Flames’ Zayne Parekh day-to-day with upper-body injury

It appears that while Zayne Parekh has returned to the Calgary Flames, it will be a little bit longer before he’s available to play, as the team announced on Thursday that the defenseman is day-to-day with an upper-body injury.

Flames head coach Ryan Huska mentioned on Wednesday that Parekh was banged up during the 2026 World Junior Championship, although at what point is not confirmed. Sportsnet 590’s Pat Steinberg mentioned that Parekh took a hard hit during Canada’s semifinal game against Czechia, so that is a likely candidate for the cause of the injury.

At this point in time, it’s not known when exactly Parekh will be back in the lineup, although his day-to-day timeline implies that each decision will likely occur on game days. However, the announcement coming on Thursday more-or-less confirms he’ll miss the Flames game against the Boston Bruins that day.

Parekh hasn’t played a game for the Flames in over two months, last playing on November 7th in a 4-0 loss to the Chicago Blackhawks. He missed the next 16 games after that with an upper-body injury, and was then loaned to Canada’s World Junior team in the middle of December to get better playing time there. It’s not confirmed if his current upper-body injury is related to the one he was dealing with in November and December.

When Parekh returns to the lineup, he’ll be riding a strong wave of momentum coming off of the World Junior tournament. While Canada failed to win gold for the third-consecutive season, Parekh had a strong showing with five goals and eight assists for 13 points in seven games. That performance set a new record for most points by a Canadian defenseman at the tournament, and was one point behind Peter Andersson’s record-setting 14-point performance for Sweden in 1985.

Parekh will certainly need that momentum, as his performance in the NHL so far hasn’t been quite what Flames fans expected. In 11 games, he has just one assist after scoring his first NHL goal in his only game last season.

The Flames currently sit in seventh in the Pacific Division with an 18-21-4 record, and are six points behind the Los Angeles Kings for the final wild card spot in the Western Conference. Calgary will look to snap a three-game losing streak when they visit the Bruins in Boston on Thursday at 5 p.m. MST.