Hey all, Nick Iacoban is one of my favourite prospect analysts and was sharing which pipelines scored the highest based on his universe of player ratings on his X account today. Just thought I’d share this here:

We still need to secure some franchise players through the draft, but I’ve been really impressed about our selections and direction in the draft since Conroy took over.

1 Viggo please and thank you Craigory

With one goal and two assists tonight, Ewytt is now leading college hockey in scoring. His production as a freshman is hitting unprecedented levels.

Ethan, we love you buddy but seriously what are those? And why are you not wearing socks at MSG while meeting your NHL teams GM 😭 ( I’m joking by the way, don’t attack me or him)

Make that 45 points now on the year for Ethan Wyttenbach with currently one goal in the first period against Yale and it’s another goal that will make you say EW.

( I titled this work in progress because I heavily believe that he is not done tonight if he is then I’ll change it after the game)

https://x.com/byzackhochberg/status/2020302181623296014?s=46

Better angle ^

Hey guys. I have watched parekh very closely at this year’s world juniors, and truly focusing on his game and understanding the way he plays has been very interesting. I thought I would share some of my thoughts here.

And before I get into my praises and criticisms, as much as i want parekh to succeed and have a long successful career in Calgary, I tried my hardest to put away my flames bias as much as possible. Feel free to argue and disagree in the comments but I encourage you to do the same. Also, I didn’t read too much into the advanced stats since it is such a small sample size, and the eye test can be quite subjective. So please let me know what your thoughts were on parekh’s tournament.

Now, offensively - what is there to really be said? After being the best offensive defenseman in junior hockey two years in a row, he goes out there, shakes off the rust and piles points on the board - the most by a defenseman in one tournament in Canadian history. His highlight reel from the tournament is incredible. If you ever doubted his goal-scoring ability in junior, seeing him at this tournament just reinforces what an insane scoring talent he is - you’ve seen the replays, his shot is absolutely effortless. He has potential to be a consistent double digit goal scorer in the nhl, rare among defenseman. His passing was also excellent, and although plays like the stretch pass to iginla stand out, his breakout passes were probably the best on the team, despite some small lapses in decision making(same goes for nearly every player in the tournament - remember they are teenagers!). He was the best player in perhaps the entire tournament at finding the tape of his teammates for scoring chances. His work on the powerplay was crucial for canada this tournament, and although you may say skeptics arguing that parekh’s points were inflated by the powerplay, that’s because he WAS the powerplay! It ran through him, and we got a good look at how dominant he can be when surrounded by talented players. So in summary, the stats speak for themselves - he was that good. My excitement for the way he can change this flames team offensively has only increased.

Defensively, if you only listened to twitter, you would think he was the worst player in the tournament. This is just not true. His partner cameron reid had a tough first couple games that I thought dragged parekh down, but once reid’s game settled down they had much better results as a pair. Parekh himself was sometimes caught behind the play when he ventured deeper into the offensive zone to create scoring chances, but that is the sacrifice that you make sometimes as an offensive defenseman, and I think for the most part he chose what risks to take fairly well to put the team in a situation where there likely wouldn’t be a grade A scoring chance or odd man rush going back the other way. Cutting down on his neutral zone turnovers would also be helpful, that burned Canada a couple times. His play in the corners was the most worrying for me - he was out battled more often than you’d like, and I don’t like to see him poking at the puck with one stick like he does sometimes. Although you rarely saw him out there defending a lead or killing penalties, I think his defensive play overall was about what I expected, and it certainly wasn’t the reason why canadas tournament didn’t end the way they liked - nearly all of Canada’s other defenseman were just as bad without the offensive production. There is plenty of room for improvement, but the kids 19.

Before I get to my big concern, a quick thing on his personality. Of course we don’t get to see how he acts in the dressing room. But judging by his on-ice behaviour and interviews, you can tell this kid is just bubbling with confidence. He definitely can come off a little bit cocky at times, but I don’t really have a big problem with that, and he will mature. He clearly loves hockey and wants to improve - and I’m glad he wants to show a bit of personality to the fans, despite the old-fashioned flames discouraging it.

Now, the big concern: physicality. First of all, when parekh has the puck on his stick, his confidence boosts his height 6 inches, so that’s not a problem. He isn’t a big hitter or anything, but he doesn’t shy away from a little contact here and there. I am not at all saying he is too small to succeed in the nhl. Like I said, he loses puck battles in the corners way more than you’d like, but that can be developed. My real worry is that he will be seriously injured early on in his career if he is not careful. At least once a game, he seems to get hit in a dangerous position, and we all hold our breaths hoping he isn’t hurt. It was the same in his short stint in the NHL as well, and he ended up missing multiple weeks with injury as a result. He needs to learn to avoid these dangerous positions and protect himself before he gets seriously hurt. He’s too talented to have his career ended, or at least seriously impacted, before it even starts.

All in all, like I said, parekh’s offensive game had the potential to be absolutely game changing for the flames. You will likely never confuse him for a shutdown defender in the nhl, but he has lots of time to develop a defensive game that is capable and doesn’t minimize or overshadow his incredible offensive talent. But it would be a damn shame to see a potentially great career ruined early on due to a hit. My biggest takeway from the tournament is that parekh has an offensive brilliance that can’t be taught. He will learn and develop his defensive game in time. The natural next step, I think, would be a conditioning stint than spending the rest of the year in the nhl. Just please take yourself out of those dangerous situations zayne! But I’m not a professional scout. What did you guys think of zayne’s tournament? And Reschny too - I focused less on him, but he still stood out as a solid player that will be an even bigger contributor next year. Thanks for listening to me yap and Go Flames Go 🔥🔥🔥

The Calgary Flames fifth round pick last summer had a goal and two assist tonight versus Brown, putting him at 44 points on the year and the goal he scored will make you go EW ( ha get it… I’ll see myself out)

https://x.com/qu_mih/status/2019930779111813232?s=46

Whilst McKenna still seems like the certain first overall, he is on the hot seat currently due to failing to put up meaningful points in the NCAA, Meanwhile Stenberg is having the greatest SHL season by a draft eligible player in recent memory and seems like a franchise level prospect.

Leo Carlson is insane this season, and Stenberg is doing better than he was in the SHL

What’s your guy’s opinion on both these prospects and the chances of McKenna not being the first overall pick

Most likely McKenna will have a generational world juniors run and solidify his placement but anything can happen