The value that Carson Carels will bring to an NHL team will mostly come on the defensive side of things, but there's a lot to like about him offensively, too He gets himself into a lot of scoring situations through his awareness and his motor, and his shot is a legitimate weapon
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Flames select defenceman Carson Carels at sixth overall in the 2026 NHL Draft
Photo credit: Steven Ellis/Daily Faceoff
The pick is in.
The Calgary Flames have made their first selection of the 2026 NHL Draft. At sixth overall, the Flames have selected defenceman Carson Carels from the Western Hockey League’s Prince George Cougars.
Carels was the third-ranked North American skater by the NHL’s Central Scouting Service. He was ranked fourth by Daily Faceoff and fourth by Elite Prospects. On our aggregated consensus list, Carels was ranked fifth overall. Carels was not in attendance in Buffalo for the draft, as he was back on his family’s cattle farm in Cypress River, Manitoba.
Listed at 6’2″ and 198 pounds, Carels is a left shot defender. In 2025-26, playing in his second full season in the Western League, he had 73 points in 58 games. He also represented Canada at the Hlinka Gretzky Cup and the World Juniors, where he was paired with Zayne Parekh for a few games. He’s committed to the University of North Dakota for the 2026-27 season, where he’ll be teammates with 2025 first-round pick – and past/future Canadian World Junior teammate and future Flames teammate – Cole Reschny.
Here’s what Daily Faceoff’s Steven Ellis had to say about Carels in his latest draft rankings:
People have been sleeping on Carels this year, which is a massive mistake. He was one of the best young defenders in the CHL, and scouts love him. Carels brings that rugged, heavy-lifting mentality he and his family use on the farm right onto the ice. When you combine his elite defensive awareness, seamless two-way game, punishing physique, and off-the-charts hockey IQ, you get a truly premium defensive prospect. He showed high-end flashes during the World Juniors, and he possesses every tool necessary to become a top-pairing defender one day. You won’t find many more defensemen as rounded as him in the draft, and he hits like an absolute truck. Carels is the type of prospect who’ll work his tail off no matter what, and you have to love that.
As a leftie, Carels is a very nice addition to a Flames defensive group that already includes players like Simon Nemec, Zayne Parekh, Hunter Brzustewicz, Yan Kuznetsov, Abram Wiebe, Henry Mews and NCAA champion Eric Jamieson. The Flames have definitely developed some young depth on the blueline under Craig Conroy.
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