{"id":393708,"date":"2026-01-06T14:59:12","date_gmt":"2026-01-06T14:59:12","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/393708\/"},"modified":"2026-01-06T14:59:12","modified_gmt":"2026-01-06T14:59:12","slug":"zayne-parekh-finds-out-personality-has-limits-in-the-nhl","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/393708\/","title":{"rendered":"Zayne Parekh Finds Out Personality Has Limits in the NHL"},"content":{"rendered":"

Calgary Flames defenseman Zayne Parekh<\/a> spoke again after Canada\u2019s bronze-medal victory at the World Juniors, his first media availability since his New Year\u2019s Day comments describing NHL players as \u201crobots\u201d with \u201cno personality\u201d in the media.<\/p>\n

Related: Flames Players Not Thrilled with Zayne Parekh\u2019s Recent Remarks<\/a><\/p>\n

Asked to reflect on those remarks, Parekh acknowledged his poor choice of words.<\/p>\n

\u201cI think some things got spun out of proportion \u2026 probably worded things wrongly,\u201d Parekh said. \u201cBut obviously it wasn\u2019t my intent in the words I said, and I sincerely apologize to the Flames organization and my teammates. At the end of the day, that\u2019s not acceptable and that can\u2019t happen.\u201d<\/p>\n

In short: apology issued, lesson learned, personality temporarily shelved.<\/p>\n

\"\"Zayne Parekh Flames prospect<\/p>\n

That response came after Parekh had previously explained his belief that personality helps grow the game, and the NHL wasn\u2019t overflowing with it. He wanted to be different. He also hinted that it was nice not to be silenced during media interviews. <\/p>\n

\u201cI think you need some personality, and it\u2019s the best way to grow the game. I don\u2019t want to come in here and be a robot,\u201d he said earlier in the tournament. \u201cWhen I\u2019m in Calgary, I definitely have a lot of guys that are telling me to give really simple answers. But here I could kind of do what I want.\u201d<\/p>\n

Parekh Can One Day Speak His Mind\u2026 Just Not Yet?<\/p>\n

Flames defenseman MacKenzie Weegar<\/a> reached out to Parekh after the comments to give him a little teammate advice. He offered perspective, pointing out that Parekh\u2019s comments had reached the locker room and some of his teammates didn\u2019t love the remarks. <\/p>\n

\u201cI think he does feel a little bit bad about it, which is OK,\u201d Weegar said. \u201cI knew it wasn\u2019t a personal shot. I don\u2019t like when NHL players are robots either. There\u2019s just a way to show your personality.\u201d In other words, you can speak your mind, but be careful what you say and when you say it. For Parekh, he\u2019s not necessarily paid enough dues in the NHL to make sweeping comments about the players he\u2019s trying to keep up with. <\/p>\n

Give it time. <\/p>\n

Despite the noise, Parekh\u2019s on-ice performance continued to do the talking. He recorded his 13th point of the tournament, setting the all-time Canadian record for points by a defenceman at a single World Juniors.<\/p>\n

Nazem Kadri<\/a> understands what it\u2019s like to get caught up in a moment, especially when everyone wants to talk to you. Parekh has arguably been Team Canada\u2019s best player. \u201cEverybody\u2019s excited at the World Juniors,\u201d Kadri said. \u201cHe\u2019s a confident kid. I like the swagger. I wouldn\u2019t make a huge deal of it.\u201d<\/p>\n

In light of the apology, the situation appears far less dramatic than initially framed. That said, the Flames are going to have a little fun with Parekh. \u201cWe won\u2019t let him off the hook that easy,\u201d Weegar laughed. \u201cThere will be some jokes flying around.\u201d<\/p>\n

Next: Cheveldayoff Answers, \u201cAre the Jets an \u201cUnmitigated Disaster?\u201d<\/a><\/p>\n

\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Calgary Flames defenseman Zayne Parekh spoke again after Canada\u2019s bronze-medal victory at the World Juniors, his first media…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":393709,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5124],"tags":[895,26,5294,896,5,4,2175,3326],"class_list":{"0":"post-393708","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-calgary-flames","8":"tag-calgary","9":"tag-calgary-flames","10":"tag-calgaryflames","11":"tag-flames","12":"tag-hockey","13":"tag-nhl","14":"tag-top-story","15":"tag-zayne-parekh"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/channels.im\/@nhl\/115848751966612214","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/393708","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=393708"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/393708\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/393709"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=393708"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=393708"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=393708"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}