The Calgary Flames had a lot of draft picks at the 2024 NHL Draft, and that allowed them to do a lot of different things. They selected 10 players in Las Vegas, with the oldest player selected being 20-year-old Trevor Hoskin.

A product of the Ontario Junior Hockey League, part of the junior-A infrastructure that operates in parallel with the major junior system, Hoskin is a player that went through his first two seasons of draft eligibility without being selection. But the Flames’ Ontario scout, Terry Doran, flagged Hoskin and recommended his selection.

Most of the way through his first post-draft season, Hoskin is looking like a pretty astute pick-up for the Flames.

Last season

The 2023-24 season was Hoskin’s third in the OJHL with the Cobourg Cougars. After a pair of decent seasons that showed some progression, Hoskin’s offensive output exploded. He had 16 goals and 61 points in 2022-23; he had 42 goals and 100 points in 2023-24.

Simply put, Hoskin was excellent offensively in 2023-24. He led the OJHL in scoring. He was named his league’s most valuable player. He was named the top forward in the entire Canadian junior-A system by the CJHL. He led the World Junior-A Challenge in scoring. If you asked somebody to put a bow on their pre-college career in a single season, it’s hard to argue Hoskin could’ve done much more than he did.

The Flames selected Hoskin in the fourth round, 106th overall, at the 2024 NHL Draft. In the off-season, Hoskin didn’t crack the top 20 of FlamesNation’s summer prospect ranking – probably a product of the voting base, myself included, not quite knowing where to place a player with strong junior-A numbers.

This season

Let’s get the criticism out of the way first: Hoskin is playing for Niagara University in the Atlantic Hockey conference. It’s considered a lesser conference, with weaker competition compared to the other conferences. They usually only send one team, their conference playoff champion, to the NCAA’s national tournament.

As a 20-year-old freshman, Hoskin has posted 11 goals and 36 points so far in 31 games. He’s been named his conference’s rookie of the month twice, in October and January.

Here’s how he’s performed relative to, well, his various peer groups:

• Hoskin leads all NCAA freshmen in points. The four freshman nearest to him in the scoring race are Montreal first-rounder Michael Hage, 2025 draft prospect James Hagens, 22-year-old Gavin Morrissey, and Washington second-rounder Cole Hutson.
• Hoskin is third in the Atlantic conference in points. The two players head of him are 24-year-old Liam McLinskey and 22-year-old Felix Trudeau.
• Hoskin is 11th overall in the NCAA in points.

Yeah, Hoskin is in a weaker conference. And much like his performance last year was met with “Yeah, but it’s just junior-A hockey…” criticisms, his performance in the Atlantic conference this season will be tut-tutted, too. He can’t control where he plays, just how well he plays.

In his first year of college hockey, Hoskin is excelling. We’re fascinated to see how things will unfold in the remainder of his freshman year and moving forward. He definitely seems like a hidden gem unearthed by the Flames in the middle of the draft.