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Defenceman of the Month – Zayne Parekh (Saginaw Spirit)
Nobody was matching the offensive output of Calgary Flames first round pick Zayne Parekh on the back end in January. The Saginaw Spirit rearguard finished the month with 11 goals, including a pair of hat-tricks, 10 assists and 21 points over 10 games along with a plus/minus rating of plus-14. Parekh produced points in all but one January matchup, with a five-point effort that included a hat-trick on January 18 against the Guelph Storm headlining his resume. Parekh added another hat-trick as part of a four-point effort on January 26 in Ottawa. This marks the third time in Parekh’s career that he’s received OHL Defenceman of the Month honours, following previous recognition in March 2024 and November 2023.

An 18-year-old from Nobleton, Ont., Parekh sits tied for the OHL lead in points by a defenceman with 61 (22-39–61) through 40 games in his third OHL season. The ninth overall pick of the 2024 NHL Draft by Calgary, Parekh became the Spirit’s all-time leading scorer among defencemen this past month as he enters February with career totals that include 76 goals, 118 assists and 194 points over 156 regular season games. Last year’s OHL Defenceman of the Year and Memorial Cup champion, Parekh was selected by Saginaw with the 19th overall pick of the 2022 OHL Priority Selection.

https://chl.ca/ohl/article/ohl-annou...-january-2025/