His coach in Saginaw weighs in on the 2024 NHL draft prospect projected to go in the first round, plus Michigan State's transfer stars and a red-hot Los Angeles Kings goalie pick.

Welcome back to another edition of Future Watch Weekly, your exclusive tour around the world of NHL prospects. The 2024 NHL draft features a number of high-end defensemen, and one of the OHL's finest helps us kick things off:

In-Zayne in the Membrane

He's the top scorer among defensemen in the OHL and top-10 overall with 81 points through 55 games, so naturally, Saginaw's Zayne Parekh is turning heads — especially after his dashing OT goal against Brantford earlier this week. 

[embed]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=i1zB9H0TuPg[/embed]

Coming into the league, Parekh had been seen as a high-risk, high-reward offensive defenseman, and after breaking the OHL record for goals by a 16-year-old last season with 21, the reward part was obvious. But are we sleeping on Parekh's defensive capabilities? His coach believes some folks have unfairly pigeonholed the 2024 NHL draft prospect.

"A lot of critics early said he doesn't defend, but do they say that because he set a goal record last year so they automatically equate that with not defending?" said Chris Lazary. "Because if you watch him play, he has sticky gaps coming out of the O-zone, he's got a great stick, he shuts down plays early in the neutral zone, he jumps to his check in the D-zone, he's on the right side of his guy more often than not and makes it hard for defenders to get to the net. So I don't know where this narrative comes from. But he's taken it personally and shown he can play both sides of the puck. He's gifted offensively, but he's one of the best players in terms of analytics - getting kills, shutting down plays and breaking out pucks. He's a special talent."

I know plus-minus doesn't carry the weight it once did, but Parekh is a plus-25 this season, one year after Erik Karlsson won the Norris at minus-26.

For what it's worth, NHL evaluators have been impressed.

"Last year in the playoffs against Flint, he got targeted and it was almost like Slap Shot," said one team scout. "He took a pounding and kept getting back up. Any doubts on whether he'll make the transition to the NHL went away after that series. He's never going to be a shutdown guy but there's a place for him because of everything else. When he gets the puck in his zone, it's getting out one way or another. He's near an elite offensive defenseman."

Rise of the Spartans

Michigan State has been one of the best teams in the NCAA this year and wouldn't you know it? I just happened to write a feature on the Spartans for Future Watch, which is about to hit your mailbox. I spent some time in East Lansing in the fall and got way more quotes than I needed for the print edition, so here are some exclusive gems from those interviews.

One of the reasons Michigan State has turned things around is coach Adam Nightingale and his program's ability to recruit. The transfer portal really helped this year's squad, with Detroit Red Wings pick Red Savage and Tampa Bay Lightning first-rounder Ike Howard coming over from Miami and Minnesota-Duluth, respectively. Both had previously played at the NTDP, where Nightingale had also coached.

"I remember texting Ike and saying 'It would be cool bringing everyone to State,' and it's cool seeing everything come to fruition," Savage said. "It was a super-emotional decision for me. I have a lot of ties to Miami; it's really deep in my family. I got to play two great years with my brother so I was thankful to play there. Leaving in the portal there are a lot of decisions to make and phone calls to be had, but my goals heading into the portal were to try to become the best player I could be and to win. That's something I didn't have at Miami, a winning schedule. And I wanted a chance to play for a national championship. That's something we have here and something we strive towards every day."

Meanwhile, the intensity at practice has gotten buy-in from the new Spartans - and results.

"They've been great," Howard said. "That's a special part about being here, we're not taking days off or doing a 20-minute feel-good skate before a weekend, we're pushing the entire week so we can get the most out of each day. If you're sore or a little tired before a game, that's no excuse here. It's pretty cool we can maximize each day, preach development and play as hard as we can on the weekend."

The Force Awakens

The USHL's Fargo Force have been nearly unbeatable this season - they've already clinched a playoff spot and boast a record of 39-5-2. 

The Force are doing pretty much everything right, but goaltending has been particularly strong. Hampton Slukynsky, a rookie out of Warroad, Minn., has been the best netminder in the league with a 1.80 goals-against average and .918 save percentage, not to mention a 21-1-0 record. The Los Angeles Kings snapped him up in the fourth round of the 2023 draft and boy, do they look smart for doing so. 

Slukynsky is a Northern Michigan commit whose brother Grant is currently a freshman with the Wildcats. Last year Slukysnky helped Warroad get to the Minnesota State High School tournament championship game (small-school bracket) before losing an overtime heartbreaker to the incredibly named Mahtomedi Zephyrs.

Unsolicited Thoughts

I went to the Prep Hockey Conference playoffs last weekend and so did scouts from every NHL team, since potential 2024 first-rounder and Boston College commit Dean Letourneau was playing for the host St. Andrew's Saints. Letourneau saved the Saints' bacon in the first game with an OT-winner, but it was also good to see Connor Arsenault live, as the 2024 draft prospect was hurt the last time I went to see St. Andrew's. Arsenault is a Cornell commit and definitely fits the heavy, physical archetype of a Big Red recruit...I'm curious to see where OHL Sudbury's Nathan Villeneuve ends up in the 2024 draft. At worst he's a physical bottom-six center, but with 12 points in his past 10 games I wonder if his stock is on the rise...It doesn't seem like a great year for New England prep prospects, but defenseman Caeden Herrington from Holderness is intriguing. Big kid with great offensive numbers and a physical side is committed to NCAA Vermont.