2 Calgary Flames prospects listed on The Athletic’s drafted prospect rankings

Over at the Athletic, our pal Scott Wheeler has updated his lists of the top drafted prospects around the entire National Hockey League. He does two lists, updated twice a year: one for the top 50 skaters, the other for the top 10 goaltenders.

A player drafted by the Calgary Flames landed on each list.

On the skaters list at 27th spot is 2021 first-round pick Matt Coronato, currently a sophomore at Harvard University. (He was 42nd in Wheeler’s last edition of the list six months back.) Coronato had a really good 2022: he got an expanded role for Harvard when a bunch of his teammates went to the Olympics and took advantage of that opportunity, emerging as a legit top-line centre in the NCAA and helping lead his team to a conference playoff win and NCAA tournament berth. He was excellent for Team USA at the delayed summer edition of the World Juniors in Edmonton. And he’s been very, very good for Harvard this season, transitioning to centre and maintaining his strong offensive totals at the same time.

(Jakob Pelletier and Connor Zary were both honourable mentions on the skaters list.)

On the goalies list at third spot is 2019 seventh-round pick Dustin Wolf, currently with the American Hockey League’s Calgary Wranglers. (He was fourth on the list six months ago.) At this point, y’all may start getting tired of us throwing superlatives at Wolf. Despite being smaller than most goaltenders – he’s listed at six feet tall and it’s not an exaggeration – he’s among the top goaltenders in the AHL. He was named the AHL’s top goaltender last season, and probably will contend for that spot again. He’s a really, really solid goaltender.

If you have an Athletic subscription, check out the list for Wheeler’s breakdown of Coronato and Wolf, as well as the rest of the prospect rankings.