Calgary Flames blend youth into home-opener with Parekh, Honzek season debuts

By Canadian Press on October 11, 2025.

CALGARY — The Calgary Flames injected youth into their NHL season home-opener.

Defenceman Zayne Parekh, 19, and left-winger Samuel Honzek, 20, made their season debuts Saturday in Calgary’s 4-2 loss to the St. Louis Blues.

They joined 19-year-old winger Matvei Gridin in the Flames’ lineup for the first game of 2025-26 at the Saddledome after a pair of road games to start the season.

Parekh, the ninth overall pick by Calgary in the 2024 draft, and Honzek, a first-round selection in 2023, watched games in Edmonton and Vancouver from the press box before drawing in Saturday.

Parekh and Honzek, with one and five games of NHL experience respectively, held their own in a game tied 2-2 going into the third period.

Gridin, the 28th pick by Calgary after Parekh, was the more comfortable of the three in his third straight NHL game. He’d scored in his NHL debut in Edmonton.

“There’s some patience. Some. There’s a fine line because it’s not a league you want guys to develop in,” head coach Ryan Huska said after Saturday’s game.

“It really isn’t because it’s going to cost you points from time to time. Not saying any of them did that tonight. They’re good players and we want them to be really great players for us as we move forward.

“It’s our job as coaches to make sure we put these young guys in good positions to succeed. They each bring something that I feel can help our team win games. They’ll continue to do that.”

Parekh scored in his NHL debut in Calgary’s regular-season finale last season.

The six-foot, 179-pound defenceman from Markham, Ont., stated at the start of his second NHL training camp he felt pressure to make the Flames’ lineup. Parekh said Saturday’s game felt like a step forward for him.

“I was pretty nervous actually, like I felt way more nervous going into this one than my first one,” he said.

“I didn’t really have my game all pre-season and to go in there tonight, I thought I played a pretty good game. It kind of brings my confidence back actually a lot, so it’s a good feeling. We didn’t win, but I thought it was a good start for me, at least.”

Parekh got four-and-a-half minutes of power play time during his 17:21 of ice time and put one of his two shots off the post.

“There’s a few plays in his own zone where I think the more that he gets in, you’ll see a little bit more composure there with the puck, but I thought Zayne had a fine game,” Huska said.

Honzek generated four shots and had a golden chance to score in the second period when the Slovak was denied by Blues goalie Joel Hofer.

Jake Neighbours scored the first of his two goals for the Blues after a Honzek turnover along the neutral zone boards.

“That puck needs to be … it can’t be a soft play and that’s a young guy making a mistake early on,” Huska said. “He’ll know about it and I think that’s part of what you do live with at times with a young player. You just don’t want to see it happen again and again, so that’s the challenge for him if he wants to stay in the lineup.”

Gridin had the moxie to attempt a sharp-angled shot off the back of Hofer in the third period. The Russian teenager set up defenceman Rasmus Andersson with a beautiful feed in the first period, but Andersson couldn’t finish.

“We just didn’t capitalize on our opportunities. I mean, I should have probably had three, if you look at it,” Andersson said. “And then a few other guys should have probably scored a few, too.

“Today, we definitely had looks to win the game. Their goalie played well or we just missed the net. A little frustrating with this one, but you know, I think there’s big parts of the game we can bring with us to Tuesday.”

The Flames (1-2-0) host the Vegas Golden Knights on Tuesday and are on the road the next day against the Utah Mammoth.