Our consensus list has been revealed. The Calgary Flames’ top prospect according to our voting panel is reigning American Hockey League goaltender of the year (and most valuable player) Dustin Wolf… for the second year in a row!
Let’s take a look at how our list came to be.

The top 20

Our seven voters were tasked with sifting through Calgary’s 31 eligible prospects and crafting a list of who they deemed the top 20. (What constituted a “top prospect” was left deliberately vague and up to each voter’s interpretation.)
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 (and divided up as such for the in-between spots).
Eight prospects — Jake Boltmann, Daniil Chechelev, Cade Littler, Brady Lyle, Ilya Nikolaev, Josh Nodler, Eetu Tuulola and Yegor Yegorov — received no votes and, correspondingly, earned zero points towards their final ranking. (When we did the vote, Nodler was still Flames property, and Tuulola remains Flames property until he turns 27.)
Axel Hurtig received two points, Parker Bell received 13 points and Martin Pospisil received 20 points.
Here’s how the top 20 came together:
RANK
PROSPECT
POINTS
CHANGE FROM 2022
1
139
NONE
2
134
NONE
3
123
NONE
4
122
NEW
T5
104
NEW
T5
104
UP FROM 8
T5
104
DOWN FROM 4
8
72
UP FROM 17
9
64
UP FROM 10
10
61
UP FROM 13
11
60
UP FROM NR
12
58
UP FROM 20
13
49
NEW
14
44
DOWN FROM 6
15
37
NONE
16
36
NEW
17
34
DOWN FROM 11
18
32
UP FROM NR
19
31
DOWN FROM 16
20
27
DOWN FROM 17
(We tried to come up with a way to break the three-way tie at fifth spot, but every idea we had contained some downsides and arbitrariness, so we decided to preserve the tie.)
Six new players feature on the 2023 prospect rankings. Samuel Honzek, Etienne Morin, Aydar Suniev and Jaden Lipinski were selections in the 2023 NHL Draft. Two other rebounded from missing the cut last year to land on the list: Lucas Ciona and Adam Klapka.
Adam Ruzicka (No. 5) and Walker Duehr (No. 19) graduated off the 2022 list. And Dennis Gilbert, who just missed the top 20 last year, also graduated. They’ve all played enough games in the NHL that they’re no longer Calder Trophy eligible. Matthew Phillips (No. 7) and Jack Beck (No. 8) both left the Flames organization this off-season. Martin Pospisil (No. 12) and Ilya Nikolaev (No. 18) were eligible for this year’s list but didn’t receive enough support.
The 2023 top 20 features two goaltenders, four defencemen, and 14 forwards. In geographical terms, the list contains eight Canadians, three Americans, three Russians, one Slovak, one Czech, a Swede, a Finn, a Belarusian and a Norwegian.

Individual lists

Seven of our contributors submitted individual lists for the 2023 rankings. Here’s the breakdown:
RANK
RYAN
MIKE
SHANE
JEFF
PAIGE
ROBERT
PRAJEYA
1
WOLF
WOLF
CORONATO
WOLF
WOLF
WOLF
WOLF
2
CORONATO
CORONATO
WOLF
CORONATO
CORONATO
CORONATO
CORONATO
3
HONZEK
PELLETIER
HONZEK
PELLETIER
PELLETIER
HONZEK
PELLETIER
4
PELLETIER
HONZEK
PELLETIER
HONZEK
HONZEK
PELLETIER
HONZEK
5
MORIN
POIRIER
MORIN
ZARY
POIRIER
POIRIER
ZARY
6
POIRIER
ZARY
ZARY
POIRIER
MORIN
MORIN
POIRIER
7
ZARY
MORIN
KERINS
MORIN
ZARY
ZARY
MORIN
8
JONES
SOLOVYOV
SUNIEV
SOLOVYOV
CIONA
SUNIEV
SCHWINDT
9
RÖNNI
SUNIEV
SOLOVYOV
RÖNNI
LIPINSKI
CIONA
JONES
10
SCHWINDT
JONES
POIRIER
SCHWINDT
JONES
SOLOVYOV
RÖNNI
11
CIONA
RÖNNI
LIPINSKI
SERGEEV
SCHWINDT
SCHWINDT
SOLOVYOV
12
KLAPKA
CIONA
SERGEEV
STRÖMGREN
SOLOVYOV
STRÖMGREN
CIONA
13
LIPINSKI
KERINS
RÖNNI
KERINS
KUZNETSOV
RÖNNI
KERINS
14
KUZNETSOV
KLAPKA
JONES
CIONA
POSPISIL
SERGEEV
KUZNETSOV
15
SUNIEV
SCHWINDT
BELL
PETTERSEN
PETTERSEN
LIPINSKI
POSPISIL
16
SERGEEV
PETTERSEN
STRÖMGREN
KLAPKA
SUNIEV
KERINS
PETTERSEN
17
SOLOVYOV
KUZNETSOV
PETTERSEN
KUZNETSOV
KLAPKA
JONES
KLAPKA
18
STRÖMGREN
POSPISIL
SCHWINDT
BELL
SERGEEV
KLAPKA
STRÖMGREN
19
POSPISIL
BELL
KUZNETSOV
POSPISIL
STRÖMGREN
KUZNETSOV
SERGEEV
20
PETTERSEN
SERGEEV
HURTIG
HURTIG
KERINS
BELL
BELL
Everybody had the same top four, albeit in somewhat scattered order: everybody’s top two were the same, and then their next two were the same. After that: chaos! Beautiful chaos! The lists diverge quite a bit from everybody’s top fours.
Suniev didn’t appear on two of the seven ballots submitted, but the five people that voted for him liked him enough that he finished as high as he did. A dozen players appeared on everybody’s top 20 in some form or another.
Which list do you most agree with? Which ballot is the most removed from your opinion? Let us hear it in the comments!