Welcome to the 2024 edition of FlamesNation’s annual prospect rankings!

Earlier this month, 10 members of our staff crafted lists ranking the Calgary Flames’ top 20 prospects. Our final list aggregates the votes submitted by the following staffers:

• Ryan Pike
• Mike Gould
• Shane Stevenson
• Jeff Middleton
• Paige Siewert
• Robert Munnich
• PJ Parmar
• Raz Devraj
• Ryan Pinder
• Mike Wilson

Over the next month, we’ll count down from No. 20 until we reveal the name atop our collective list, and then we’ll unveil everyone’s individual lists.

Every Calder Trophy-eligible player on the Flames’ reserve list as of the end of July was eligible to be ranked. To be eligible for the Calder Trophy for the coming season, players have to be born after Sept. 15, 1998, and cannot have played 25 (or more) games in any one NHL season OR six (or more) games in any two NHL seasons. 36 players fit that description. (Players like Matt Coronato, Connor Zary, Martin Pospisil and Jakob Pelletier have played too many games to be eligible for this year’s list.)

Before we get to the players we ranked in the top 20, we need to address the 16 players that didn’t make that listing. Up first, the players who didn’t receive any votes during our balloting process.

Players not receiving any votes

10 prospects didn’t crack the top 20 on any of the submitted ballots.

Jonathan Aspirot

Aspirot is a 25-year-old left shot defenceman who spent last season on an AHL deal with the Calgary Wranglers. He performed well enough to earn a two-way NHL deal for 2024-25, which made him eligible for this season’s list. Based on his age relative to other blueliners in the system there’s likely a perception of limited upside, which probably hurt him in the balloting, but at the very least he’s shown himself to be a useful offensive AHL blueliner. He quarterbacked the Wranglers’ power play when Jeremie Poirier was recovering from his arm laceration last season and performed quite well.

Daniil Chechelev

A fourth-round pick back in 2020, Chechelev spent last season in HC Vityaz’s system in Russia. He played a game in the KHL, but otherwise spent the remainder of his season with their minor league team, Ryazan-VDV. He’s 23 and has played just three AHL games, and with the arrival of other netminders in the system since his selection, he’s slid down the pecking order significantly. (Goalies do develop more slowly than other positions, though, so you never know if things start clicking for Chechelev in Russia.)

Lucas Ciona

A sixth-round pick from 2021, Ciona captained the Western Hockey League’s Seattle Thunderbirds to a WHL Championship in 2022-23… and then faced some growing pains as he adjusted to being an everyday pro in the AHL with the Wranglers. Ciona played primarily in the bottom six for the Wranglers and became an occasional healthy scratch in the back half of the season. There’s potentially still some upside there given he went through a similar experience as a 16-year-old in the Dub, but his upside may just be as a good AHLer or an occasional NHL checker. He’s just 21, so we’ll see if he can find some traction as a pro.

Trevor Hoskin

If you want an indication of how competitive this year’s prospect rankings were, Hoskin is a great example. He was the leading scorer and most valuable player in the Ontario Junior Hockey League last season… and he didn’t get onto anybody’s ballots. A fourth-rounder in 2024 – taken as a double-overager – Hoskin had 100 points with the OJHL’s Cobourg Cougars last season. Between his age and perhaps panellists being a bit wary of junior-A excellence, Hoskin wasn’t able to crack anyone’s top 20. We’ll see if the 20-year-old can move the needle as a freshman at Niagara University.

Waltteri Ignatjew

A late bloomer, the 24-year-old Ignatjew was a free agent signing by the Flames after two really strong seasons in Europe. He was goaltender of the year in 2022-23 in Finland’s second tier pro league, Mestis. And then he was goalie of the year in 2023-24 in Sweden’s second tier pro league, HockeyAllsvenskan. So he signed a deal with the Flames and he’ll be trying his hand at North America’s second tier pro league, the AHL. Likely between his age and questions about how is game will translate, he didn’t crack anybody’s top 20.

Eric Jamieson

A sixth-rounder from the 2024 draft as an overager, Jamieson is big (check!), local (check!) but might not have high-end offensive upside, at a time where the Flames’ defensive reserve list suddenly includes prominent names like Zayne Parekh, Hunter Brzustewicz, Henry Mews and Etienne Morin. There’s definitely some upside with this 19-year-old , but he’s in arguably the organization’s deepest position.

Joni Jurmo

Acquired from Vancouver in the Elias Lindholm trade, the 22-year-old Jurmo was a third-rounder in 2020. There’s potentially something there with him, but he’s another player with some question marks at the Flames’ deepest position. He’s got some pro experience, though, and we’ve seen players like him find their footing and figure out the AHL in recent years,  so there may be some upside there.

Hunter Laing

Another sixth-rounder from the 2024 draft, Laing isn’t local but he’s big (check!) and Jarome Iginla knows his family and vouched for the pick. Laing’s a question mark for panellists likely just because of his small WHL sample size, which makes it a bit of a challenge to project him (relative to some of the other players in the system).

Cade Littler

A seventh-rounder in 2022, Littler has had an odd developmental path since being selected. He’s changed college commitments and gone from the BCHL to the USHL and then back to the BCHL. He’s got size and has produced in the BCHL in the past, so we’ll see how he fares in a very strong University of North Dakota program in the coming seasons.

Ilya Nikolaev

A third-rounder in 2019, Nikolaev is entering his third season of his entry-level deal and he’s likely hoping for a turnaround. He’s played two years in the AHL (and ECHL), and his numbers in the AHL have been so-so but he’s done fairly well in the ECHL. Heading into the final year of his current deal, the clock is ticking for him to get some traction in the AHL – especially with how deep the Flames’ system has become recently.

Next up: we delve into the six players who received votes, but didn’t crack the overall top 20 of our rankings!