This past week, 22 Calgary Flames prospects and two invitees headed down to Winsport for the 2025 edition of development camp. With a smaller group this year, the Flames’ development staff was really able to dig in through a series of targeted skating and skills development drills on the ice.

There were two big takeaways, for me, after the camp concluded. First, this may be the most prospect depth the Flames system has had in decades. Second, man, a lot of these guys will be unable to attend rookie camp in the fall due to other hockey commitments. (We’re told that the Flames have plans for some sort of game action for their rookie camp to replace the Penticton rookie tournament, and we’ll have details once they’re revealed by the club.)

We thought we’d dive into which prospects we can expect to see at rookie camp in September, and which we likely won’t see.

Essentially, if a player is going to be playing Canadian major junior or in the Flames’ pro system, and they haven’t been on the NHL roster for 50 or more games, they can go to rookie camp. Based on that requirement, we would expect to see goalies Owen Say and Arsenii Sergeev, blueliners Axel Hurtig, Etienne Morin and Zayne Parekh, and forwards Andrew Basha, Jacob Battaglia, Matvei Gridin, Carter King, Quintin Laing and Aydar Suniev. Netminder Jordan Switzer, who attended camp on a try-out, would also be a good bet to be back in the fall.

Conversely, if you’re a player that’s headed to college, or playing in Europe, you’re going to be busy in September. College players are already in school at that point, and the European season begins super-early – camps are often well underway in August – and USHL players have typically not attended rookie camp in the past. So a lot of Flames prospects will be tied up elsewhere during rookie camp.

Among those who attended development camp but probably won’t be at rookie camp are Trevor Hoskin, Aidan Lane, Luke Misa, Cullen Potter, Cole Reschny, Theo Stockselius, Ethan Wyttenbach, Jakob Leander, Henry Mews, Mace’o Phillips and Yegor Yegorov. (Try-out player Isa Parekh also falls on this side of things.)

Last year’s rookie camp had 25 players involved – 3 goalies, 8 defencemen and 14 forwards – and that’s probably a good ballpark of what to expect in September. With a dozen development camp players likely headed to rookie camp, we would expect the Flames to back-fill the roster for the fall, primarily with undrafted try-out players that would’ve been at development camp had they opted for a larger group.

Flames rookie camp is slated to begin around Sept. 11, with main training camp beginning around Sept. 18. In the meantime? Summer.