2021 FlamesNation Prospect Rankings: The individual lists

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.

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:

* – 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.

Eight of our contributors submitted individual lists for the 2021 rankings. Here’s the breakdown:

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.