Gang, the run-up to any NHL entry draft is a bit of a frenzy. No matter how well-prepared you are, unless your name is Steven Ellis, Scott Wheeler or Corey Pronman, there will be players selected that you’re not as well-acquainted with than you would like to be.

Heck, truth be told, when Lanny McDonald went up to the podium to name the 30th overall selection for the Calgary Flames, when he started saying “from Youngstown in the USHL…” I legitimately thought of Tobias Trejbal first.

That’s on me, because the more I’ve researched Jack Hextall’s game, the more I’m thinking he’s the exact type of player the Flames need more of in their system.

A product of the Chicago suburb of Rolling Meadows, Hextall’s from a hockey family. His dad played in the SJHL and played college hockey. His uncle played in the Western Hockey League and played a couple years of minor pro. The other Hextalls who played NHL hockey are all distant cousins. So far in his young career, but Hextall has developed a reputation for tenacity, versatility and smarts.

When he spoke with the media via Zoom after being drafted, the right-shot centre noted how he was able to build his game playing two seasons with Youngstown in the USHL.

“I learned a lot my first year,” said Hextall. “I grew up playing centre and then played winger my first year and kind of had to adjust. And I felt like that really helped me just being able to play both and being able to play on the wall and stuff like that. And I feel like when you play winger and then you go back to centre, you can kind of, you know, be better at centre coming from winger because you know what the wingers are thinking and stuff like that.”

Hextall is headed to a pretty stacked college team at Michigan State this fall. He’ll be one of 10 NHL-drafted forwards there, and as a centre, he’ll potentially be battling the likes of Cullen Potter, Eric Nilson and Cayden Lindstrom for ice time. But when director of amateur scouting Tod Button described what the Flames valued in Hextall after day two of the draft, he referenced the player’s awareness of what he can do well and the path ahead of him.

“He’s a hockey player,” said Button. “Some guys, they have more skill. They’re more fancy. And their individual parts might look better, but they can’t put it all together. The sum of all the parts is what Jack Hextall is. He can play centre, he plays every situation, he’s good on face-offs and when we first started interviewing him and talking to him, he had such a great command of what he was going to be… It was really cool to have a kid who was really mature and had his own path already set out before he even talked to us. So two way player, multiple situation player. So really, really happy to have him.”

Hextall may not be a perfect hockey player but, between his combination of a right shot, the ability to play in a lot of different places and situations, and his seeming awareness of the path in front of him, he seems like the right player for what the Flames need in their system right now.

We will watch his career with great interest.