Gould: Calgary Flames' top 10 prospects outside pro ranks with 2026-27 season off and running

It’s hardly a secret that the Calgary Flames are gunning for the best possible draft lottery odds this season.

Fourth-year general manager Craig Conroy has spent almost the entirety of his tenure to date embarking upon one of the most aggressive teardowns in recent NHL history, trading away countless veterans while accumulating a remarkable stockpile of draft picks and prospects.

It’s a well-tested strategy previously followed by the vast majority of the league’s current Stanley Cup contenders. The Flames are counting on it working for them, too, and everything they’re doing is in service of shifting the odds in their favour.

If they finish last in the NHL in 2026-27, the Flames will be guaranteed their first top-3 draft selection since relocating to Calgary in 1980. Not even the draft lottery, their perennial adversary, can get in the way of that. Get ready to hear plenty about Landon DuPont, Dima Zhilkin, Sergei Skvortsov and many more of the hockey world’s top 2008- and 2009-born talents as the season continues.

But why get so far ahead of ourselves? After all, the new season has only just begun, and it’s been a mere three-and-a-half months since the Flames selected Carson Carels with the sixth-overall pick in the 2026 NHL Draft. The nine players they drafted in Buffalo have only just begun their playing careers as Flames prospects.

Flames fans can be dissatisfied all they want by the team’s performance on the ice, but help is on its way. The 2026-27 regular season has begun, and Calgary’s top 10 prospects outside their pro ranks are off and running.

Even after falling two spots in the 2026 draft lottery, the Flames got the guy who made the most sense for them all along. A farm boy from rural Manitoba, Carels projects to be a natural fit as the steady, smooth-skating lefty on a future Flames defensive pairing with Zayne Parekh or Simon Nemec.

Reschny scored twice and added an assist as North Dakota won both ends of its home-and-home set with Bemidji State last weekend. As much as Flames fans clamour for another high-end centre in the draft, Reschny might already be that guy. He logged a staggering 24:49 of ice time for the Fighting Hawks in their 4-3 win on Oct. 10; Carels ranked second on NoDak with 22:31.

After leading all of NCAA Division I with 59 points in 40 games last season, Wyttenbach is off to a great start as a sophomore. The Long Island product is already up to 11 points in his first five games to begin his second year at Quinnipiac. Get ready to hear Wyttenbach’s name in a lot of Hobey Baker conversations for top NCAA player this season.

Carels, Reschny, Wyttenbach and Potter will likely all turn pro with the Flames in the spring. Potter, selected with the first-rounder the Flames received in the Matthew Tkachuk trade with Florida, might’ve joined the Flames at the end of his sophomore year at Arizona State University had his season not been cut short due to a shoulder injury. Now at MSU, the speedy centre looks set for a big year on the Spartans’ top line.

A natural centre, Hextall instead lined up on Potter’s left flank in Michigan State’s first two games last weekend, scoring twice and adding a pair of assists. The Spartans are absolutely stacked, with nine NHL first-round picks in their opening-day lineup against Northern Michigan. It speaks volumes that Hextall is on their top line as an 18-year-old freshman.

Harrington is set to bypass the NCAA entirely after impressing at his first NHL training camp and signing a three-year, entry-level deal with the Flames in September. The 2026 second-round pick already looks tailor-made for the pro game with his tremendous mix of skill, toughness, and leadership. A hat trick on Tuesday put Spokane’s newly minted captain up to 13 points in seven WHL games this season.

A bit of a surprise pick at No. 55 overall in this year’s draft, Shaikhlislamov — pronounced shake-his-lamb-off — is arguably Russia’s hottest prospect. Shaikhlislamov leads the MHL (Russia’s top junior league) with nine goals and 17 points in just 12 games despite playing on a decidedly mediocre team. Across those 12 games, Shaikhlislamov already has 51 shots on goal.

Having only just turned 19 in July, Stockselius is already taking a regular shift on a veteran-laden team in the top-tier Swedish Hockey League. Through nine games with Djurgårdens, Stockselius has a goal and three assists and is averaging 11:53 of ice time. The 6-foot-3 centre is already under contract with the Flames and will likely come over to North America next season.

The Flames traded up nine spots to land Trejbal with the No. 42 pick in 2026. A rare goaltender who wears his catching mitt on his right hand, Trejbal won 30 out of 42 games and posted a .916 save percentage with the USHL’s Youngstown Phantoms in 2025-26. However, his NCAA debut with UMass on Oct. 3 didn’t go as planned, as he allowed three goals on 20 shots against Colorado College before being pulled.

10. Henry Mews (RHD, University of Michigan)

Yet another puck-moving right-handed defence prospect in a pipeline full of them, Mews is working his way back into a prominent position at Michigan after missing most of the 2025-26 season with a torn ACL. He still has a ton of promise, but for now, the 2024 third-round pick has ceded his spot on the Wolverines’ top power-play unit to Landon DuPont, the consensus top prospect in the 2027 NHL Draft.