OHL Stock Watch: Zayne Parekh's game is soaring to new heights
The OHL trade deadline has come and gone. If there were any doubts that the Eastern Conference would be a dogfight, there surely aren't any now, after nearly every team currently in a playoff spot bought at the deadline.
After stumbling a bit to start 2025, the conference-leading Barrie Colts appear to be back on track with eight wins in their last ten games.
In an effort to keep up in the East arms race, the Kingston Frontenacs sent shockwaves around the league by moving 19 draft picks in one day (16 to the same team). They sit second, but by the slimmest of margins. Just one point separates them from the third-place Brantford Bulldogs, and three points from the fifth-place Niagara IceDogs.
Out west, no one is catching the London Knights. They could have clinched a playoff spot on Sunday if the second-place Windsor Spitfires hadn’t played spoiler. But that loss only delayed the inevitable. London hasn’t lost consecutive games since early October, and they got right back to work with a win over the Kitchener Rangers two days later, which secured the X next to their name in the standings.
Now, it's a race for 15 other teams to join them, and several players stepped up for their clubs as the calendar flipped to 2025.
Stock Rising 📈
Zayne Parekh, D, Saginaw Spirit (Calgary Flames)
It was only a matter of time before Zayne Parekh got back to his ridiculous scoring ways. And after he was released from Canada’s World Juniors team, the Calgary Flames prospect responded with his most productive stretch of the season.
Parekh led all OHL blueliners with 33 points in 17 games since mid-December. He was named the OHL’s Defenceman of the Month for January, with 21 points in ten games, including two hat tricks in four games. He has racked up 12 goals and 24 points in his current 9-game point streak.
Arguably more encouraging than the offensive explosion are the significant improvements Parekh has made to his defensive play. As Dir. of North American Scouting Mitchell Brown noted in this game report back in November: “Even the retrievals are better, as he's going out of his way to initiate contact instead of always arriving second to the puck. Had some impressive ones where he trapped the feet of opponents and dislodged possession when he couldn't win. Effectively defended the middle off the rush and cycle.”
Here’s another excerpt from a game report that I wrote on January 18th: “His offensive vision continues to shine this season, but he's also taken a ton of steps to improving the success rate of his breakouts… His defensive reads are much stronger than last season. His game looks like it's rounding out nicely, and if this trajectory continues, he will be well on his way to carving out a top-pairing role in the NHL.”
All Parekh continues to do is rise to the occasion. His stock is soaring as a result.
Nick Lardis, LW, Brantford Bulldogs (Chicago Blackhawks)
The OHL has a new goal-scoring leader, and it isn’t particularly close anymore. Nick Lardis left Michael Misa in the dust weeks ago. With an eight-goal cushion separating them, Lardis is just two goals shy of the 50-goal mark on the campaign.
The Chicago Blackhawks prospect is now on pace for 67 goals this season, more than double his previous career-high. He’s developed formidable chemistry with Patrick Thomas on the Bulldogs’ top line, and the pair have helped Brantford leap into the top-half of the conference.
After battling a wrist injury last season, Lardis has taken his lethal finishing abilities to new heights. The sharp-shooter has been a goal-scoring machine lately, riding a 10-game goal streak that was punctuated with a four-goal game over the weekend.
Blackhawks fans should be excited.
Matthew Schaefer, D, Erie Otters (2025 NHL Draft)
Matthew Schaefer may not play another game this season, depending on how quickly he can recover from breaking his collarbone at the World Juniors and how far the Erie Otters can last in the postseason.
And it won’t matter.
All Schaefer has done in his limited games this season is deliver and exceed expectations, over and over again. He was Canada’s best player at the World Juniors, the x-factor the team sorely missed once he departed the tournament early. He was Team CHL’s best player at the inaugural CHL-USA Prospects Challenge. In our recent poll of NHL executives and scouts, Schaefer was the consensus favourite for first overall.
As Dir. of North American Scouting Mitchell Brown remarked in this December 8th game report: “[Schaefer is] a special talent with basically unmatched runway in this draft class. It’s rare for a defenceman to be a true No. 1 prospect, but he’s different.”
Barring some otherworldly explosion from James Hagens or Michael Misa in the second-half, Schaefer has cemented himself as the new No. 1 for the 2025 NHL Draft.
Honourable Mentions: Quentin Musty (San Jose Sharks), Jacob Battaglia (Calgary Flames), Tuomas Uronen (Vegas Golden Knights), Patrick Thomas (Washington Capitals), Ilya Protas (Washington Capitals), Henry Mews (Calgary Flames), Kristian Epperson (2025 NHL Draft), Alexei Medvedev (2025 NHL Draft), Jake O’Brien (2025 NHL Draft), Tyler Hopkins (2025 NHL Draft), Lev Katzin (2025 NHL Draft), Liam Beamish (2025 NHL Draft), Ryan Roobroeck (2026 NHL Draft)
Stock Steady ↔️
Denver Barkey, LW, London Knights (Philadelphia Flyers)
The Knights are a team on a mission this season. They lost four of their best players for a month to the World Juniors, and it could have been five, had captain Denver Barkey not been a selection camp cut for the second year in a row.
Without Easton Cowan, Oliver Bonk, Sam Dickinson and Kasper Halttunen, the Knights could have faltered. Instead, London has only lost three times in the last month and a half. With 31 points in the 16 games since we last checked in for Stock Watch, Barkey has guided the Knights to a playoff berth less than a week into February.
He’s certainly not doing it alone, and the Knights have proven time and time again that they have unparalleled depth in this league. But success starts at the top, and Barkey has proven with his on-ice performances that he was the right choice to wear the ‘C’ this year.
Whether it’s delivering clutch points, making critical defensive plays, or setting the tone with bone-crushing hits, the Philadelphia Flyers prospect is on track to make a jump to the pros next season.
Stock Falling 📉
Porter Martone, RW, Brampton Steelheads (2025 NHL Draft)
No OHL team was hit harder by the World Juniors than the Brampton Steelheads, who lost two-thirds of their top line, starting goaltender, and a top-four defenceman for over a month.
The Steelheads plummeted down the Eastern Conference standings, winning just once in eight games before their players returned. And despite adding at the trade deadline, their fortunes haven’t improved. They still sit seventh in the conference, with recent losses to teams out of playoff spots.
Porter Martone has been particularly snake bitten as of late, at least compared to the lofty standards he set in the first-half. The Steelheads captain was clicking at well over two points-per-game before he left for Ottawa, but since returning, he has just two goals and 13 points in the last month, including a three-game pointless drought and a five-game stretch that saw him record just one assist.
There have been nights this season where Martone has struggled to impact the game away from the puck, but he was scoring at such a torrid pace that it wasn’t a glaring issue at the time. This recent cold stretch has been his best opportunity to hone his off-puck skills, and though it was a bit of an adjustment at first, his game was trending in a stronger direction as February approached.
As I wrote in this January 31st game report: “This was, hands-down, Martone's most complete game of the entire season so far -- the type of game I had been waiting to see from him. But when the puck isn't going in as easily as it has been this season, he had to show he could still be an impact player in other ways, and he certainly proved it tonight.”
Further improvements to his overall pace and physical game will only help improve his draft stock. Martone still has all-world skill, and he is likely the No. 1 overall talent in some NHL teams' eyes. He just needs to round out his game a bit more, and the production will return.
But the Steelheads are in a tough spot now. They will need Martone on top of his game, more than ever before, down the stretch. If they can't figure out how to start consistently winning, they may be headed for an early postseason exit for the third year in a row.
