FN’s 2025 Flames summer prospect rankings – #4: Matvei Gridin

The Calgary Flames have amassed a nice little collection of first-round picks in their prospect pool, and Matvei Gridin is one of the very best.

The Russian winger has already been in North America for the last three seasons and has taken considerable steps forward each year, most recently transitioning from the USHL to the QMJHL without a hitch in his first season after being drafted by the Flames.

Now, with his pro debut looming, Gridin is well on his way toward establishing himself as one of the Flames’ top young forwards. That’s more than enough to solidify him as the No. 4 prospect in our rankings.

Matvei Gridin

Right wing, shoots left
Born Mar. 1, 2006 (age 19) in Kurgan, Russia
6’1″, 182 pounds
Drafted in the first round (28th overall) by Calgary in the 2024 NHL Draft

A good-sized winger with great speed and a powerful shot, Gridin is intriguing in all the right ways. He followed a bit of an unusual path to reach this point in his career, too, having come over from his native Russia just after turning 16 and de-committing from the University of Michigan after two years in the USHL.

Gridin led the entire USHL in scoring during his draft year with the Muskegon Lumberjacks, racking up 83 points (38 goals, 45 assists) in 60 games — just two points shy of what a certain Matt Coronato managed in his own draft year with the Chicago Steel in 2020-21. But after de-committing from Michigan — as The Athletic‘s Scott Wheeler put it, “his grades weren’t where they needed to be” — Gridin was selected by the Val-d’Or Foreurs with the No. 1 pick in the 2024 CHL Import Draft and was promptly traded to the Shawinigan Cataractes.

It wasn’t the first time a major trade impacted Gridin’s career path. Six months before he was drafted, the Vancouver Canucks traded the pick used to select Gridin to Calgary as part of the Elias Lindholm deal. Here we are, 18 months later, and Lindholm is long gone from Vancouver while the Flames still have both Gridin and Hunter Brzustewicz in their system from that trade — and keep in mind, we haven’t even gotten to Brzustewicz in our rankings just yet.

Gridin had an excellent first (and likely only) season in Shawinigan, leading the team with 36 goals and 79 points in 2024-25 despite only appearing in 56 of a possible 64 games. He started somewhat slow but picked up the pace in late October and never looked back, ultimately finishing with 21 multi-point games, including four in a row to conclude the regular season. He tacked on eight goals and 17 points in 16 playoff contests as Shawinigan won its first two rounds in decisive fashion before falling to the Memorial Cup host Rimouski Océanic in seven games.

Here’s what McKeen’s Hockey QMJHL scout Jer Tremblay had to say about Gridin’s foray into major junior hockey last season:

After a solid season in the USHL [in 2023-24], Gridin chose to continue his development in the QMJHL with the Shawinigan Cataractes. Playing around 20:45 min per game, he had the chance to show what he is capable of, finishing first in points in his team. He was in a strong offensive team but also was a reason why his team was that strong. The combination of his speed with his hands and vision really put him apart from the others. Now heading to the AHL, Gridin will need to improve his level of competition and intensity if he wants to keep his production from the two past years. A better use of his size could help him translate his high level of skills to the next level and become an impact player.

Expectations for 2025-26

As a 2006-born CHL player, Zayne Parekh is ineligible to play in the American Hockey League this upcoming season — at least, not until the Flames or the OHL’s Saginaw Spirit are done playing. But that isn’t the case for Gridin, even though he was also born in 2024 and spent his first post-draft season playing Canadian major junior hockey. Why? It all has to do with where the Flames drafted Gridin from, and when he first entered the CHL. Because Gridin spent his draft year in the USHL, and he only made his CHL debut after the fact, he’s free to spend his 19-year-old campaign playing against seasoned pros in the AHL.

It’s a huge opportunity for Gridin to take another step forward against the next level of competition, just as he’s managed to do at the USHL and QMJHL levels. And with relatively few other options at new head coach Brett Sutter’s disposal, it’s easy to envision Gridin playing top-six minutes for the Wranglers basically right away. It’d be incredible to see him enjoy a similar degree of success as what Jiri Kulich managed in his own AHL tenure with the Rochester Americans, with whom he scored 53 goals and 94 points in 123 games at ages 18, 19, and 20, but even a 0.5 point-per-game pace as a first-year pro would be plenty impressive for Gridin.