Our consensus list has been revealed. The Flames’ newest first-round pick, Matthew Coronato, is FlamesNation’s top prospect for 2021.
Let’s take a look at how our list came to be.

The top 20

Our eight voters were tasked with sifting through Calgary’s 42 eligible prospects and crafting a list of who they deemed the top 20. (Later this week, our panellists will shed light upon the various methodologies they employed to create their rankings.)
With each ballot submitted, FlamesNation managing editor Ryan Pike assigned 20 points to every prospect ranked No. 1 on each individual ballot and a single point for each No. 20-ranked prospect.
13 prospects — Jake Boltmann, Lucas Ciona, Walker Duehr, Lucas Feuk, Justin Kirkland, Demetrios Koumontzis, C.J. Lerby, Mitchell Mattson, Ilya Nikolayev, Colton Poolman, Arsenii Sergeyev, Eetu Tuulola, and Alexander Yelesin — received no votes and, correspondingly, earned zero points towards their final ranking.
Jack Beck, Tyler Parsons, and Adam Werner each earned exactly one point while Daniil Chechelev managed three; Josh Nodler (four points), Luke Philp (eight points), Dmitry Zavgorodniy (nine points), Cameron Whynot) (nine points), and Cole Jordan (15 points) all received multiple votes but ultimately missed the cut.
Then, there were 20:
RANK
PROSPECT
POINTS
CHANGE FROM 2020
1
155
NEW
2
151
NONE
3
143
NONE
4
141
NONE
5
112
UP FROM 9
6
105
UP FROM 11
7
103
DOWN FROM 4
8
86
UP FROM 18
9
79*
UP FROM 10
10
79*
DOWN FROM 8
11
76
DOWN FROM 6
12
74
NEW
13
67
NEW
14
61
NEW
15
51
DOWN FROM 12
16
49
UP FROM 17
17
30
DOWN FROM 14
18
27
UP FROM NR
19
23
NEW
20
17
UP FROM NR
* – Poirier and Gawdin both received 79 points; however, Gawdin appeared on seven ballots while Poirier featured on all eight (breaking the tie).
Five new players feature on the 2021 rankings. Dan Vladar and Emil Heineman joined the Flames via trade while Matthew Coronato, William Stromgren, and Cole Huckins were the Flames’ first three selections in the 2021 NHL Entry Draft.
Dmitry Zavgorodniy (No. 7), Ilya Nikolayev (No. 13), Eetu Tuulola (No. 15), Luke Philp (No. 16), Alexander Yelesin (No. 19), and Tyler Parsons (No. 20) all ranked in 2020’s top 20 but dropped out in 2021 despite remaining eligible. Juuso Valimaki (No. 1) was the only player on last year’s list to graduate to the NHL in 2020–21.
The 2021 top 20 features two goaltenders, five defencemen, and 13 forwards. In geographical terms, the list contains eight Canadians, three Americans, three Swedes, two Slovaks, a Czech, a Belarusian, a Norwegian, and a Russian.

Individual lists

Eight of our contributors submitted individual lists for the 2021 rankings. Here’s the breakdown:
RANK
RYAN
MIKE G
MIKE W
PRAJEYA
CRAIG
PAIGE
PAT
SHANE
1
CORONATO
ZARY
CORONATO
WOLF
WOLF
ZARY
CORONATO
CORONATO
2
PELLETIER
CORONATO
ZARY
CORONATO
ZARY
CORONATO
ZARY
ZARY
3
ZARY
WOLF
PELLETIER
PELLETIER
CORONATO
PELLETIER
PELLETIER
PELLETIER
4
WOLF
PELLETIER
WOLF
ZARY
PELLETIER
WOLF
VLADAR
POIRIER
5
MACKEY
PHILLIPS
PHILLIPS
PHILLIPS
RUZICKA
MACKEY
WOLF
WOLF
6
RUZICKA
VLADAR
MACKEY
MACKEY
MACKEY
PHILLIPS
GAWDIN
HUCKINS
7
GAWDIN
KUZNETSOV
RUZICKA
RUZICKA
PHILLIPS
RUZICKA
MACKEY
FRANCIS
8
HEINEMAN
STROMGREN
GAWDIN
HEINEMAN
FRANCIS
FRANCIS
PHILLIPS
RUZICKA
9
PETTERSEN
MACKEY
VLADAR
PETTERSEN
GAWDIN
GAWDIN
RUZICKA
STROMGREN
10
PHILLIPS
KINNVALL
FRANCIS
POIRIER
KUZNETSOV
PETTERSEN
FRANCIS
PHILLIPS
11
STROMGREN
PETTERSEN
PETTERSEN
GAWDIN
HEINEMAN
POIRIER
POIRIER
SOLOVYOV
12
POIRIER
FRANCIS
POIRIER
POSPISIL
POIRIER
STROMGREN
JORDAN
VLADAR
13
FRANCIS
POSPISIL
HEINEMAN
VLADAR
PETTERSEN
POSPISIL
PETTERSEN
KERINS
14
VLADAR
RUZICKA
KUZNETSOV
FRANCIS
POSPISIL
PHILP
STROMGREN
POSPISIL
15
KUZNETSOV
HEINEMAN
STROMGREN
KINNVALL
STROMGREN
KERINS
KUZNETSOV
HEINEMAN
16
POSPISIL
ZAVGORODNIY
POSPISIL
KUZNETSOV
KINNVALL
HUCKINS
HEINEMAN
PETTERSEN
17
KERINS
POIRIER
SOLOVYOV
STROMGREN
VLADAR
KINNVALL
KINNVALL
WHYNOT
18
JORDAN
KERINS
KERINS
ZAVGORODNIY
KERINS
SOLOVYOV
CHECHELEV
GAWDIN
19
WHYNOT
NODLER
HUCKINS
JORDAN
WHYNOT
VLADAR
NODLER
KUZNETSOV
20
BECK
HUCKINS
WHYNOT
PARSONS
ZAVGORODNIY
WERNER
PHILP
JORDAN
Last year, all five of our panellists ranked Juuso Valimaki as the Flames’ No. 1 prospect. This year, three different players—Matthew Coronato, Connor Zary, and Dustin Wolf—appeared in the top spot on various individual lists.
Which list do you most agree with? Which ballot is the most removed from your opinion? Will Shane make the rest of us look foolish for not ranking Cole Huckins as the Flames’ No. 6 prospect? Let us hear it in the comments!