Flames miss out on Iginla but add dynamic Parekh to blue line

Calgary’s dream draft scenario was ruined by the Utah Hockey Club.

However, the Flames shifted their focus and were able to land one of the most skilled and dynamic defencemen available this year: Zayne Parekh.

TORONTO — These next 4½ weeks ahead of the July 30 trade deadline are really about portfolio management for the Toronto Blue Jays, wins and losses as consequential to their strategic handling of assets as they are to their place in the standings. 

To wit, the stock-watch days are on for their pending free agents, with Yusei Kikuchi’s five-plus innings of four-run, seven-strikeout ball in a 16-5 thrashing Friday from the playoff-bound New York Yankees the type of outing teams on the hunt for pitching will definitely dig into.

The 33-year-old lefty was perfect through the first three innings, watched Juan Soto score while Aaron Judge cleverly forced a rundown in his second time through and then coughed up a 3-1 lead on a blooper, a bleeder and a three-run Soto blast as the order turned over a third time. 

Still, Kikuchi had his fastball sitting at 96.4 m.p.h. and dialled it up to 98, got whiffs on 15 of the 38 swings against him, and generally showed off the type of stuff that plays in October. With better defensive execution on that rundown in the fourth and a touch of luck in the fateful sixth ahead of the Soto homer, or perhaps a few more runs from the Blue Jays during a not-fully-leveraged fifth, it’s a much happier ending for him, if not his under-the-gun club.

“I just hate to waste an outing like that,” lamented manager John Schneider. “He had a really good mix and wasn’t predictable and his stuff is good enough to get guys out when he is predictable. And I thought him and (Danny Jansen) had a great back-and-forth game, changeup was good, curveball was good, slider was good. He had really, really good stuff and it sucks that his night was cut short and then the game got out of hand.”

George Springer’s RBI single opened the scoring in the first, and after Vladimir Guerrero Jr.’s run-scoring fielder’s choice in the fifth, a Springer hit-by-pitch with the bases loaded (which eventually forced the right-fielder from the game, X-Rays were negative) brought home another run. Guerrero was then tagged out at home trying to score on a wild pitch and Daulton Varsho struck out to end the inning, while subsequent solo shots by Isiah Kiner-Falefa and Guerrero weren’t enough to counter the Yankees’ relentless add-on runs before a crowd of 34,791.

“It’s obviously a rough stretch,” Kikuchi said through interpreter Yusuke Oshima. “All you can do is go game at a t