Parekh may have something to say about being sent down. It will be really hard to send him back if he comes in and puts up really impressive numbers while not looking overwhelmed physically or defensively during camp/preseason. Then he earns a few regular season games, and he keeps performing well for those 9. You can't send him down. Creating that kind of a rift when he obviously makes the team is not worth it.
However, I definitely hope he does get sent down. The contract value between his ELC and his next deal (assuming he does really well) might be as large as 7 million/yr. Why waste all of those savings on the rebuilding years? Also gives the Flames a bit less flexibility, as there may be good opportunities to sign a short-deal defencemen to help steady the 2nd pairing, and who can be flipped at the deadline. Perhaps a bad cap deal player who can contribute in the same way that the Flames can take a sweetener on for assuming the contract, and flip him at the deadline for additional picks. Teams are always trying to sneak players through the waiver wire - Flames can snag a young defencemen from a team with a lot of good depth that he can't crack, but has done a lot of developing already. That's the kind of opportunities that Conroy is going to look for, and so it doesn't make any sense to keep Parekh on the team now.
That is, unless he makes the case for himself that he is here to stay. If he does, you just can't send him down without damaging that relationship, in my opinion anyway. Cross that bridge when we get there, but I would assume he isn't NHL ready anyway. Makar, Hughes, Fox - they all needed at least an extra season. I would assume he does as well.
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