Fans, the college hockey season gets underway this weekend and there are a lot of fascinating players in the NCAA these days. In addition to 2025 NHL Draft top prospect James Hagens, there are tons of other players to keep track of.

Over at The Hockey News, Ryan Kennedy has helpfully put together a list of the 100 NCAA players to watch this coming season – all of them either already drafted or 2025 NHL Draft eligible prospects – ordered by which players he finds most fascinating.

Three Calgary Flames prospects made Kennedy’s list. Let’s dive in, with us adding a bit of context and commentary on each prospect.

15 – Trevor Hoskin – Niagara University

Yes, Hoskin was a fourth-round selection by the Flames in the 2024 NHL Draft. And yes, he was selected in his third year of draft eligibility, typically not something that gets you very high on prospect rankings of any type.

But Hoskin has shown three years of very strong progression with the Ontario Junior Hockey League’s Cobourg Cougars, going from 29 points (0.547 per game) in his 17-year-old season to 100 points (1.923 per game) in his 19-year-old season. He’s headed to the amazingly-named Niagara Purple Eagles coming off a season where he led his league in scoring and was named its most valuable player.

Hoskin is admittedly a project, but he’s a fascinating project. He begins his freshman year with Niagara when they face Ohio State in exhibition play on Sunday. (Their first regular season game is next weekend against Craig Conroy’s alma mater, Clarkson.)

38 – Arsenii Sergeev – Penn State University

Since he became director of goaltending in 2020, Jordan Sigalet has gone all-in on Russian goaltenders – the Flames have drafted three netminders since his promotion, all with Russian passports.

The first, and potentially most fascinating, is Sergeev. Originally drafted from the Shreveport Mudbugs of the North American Hockey League in the 2020 NHL Draft, Sergeev was named the United States Hockey League’s top goaltender the following season. He’s spent the last two seasons with the University of Connecticut and hasn’t quite been able to grab hold of full-time starter duties, with lots of stops and starts for him along the way.

He transferred to Penn State for his junior season and appears, at least right now, to be their undisputed top goaltender. This could be his best opportunity to get a run of starts and show what he can do.

Penn State’s season begins on Saturday in Fairbanks against the University of Alaska.

73 – Aydar Suniev – University of Massachusetts

A third-round pick by the Flames from the 2023 NHL Draft, Suniev was a stellar offensive player with the British Columbia Hockey League’s powerhouse Penticton Vees, but he was going to need time to adjust to the nuances of college hockey. Heck, head coach Greg Carvel shared with Postmedia’s Wes Gilbertson one of the adjustments back in February: “It’s just that he’s never really had to check before, and it takes a while to learn how to do that.”

Suniev was used primarily in offensive situations as a freshman and became trusted by the coaching staff to do smart things with the puck. As he rounds out his game, fills out physically, and figures out the checking part of his game, he seems prime for his numbers to keep trending up in college. He could end up being a pretty big part of a very good team at UMass this season.

UMass begins their season on Saturday against Bentley.