If you are a Calgary Flames fan, this year’s World Junior tournament offered an exciting glimpse into the future of the organization. What the Flames lacked in quantity of representation, they more than made up for in quality.

Zayne Parekh and Cole Reschny entered the tournament with very different expectations and vastly different roles, but it is safe to say both exceeded them and made names for themselves in the best way possible. Here’s a look back at their tournaments and the impact each had on Team Canada and the event as a whole.

It was clear even in the pre-tournament games that Reschny was going to play a significant role for Canada. He was used on both special teams and trusted in key situations.

Reschny began the tournament on Boxing Day playing wing on the third line alongside Cole Beaudoin and Caleb Desnoyers. The opening game did not go as planned. That line, built primarily as a shutdown unit, was on the ice for the first two goals Canada allowed. As a result, Reschny was moved down to the fourth line and saw his five-on-five minutes reduced.

Despite the demotion, Reschny still picked up an assist in the opening game, though it wasn’t the start he was hoping for.

The second game marked a turning point. Reschny scored a go-ahead goal, and while he remained on the fourth line until late in the semifinal, he quickly became a key contributor in other ways. In particular, he emerged as a special-teams specialist, largely due to his faceoff ability.

After taking just two draws in the first game, Reschny became Canada’s go-to option in important situations. He took critical faceoffs on both the power play and penalty kill, a few of which led directly to goals. He finished the tournament winning 48 of 77 draws — a 62 per cent success rate. For context, the NHL’s face-off percentage leader currently sits around 64 per cent. The World Juniors is a small sample size compared to the NHL but it’s still worth noting.  For a Flames organization that has struggled on the dot in recent seasons, that number is especially encouraging.

His defensive impact was equally notable. If you remove the opening period of the first game, Reschny was consistently strong in his own zone. He did an excellent job taking away passing lanes, steering opponents to the outside, and battling in front of the net to protect his goaltender’s sightlines. You can’t ask for much more from an 18-year-old forward.

Reschny’s point totals didn’t fully reflect his impact. He wasn’t filling the scoresheet like Gavin McKenna or Parekh, but when he scored, it mattered. He opened the scoring against Latvia early in the tournament and did the same against Slovakia in the quarterfinals. He also scored back-to-back game-tying goals in the semifinal against Czechia, including a power move that froze the Czech defence and left the goaltender helpless.

He finished with four goals and an assist, but every point came at a pivotal moment. That doesn’t account for the chances he helped create or the face-offs he won that directly led to goals without earning him a point.

Reschny was easily one of Canada’s most underrated players of the tournament. Maybe it’s because he was a Flames prospect that we noticed him maybe more than others did, but as the tournament went along, his presence on the ice was more and more evident. He truly got better as the tournament went along and he should be proud of the tournament he put together.

Reschny is one of 10 players from this years’ team that is eligible to return next year. There is a very good chance that he does return and the sky’s the limit for him if he does.

We all had in our minds what we thought Zayne Parekh would come into the tournament and do. Perhaps it wavered slightly because we knew he was offensively gifted, we knew he’d have a chip on his shoulder after being snubbed from the team a year ago, but we also knew he probably lost a bit of his swagger after a tough start with the Flames this season and an injury that knocked him out of action for almost two months.

None of that mattered. Parekh didn’t just meet expectations — he shattered them.

He wasted no time making his mark, scoring twice in the opening game. That was just the beginning. Parekh quickly became central to nearly everything Canada generated offensively. He made scoring look effortless, picking corners from the point in a way that left goaltenders with little chance.

His five goals tied the Canadian record for goals by a defenceman in a single World Juniors tournament, matching Kris Russell and Thomas Chabot.

Then there was his passing. The stretch pass from his own goal line to Tij Iginla at the opposing blue line — springing him on a breakaway — was one of the highlights of the tournament and remains impressive no matter how many times you watched it.

Parekh finished with five goals and eight assists for 13 points. That led all defencemen and put him just shy of the overall tournament scoring lead. More importantly, he set a new Canadian record for points by a defenceman in a single tournament, surpassing Bryan McCabe and Alex Pietrangelo. In fact, Parekh was just one point short of the all time tournament record for defencemen held by none other than Rasmus Andersson’s dad, Peter, back in 1985.

Parekh earned his coach’s trust quickly. He led Canada in ice time during the first two round-robin games, averaging between 22 and 23 minutes. As the tournament progressed and Canada deployed eight defencemen, the workload was spread more evenly and Parekh saw his minutes drop slightly to the 17-to-19-minute range, though he continued to log heavy power-play minutes. It became a regular duty for Parekh to spend all of a two minute power play on the ice – unless they scored.

Now we also have to talk about some areas for improvement. Parekh just likes to have high numbers. Along with the high points he also led the team in penalties taken with five. There was an unsportsmanlike penalty that you learn from and it shouldn’t happen again. The high sticks can’t be controlled sometimes and it’s just unfortunate he happened to draw blood from it. It’s not really a huge area for concern but at the end of the day, five penalties in seven games is not what you want to be doing.

Of course everyone will be trying to talk about his defence. It can’t be stressed enough though that kids growing up are taught how to score goals and create offence. Defence is a skill learned over time with experience and it’s unrealistic to expect any 18 or 19 year old to be an elite level defender. It’s no secret that that area isn’t the strong suit of Parekh’s game but he will continue to learn and grow. And with saying that, Parkeh’s defence throughout the tournament was actually pretty solid.

An issue team Canada had was their forwards would turn the puck over on a zone exit or in the neutral zone. As everyone is expecting the breakout, the defence would get caught off guard by the turn over and they end up looking bad when their opponents counter attacked. That’s not on Parekh by any means. But again, as he gains experience he’ll learn how to better handle moments like that.

Offensively or defensively, Parekh was a game-changer. Good things happened when he was on the ice, and his upside far outweighs the areas still under development.

The final piece of good news for Flames fans is that Parekh will join the team on its upcoming road trip beginning Wednesday (per Sportsnet’s Eric Francis). It will be fascinating to see how he transitions back to the NHL. If he’s given the confidence to play his game, it could be something special to watch.