3 CALGARY FLAMES PROSPECTS APPEAR ON SCOTT WHEELER’S TOP 100 DRAFTED PROSPECTS LIST
The weeks after the annual NHL Draft is a time that prospect writers throughout the hockey ecosystem take a look at how much different organizations have improved or stocked themselves up for the future.
Over at The Athletic, the esteemed Scott Wheeler has updated his annual list of the top 100 drafted prospects throughout the NHL. This time around, three Flames prospects appear on his rundown.
Before we delve in, here’s how Wheeler defined his exercise:
To be eligible for inclusion, a skater must be under 23 years old and not established as a full-time NHL player with their club. The latter qualifier is the arbitrary section of the criteria. There, I trust my judgment for whether or not a rostered NHL player could still play games outside the NHL more than I trust any predetermined games-played cutoff. Preference for inclusion as an NHL prospect is more likely to be given to teenagers than 22-year-olds.
The folks at The Athletic are behind a paywall, so head over there to read their very detailed rationales behind each player’s placement. We’ll let you know where each Flame landed, though.
Zayne Parekh (sixth)
The Flames’ most recent first-rounder, Parekh is a right-handed defenceman who is really, really good. He led all Ontario Hockey League blueliners in goals and points last season – he was eighth overall in scoring – and he was named the top blueliner in both the OHL and the entire Canadian Hockey League system. He helped Saginaw win the Memorial Cup.
We feel like “really, really good” both covers it nicely, and is a bit of an understatement at the same time.
The five players ahead of Parekh on Wheeler’s list, for the curious, are Macklin Celebrini of the Sharks, Matvei Michkov of the Flyers, Ivan Demidov of the Canadiens, Artyom Levshunov of the Blackhawks and Zeev Buium of the Wild. Not bad company to be keeping.
Matt Coronato (53rd)
The Flames’ first-rounder back in 2021, Coronato played his first pro season in 2023-24 and had a pretty interesting year where he spent time in the NHL and AHL and strengthened his all-around game considerably.
He began the season in the NHL with the Flames, and the club had a start that can be described as “oof.” Coronato didn’t really have a defined role and he went down to the AHL in November to round himself out. He had two call-ups the remainder of the season and looked progressively better and better. In the AHL, he was the Wranglers’ most consistently dangerous offensive player, and he was afforded opportunities to play in every situation (and grew his game as a result).
(A year ago, Coronato was listed at 39th on Wheeler’s top 50 list.)
Hunter Brzustewicz (96th)
Acquired from Vancouver as part of the Elias Lindholm trade, Brzustewicz was the Canucks’ third-round pick in 2023.
Brzustewicz had a tremendous OHL season, posting more points than any defenceman not named Zayne Parekh. He was an absolute standout for the Kitchener Rangers, and the only real criticisms that can be levied at him for his season was that he couldn’t find a way to out-score Parekh or reach 100 points in what should be his final major-junior season.
In addition to these three Flames prospects, Samuel Honzek was “among the final cuts at forward,” while Connor Zary and Jakob Pelletier were included in Wheeler’s list of players that aged out or had graduated to full-time NHL gigs.
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