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<p>The Calgary Flames got down to business during their annual prospect development camp late last week, signing recent draftees Zayne Parekh, Matvei Gridin, and Étienne Morin to their entry-level contracts.</p>
<p>For prospects drafted as early as those three, signing an entry-level deal is essentially a formality — after all, the Flames believed in them enough to use high picks on them in the first place. With all three slated to play in the CHL this coming season, the Flames will be able to stash them there without having their contracts take effect until they&#8217;re ready to turn pro.</p>
<p>However, between those three and Sam Honzek, the Flames have signed only a quarter of the 16 players they&#8217;ve selected over the last two drafts. That&#8217;s not entirely unusual — only 11 players out of the 225 drafted this year have signed NHL contracts as of yet — but even now, it&#8217;s fair to speculate about who might be next on the docket in Calgary.</p>
<p>Here&#8217;s a look at four more Flames prospects who could sign on the dotted line at some point sooner rather than later.</p>
<h1><strong>C Jaden Lipinski</strong></h1>
<p>Even after making 10 selections in the 2024 NHL Draft, the Flames are still pretty light on legit centre prospects in their organization. Lipinski is a rare exception. The 6&#8217;4&#8243; rightie arguably outplayed 2023 first-round pick Sam Honzek with the WHL&#8217;s Vancouver Giants last season, very nearly going a point-per-game with 66 in 67 during the regular season before adding three assists in five playoff contests.</p>
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet" data-width="550" data-dnt="true">
<p lang="en" dir="ltr">Jaden Lipinski scores the Flames second goal of the game! </p>
<p>This Honzek-Lipinski-Stromgren line has been really good today. </p>
<p>2-1 Flames! 🔥🔥 <a href="https://t.co/WleIKip48f">pic.twitter.com/WleIKip48f</a></p>
<p>&mdash; Robert Munnich (@RingOfFireCGY) <a href="https://twitter.com/RingOfFireCGY/status/1703832113966125094?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">September 18, 2023</a></p></blockquote>
<p><script async src="https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script></p>
<p>The Flames selected the Scottsdale, Arizona-born Lipinski in the fourth round (No. 112 overall) back in 2023, meaning they now have less than a year to sign him before his exclusive rights expire on June 1, 2025. They might wait to see how he fares with the Giants in his draft-plus-two season, but the Flames&#8217; lack of centres makes Lipinski an obvious candidate to sign a pro contract at some point over the next 11 months. He already appeared in his first AHL game with the Calgary Wranglers back in April. If the Flames wanted him to, the 2004-born Lipinski would be able to play with the Wranglers on a full-time basis in 2024-25, but unless he signs his entry-level deal soon, it appears more likely he&#8217;ll return for one last WHL season.</p>
<h1><strong>LD Axel Hurtig</strong></h1>
<p>The Flames&#8217; seventh-round pick from 2023 is a 6&#8217;4&#8243; left-handed defenceman who spent most of his first post-draft season with Rögle BK&#8217;s U-20 development team in Sweden. But after being selected by the Calgary Hitmen in the first round of the 2023 CHL Import Draft, Hurtig looks to be ready to come over to North America for the 2024-25 season and could be in line to sign an entry-level deal after that.</p>
<p>Born in June 2005, Hurtig was one of the youngest players selected in the 2023 NHL Draft. He also has a chance to play for Team Sweden at the 2024 IIHF World Junior Championship. Also, because he was drafted out of the Swedish ranks, Hurtig&#8217;s signing rights with the Flames won&#8217;t expire until 2027 — even though CHL players typically only have two years to sign. As a result, the Flames could sign Hurtig to AHL-only contracts to begin his North American pro career while also maintaining their exclusive negotiating rights with him. They have plenty of flexibility, but depending on how Hurtig performs with the Hitmen — there&#8217;s a chance he could play on a pairing with No. 7 overall pick Carter Yakemchuk — the Flames might want to get him onto an entry-level contract as soon as possible.</p>
<h1><strong>LW Andrew Basha</strong></h1>
<p>If the Flames had picked Basha in the first round of last month&#8217;s draft (as many fans wanted), there&#8217;s a decent chance he would&#8217;ve been signed alongside Parekh during development camp. Instead, it looks like he&#8217;ll have to wait, although it&#8217;s hard to imagine it&#8217;ll take long for the Flames to come to an agreement with the No. 41 overall pick.</p>
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet" data-width="550" data-dnt="true">
<p lang="en" dir="ltr">Andrew Basha is fast. Very, very, very fast!<a href="https://twitter.com/tigershockey?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">@tigershockey</a> | <a href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/NHLDraft?src=hash&amp;ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">#NHLDraft</a> <a href="https://t.co/JXlWqt8BHa">pic.twitter.com/JXlWqt8BHa</a></p>
<p>&mdash; The WHL (@TheWHL) <a href="https://twitter.com/TheWHL/status/1755068220191694961?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">February 7, 2024</a></p></blockquote>
<p><script async src="https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script></p>
<p>Basha is a Calgary boy with a sterling track record in the Western Hockey League, having most recently collected 30 goals and 85 points in just 63 games with the Medicine Hat Tigers in the 2023-24 regular season. He&#8217;s a 5&#8217;11&#8221; left wing who elevated his game when Tigers star Cayden Lindstrom suffered an injury in the back half of last year. Additionally, with his late 2005 birthday, Basha will be able to make the jump to the AHL as soon as the 2025-26 season. He&#8217;s arguably the most skilled forward in the Flames&#8217; prospect pool and will be counted upon to deliver offence in the pro ranks of this organization sooner rather than later. Don&#8217;t be surprised if the Flames sign both their 2024 second-round picks — Basha and Jacob Battaglia — around the same time, as they only have until June 1, 2026 to get them under contract before they become eligible to re-enter the draft.</p>
<h1><strong>LW Aydar Suniev</strong></h1>
<p>Back when the Flames drafted Suniev with the third-round pick they received from the New Jersey Devils alongside Yegor Sharangovich in the Tyler Toffoli trade, Craig Conroy admitted he had <a href="https://www.sportsnet.ca/nhl/article/flames-rookie-gm-craig-conroy-opts-for-size-over-splash-in-first-draft/">tried</a> to trade up into the second round to nab the 6&#8217;2&#8243; UMass commit. As it turned out, he didn&#8217;t need to.</p>
<p>After a fantastic draft year with the BCHL&#8217;s Penticton Vees, Suniev enjoyed a strong freshman season at UMass with 25 points in 36 games, setting himself up nicely to potentially earn an entry-level deal with the Flames at some point soon. Of course, Suniev could very easily choose to play three or four more seasons in the NCAA, but it&#8217;s more common for players with legit NHL aspirations to turn pro after their sophomore or junior years. The Flames can&#8217;t sign Suniev until he decides he&#8217;s done with school, but if he has another successful year with the Minutemen — scoring at a point-per-game pace, perhaps — it might just be the right time for him to begin his career in the Flames organization. Suniev might not be the <em>next </em>prospect to sign an ELC with the Flames, but he&#8217;s undoubtedly high on their list.</p>
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The Calgary Flames got down to business during their annual prospect development camp late last week, signing recent draftees Zayne Parekh, Matvei Gridin, and Étienne Morin to their entry-level contracts.

For prospects drafted as early as those three, signing an entry-level deal is essentially a formality — after all, the Flames believed in them enough to use high picks on them in the first place. With all three slated to play in the CHL this coming season, the Flames will be able to stash them there without having their contracts take effect until they're ready to turn pro.

However, between those three and Sam Honzek, the Flames have signed only a quarter of the 16 players they've selected over the last two drafts. That's not entirely unusual — only 11 players out of the 225 drafted this year have signed NHL contracts as of yet — but even now, it's fair to speculate about who might be next on the docket in Calgary.

Here's a look at four more Flames prospects who could sign on the dotted line at some point sooner rather than later.
<h1><strong>C Jaden Lipinski</strong></h1>
Even after making 10 selections in the 2024 NHL Draft, the Flames are still pretty light on legit centre prospects in their organization. Lipinski is a rare exception. The 6'4" rightie arguably outplayed 2023 first-round pick Sam Honzek with the WHL's Vancouver Giants last season, very nearly going a point-per-game with 66 in 67 during the regular season before adding three assists in five playoff contests.

https://twitter.com/RingOfFireCGY/status/1703832113966125094

The Flames selected the Scottsdale, Arizona-born Lipinski in the fourth round (No. 112 overall) back in 2023, meaning they now have less than a year to sign him before his exclusive rights expire on June 1, 2025. They might wait to see how he fares with the Giants in his draft-plus-two season, but the Flames' lack of centres makes Lipinski an obvious candidate to sign a pro contract at some point over the next 11 months. He already appeared in his first AHL game with the Calgary Wranglers back in April. If the Flames wanted him to, the 2004-born Lipinski would be able to play with the Wranglers on a full-time basis in 2024-25, but unless he signs his entry-level deal soon, it appears more likely he'll return for one last WHL season.
<h1><strong>LD Axel Hurtig</strong></h1>
The Flames' seventh-round pick from 2023 is a 6'4" left-handed defenceman who spent most of his first post-draft season with Rögle BK's U-20 development team in Sweden. But after being selected by the Calgary Hitmen in the first round of the 2023 CHL Import Draft, Hurtig looks to be ready to come over to North America for the 2024-25 season and could be in line to sign an entry-level deal after that.

Born in June 2005, Hurtig was one of the youngest players selected in the 2023 NHL Draft. He also has a chance to play for Team Sweden at the 2024 IIHF World Junior Championship. Also, because he was drafted out of the Swedish ranks, Hurtig's signing rights with the Flames won't expire until 2027 — even though CHL players typically only have two years to sign. As a result, the Flames could sign Hurtig to AHL-only contracts to begin his North American pro career while also maintaining their exclusive negotiating rights with him. They have plenty of flexibility, but depending on how Hurtig performs with the Hitmen — there's a chance he could play on a pairing with No. 7 overall pick Carter Yakemchuk — the Flames might want to get him onto an entry-level contract as soon as possible.
<h1><strong>LW Andrew Basha</strong></h1>
If the Flames had picked Basha in the first round of last month's draft (as many fans wanted), there's a decent chance he would've been signed alongside Parekh during development camp. Instead, it looks like he'll have to wait, although it's hard to imagine it'll take long for the Flames to come to an agreement with the No. 41 overall pick.

https://twitter.com/TheWHL/status/1755068220191694961

Basha is a Calgary boy with a sterling track record in the Western Hockey League, having most recently collected 30 goals and 85 points in just 63 games with the Medicine Hat Tigers in the 2023-24 regular season. He's a 5'11" left wing who elevated his game when Tigers star Cayden Lindstrom suffered an injury in the back half of last year. Additionally, with his late 2005 birthday, Basha will be able to make the jump to the AHL as soon as the 2025-26 season. He's arguably the most skilled forward in the Flames' prospect pool and will be counted upon to deliver offence in the pro ranks of this organization sooner rather than later. Don't be surprised if the Flames sign both their 2024 second-round picks — Basha and Jacob Battaglia — around the same time, as they only have until June 1, 2026 to get them under contract before they become eligible to re-enter the draft.
<h1><strong>LW Aydar Suniev</strong></h1>
Back when the Flames drafted Suniev with the third-round pick they received from the New Jersey Devils alongside Yegor Sharangovich in the Tyler Toffoli trade, Craig Conroy admitted he had <a href="https://www.sportsnet.ca/nhl/article/flames-rookie-gm-craig-conroy-opts-for-size-over-splash-in-first-draft/">tried</a> to trade up into the second round to nab the 6'2" UMass commit. As it turned out, he didn't need to.

After a fantastic draft year with the BCHL's Penticton Vees, Suniev enjoyed a strong freshman season at UMass with 25 points in 36 games, setting himself up nicely to potentially earn an entry-level deal with the Flames at some point soon. Of course, Suniev could very easily choose to play three or four more seasons in the NCAA, but it's more common for players with legit NHL aspirations to turn pro after their sophomore or junior years. The Flames can't sign Suniev until he decides he's done with school, but if he has another successful year with the Minutemen — scoring at a point-per-game pace, perhaps — it might just be the right time for him to begin his career in the Flames organization. Suniev might not be the <em>next </em>prospect to sign an ELC with the Flames, but he's undoubtedly high on their list.
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After Parekh, Gridin, and Morin, which Flames prospects will sign entry-level deals next?

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Calgary Flames right wing Matt Coronato (27) during the face off against the Ottawa Senators during the second period at Scotiabank Saddledome.

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