On Friday night in Buffalo, the Calgary Flames made a bit of history, making Carson Carels the highest-drafted defenceman in franchise history when they selected him at sixth overall.

Carels wasn’t in Buffalo, though. The 18-year-old was surrounded by friends and family back in Cypress River, Manitoba – population around 175 – when he was announced as the newest member of the Flames organization by Lanny McDonald.

“We’re kind of calving cows still, and kind of just getting ready for haying season and stuff like that,” explained Carels, speaking to the media over Zoom following his selection. “So it’s about to be a really busy time, but right now we’re kind of in between where we’re getting a little off calving and getting into the hayings.”

In a pre-draft profile by NHL.com’s Adam Kimelman, Carels’ family farm was described as having about 500 head of cattle and around 50 goats, with the population increasing a bit as calves and baby goats are born during the year. The work ethic instilled by Carels’ farming background may have seeped into his playing style, as the defender has been lauded by scouts over the past few seasons for his consistency and the balance found in his game.

“I’d say I’m a really two-way defenceman,” said Carels. “I think I take a lot of pride in defending and don’t really sacrifice the defence for the offence. I’m a guy that’s playing both ends of the ice and I think I have that extra physical nature to my game that, I mean, obviously Calgary is a little harder team to play against, and that’s kind of the identity of me.”

Carels came to the attention of Western League scouts after he moved 40 minutes down the road to play at the Pilot Mounds prep school for three seasons, which led to him being selected by the Prince George Cougars in the 2023 WHL Prospects Draft. The following season, he was named his division’s most valuable player and helped Team Manitoba win the WHL Cup.

He joined the Cougars the following season, and represented Canada at the World Under-17 Challenge (capturing silver) and the Under-18 World Championships (winning gold). He had 73 points in 53 games in the WHL in 2025-26, was a first-team conference all-star, and represented Canada at the Hlinka Gretzky Cup (getting bronze) and the World Junior Championships (also getting bronze). He was teammates with Flames prospect Cole Reschny at the 2025 Under-18 Worlds and 2026 World Juniors, and paired with Flames defender Zayne Parekh for part of those World Juniors.

The Flames have Kevin Bahl signed long-term. And with the likes of Carels, Parekh, Simon Nemec, Hunter Brzustewicz, Henry Mews, Yan Kuznetsov and others in the system, you can kind of see what the Flames are trying to build on the back end.

“Yeah, all I see is kind of up, I think, everything they’ve done,” said Carels. “Zayne, just the way he kind of heated up in the last half of that season after the World Juniors is something to be really happy about and look forward to. So, I mean, all those guys are going to be unreal. And, I mean, just being a part of that is going to be amazing.”

Flames general manager Craig Conroy, obviously excited about adding someone like Carels to the fold, noted the addition of another blueliner that can create offence, as Carels has shown he can, is something that can help the Flames – a team that had trouble generating scoring last season – turn that trend around.

“When you have guys that can come in and create, it’s going to create more offence from us,” said Conroy, speaking to media in Calgary on Friday evening. “But we’re going to do it maybe a little bit from the back end, and I think that’s going to help us with our overall offensive game.”

Carels will likely remain busy on the farm this summer, aside from a likely trip to Calgary for development camp – and his first-ever Stampede – but then he’s headed to Grand Forks, another smaller hockey town, to join Reschny at the University of North Dakota in the fall.