FN’s 2026 Flames summer prospect rankings – #8: Aydar Suniev

Aydar Suniev was one of the four rookies who made their NHL debut against the Los Angeles Kings in the Calgary Flames’ season closer of the 2024-25 season. He joined Zayne Parekh, Hunter Brzustewicz and Sam Morton in this shared experience and played with all three of them at times in this past season. Suniev has a killer release on his shot that is extremely effective when he has the time and space to use it and by the second half of the Wranglers season, he was sure making good use of it.

In 2025, the FlamesNation ranked Suniev at number nine. This year, our editorial staff placed him a place ahead of the year prior at number eight. Which is especially noteworthy considering how much stronger the Flames prospect pool got in the last year. 

Aydar Suniev

Forward; shoots left
Born Nov. 16, 2004 (age 21) in Kazan, Russia
6’2”, 210 pounds
Drafted in the third round (80th overall) by the Calgary Flames in the 2023 NHL Draft

After his brief taste of the NHL at the tail-end of the 2024-25 campaign, Suniev was hungry for another shot. He came into the 2025-26 season with the Wranglers for his first full professional season. Despite his Russian roots, Aydar Suniev is no stranger to North American Hockey and played two seasons in Penticton with the Vees of the NCHL before going the NCAA route with UMass for two seasons after. Once he wrapped up his season with UMass, he signed his ELC and came to Calgary. 

Suniev had a slow start to the 2025-26 season and he was fully aware of it. It took him seven games to find his first point of the year with a goal against the Abbotsford Canucks on Oct. 28. A few games later he had his first point streak of the season with three points in three games and three goals and an assist over a five game stretch. His production went quiet for another games before he had another three game point streak in December. 

Suniev was quite streaky over the first half of the season, but started finding consistency around the second week of February. For the rest of the season, he didn’t go more than four games without being on the scoresheet and finished the year with the Wranglers with 57 games played, 16 goals and eight assists for 24 total points. Aydar Suniev typically played on the top two lines with Sam Morton, Rory Kerins, Dryden Hunt, and William Stromgren.