita Chibrikov was left wide open in the slot for their second and there wasn’t much a goalie could do on Parker Ford’s third goal for the Winnipeggers.
Neal Pionk’s fourth was definitely one Cooley will want back.
All-round, it might still be a bit early to make any confident predictions about the Flames’ backup goaltending job, but Cooley will need a strong showing or two this week to beat out Ivan Prosvetov.
3. OTHER STANDOUTS
The NHL inexplicably credited the Flames’ second goal to Yan Kuznetsov, but it was blatantly Matvei Gridin who put the puck in the back of the net. The 19-year-old was placed on a line with Morgan Frost and Matt Coronato for the third period and responded well.
“I feel like I played my best game so far, and I’m pumped about my goal,” Grindin told reporters in Winnipeg. “It was a lot of NHL guys for Winnipeg and even if it’s pre-season, it was my first goal at the NHL level, so feels good.”
Elsewhere, Adam Klapka stepped up his physical game on Saturday night. He was mixing it up with tough-as-nails Jets blueliner Luke Schenn throughout the game and did well to set a screen in front of the Winnipeg net on Parekh’s goal.
Artem Grushnikov also had an encouraging game and Rory Kerins continues to have moments where he really does look like he’s pushing for NHL playing time. He was credited with an assist on Parekh’s goal, too.
“Grushnikov was really good,” Huska told reporters. “I thought he played a simple, smart game.”
Martin Pospisil took two penalties and it’s going to be interesting to see how long the Flames stick with the experiment of playing him at centre. They tried it last year and it didn’t last long.