As the Calgary Flames work through their roster revamp process, it’ll ultimately be driven by the organization’s younger players. In 2024-25, we saw players like Dustin Wolf and Matt Coronato take big strides and not only cement themselves as full-time NHL players… but really good ones, too.

As we get into the off-season, we’ll be delving into the progression of the Flames’ prospects, focusing on each draft year cohort. We’ve touched on the team’s 2020 draft eligible group, so we’ll move onto the 2021 NHL Draft class, which are players born between Sept. 16, 2002 and Sept. 15, 2003.

The 2024-25 campaign was the fourth season for this cohort since their first year of draft eligibility. So how have they progressed? We’ll take a look using each player’s year-by-year stats and their NHLe (NHL equivalent) scoring rates.

(In addition to these five players, the Flames opted not to sign four 2021 draftees: blueliners Cameron Whynot and Cole Jordan, and forwards Cole Huckins and Jack Beck. Whynot, Jordan and Huckins are currently playing in USports, while Beck spent most of the past season in the ECHL with the Wheeling Nailers.)

G Arsenii Sergeev

In our rundown of the 2020 draft class, we mentioned the trend of the Flames taking smallish offensive-minded players late in the NHL Draft quite often – Beck was the 2021 expression of that trend, by the way. The other trend was the Flames taking goaltenders late in drafts. In the seventh round in 2021, the Flames chose Sergeev.

Here’s how Sergeev has progressed:

• Draft (2020-21): .936 save percentage in 20 games (Shreveport, NAHL)
• Draft+1 (2021-22): .918 save percentage in 41 games (Tri-City, USHL)
• Draft+2 (2022-23): .912 save percentage in 19 games (Connecticut, Hockey East)
• Draft+3 (2023-24): .913 save percentage in 16 games (Connecticut, Hockey East)
• Draft+4 (2024-25): .919 save percentage in 33 games (Penn State, Big 10)

All things considered – the uptick in competition he’s faced and the increased workload, especially this past season – Sergeev has progressed quite well. He signed his entry-level deal with the Flames, so he’ll be playing pro hockey next season.

D Artem Grushnikov

Grushnikov was a second round pick by Dallas in 2021. He was acquired by the Flames as part of the Chris Tanev trade. He’s projected as a shutdown defender.

• Draft (2020-21): 0 points in 0 games (Hamilton, OHL; 0.0 NHLe)
• Draft+1 (2021-22): 12 points in 56 games (Hamilton, OHL; 5.7 NHLe)
• Draft+2 (2022-23): 16 points in 65 games (Hamilton, OHL; 6.5 NHLe), 0 points in 1 game (Texas, AHL; 0.0 NHLe)
• Draft+3 (2023-24): 6 points in 64 games (Texas/Calgary, AHL; 3.7 NHLe)
• Draft+4 (2024-25): 5 points in 61 games (Calgary, AHL; 3.3 NHLe)

The OHL didn’t play in 2020-21 due to the pandemic, so Grushnikov ended up playing zero games in his draft year.

Let’s compare Grushnikov with another Russian-born, defence-first blueliner: 2020 draftee Yan Kuznetsov. In Kuznetsov’s first full AHL season he had 19 points (12.0 NHLe) and in his second he had 13 points (8.2 NHLe). They’re not carbon copies of each other, but Kuznetsov, a modest offensive producer in the AHL who likely won’t be relied upon to put up points if he moves to the NHL, has way, way more points at the same age than Grushnikov has.

Grushnikov is headed into the final year of his entry-level deal in 2025-26. We’ll see if he can find a bit more offence in his game than he’s shown so far.

F Lucas Ciona

The Flames selected Ciona in the sixth round of the 2021 NHL Draft. Ciona was, at that point, a gritty two-way checking forward for the Seattle Thunderbirds in the Dub, and projects as a similar type of pro player if all works out well.

• Draft (2020-21): 4 points in 2 games (Spruce Grove, AJHL; 10.2 NHLe), 13 points in 23 games (Seattle, WHL; 14.0 NHLe)
• Draft+1 (2021-22): 35 points in 53 games (Seattle, WHL; 16.4 NHLe)
• Draft+2 (2022-23): 75 points in 63 games (Seattle, WHL; 29.5 NHLe)
• Draft+3 (2023-24): 6 points in 55 games (Calgary, AHL; 4.4 NHLe)
• Draft+4 (2024-25): 22 points in 68 games (Calgary, AHL; 12.9 NHLe)

Because of the reduced and delayed season in the WHL in his draft year due to the pandemic, Ciona played a handful of games in the AJHL that year.

Ciona was a complimentary forward in his draft year that drew the attention of scouts based on playing with pace and physicality. (It also helps that he’s decently big.) The other parts of his game gradually filled in around his pace and physicality, and you see a pretty nice uptick in his offensive production. He entered the AHL a couple seasons back, and we may be seeing a similar growth trend for him as a pro.

Ciona is headed into the final year of his ELC next season, and we’ll see if he has another level to his offensive progression.

F Matt Coronato

Coronato was a first-round pick by the Flames in 2021. He was one of the top goal-scorers in American junior hockey in his draft year, and the big question was how quickly he could develop the rest of his game so that he could bring his goal-scoring to higher levels.

• Draft (2020-21): 85 points in 51 games (Chicago, USHL; 38.3 NHLe)
• Draft+1 (2021-22): 36 points in 34 games (Harvard, ECAC; 24.3 NHLe)
• Draft+2 (2022-23): 36 points in 34 games (Harvard, ECAC; 24.3 NHLe), 0 points in 1 game (Calgary, NHL; 0.0 NHLe)
• Draft+3 (2023-24): 9 points in 34 games (Calgary, NHL; 40.8 NHLe), 42 points in 41 games (Calgary, AHL; 21.7 NHLe)
• Draft+4 (2024-25): 47 points in 77 games (Calgary, NHL; 50.1 NHLe), 2 points in 2 games (Calgary, AHL; 39.9 NHLe)

Hey look, Coronato has adjusted to different levels of hockey pretty rapidly!

He figured out college pretty quickly, to the point where he spent a good chunk of 2022-23 playing centre (rather than his natural position on the wing) and still produced consistently. He went pro full-time the following season, and spent half of his first season in the NHL and produced pretty well. And he was third on the Flames in goal-scoring this past season, quickly becoming one of the team’s more important offensive producers.

Coronato is a pending restricted free agent. He’ll get a new deal with a pretty decent raise. He’s progressed very nicely as a young pro, as you would hope a first-round selection would.

F William Strömgren

Strömgren was a second-round selection by the Flames in 2021. He was praised for his 200-foot game in his draft year and projected as a two-way forward due to his size and smarts.

• Draft (2020-21): 3 points in 1 game (MoDo, J18; NHLe N/A), 18 points in 14 games (MoDo, J20; 21.1 NHLe), 9 points in 27 games (MoDo, HockeyAllsvenskan; 10.9 NHLe), 12 points in 11 games (Örnsköldsvik, HockeyEttan; NHLe N/A)
• Draft+1 (2021-22): 36 points in 44 games (Rogle, J20; 13.4 NHLe), 0 points in 6 games (Rogle, SHL; 0.0 NHLe)
• Draft+2 (2022-23): 6 points in 2 games (Rogle/Brynas, J20; 49.2 NHLe), 8 points in 45 games (Brynas, SHL; 8.7 NHLe), 0 points in 2 games (Calgary, AHL; 0.0 NHLe)
• Draft+3 (2023-24): 27 points in 68 games (Calgary, AHL; 15.8 NHLe)
• Draft+4 (2024-25): 49 points in 70 games (Calgary, AHL; 27.9 NHLe)

Yes, Strömgren bounced around a lot both during his draft year and the following two seasons. (He played in two different levels of junior hockey and two different levels of pro hockey!) There are a few similarities there with 2020 draftee Joni Jurmo, except Strömgren showed more offensive progression despite bouncing around.

But once he arrived in North America, Strömgren has shown a decent amount of progress over the past two seasons. He’s been pretty streaky offensively, though, so we’ll see if he can put together a more complete season in 2025-26, the final year of his entry-level deal.