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What Ryan Pike read, watched and listened to in August 2026

Photo credit: Sergei Belski-Imagn Images

By Ryan Pike

Sep 3, 2026, 12:00 EDTUpdated: Sep 2, 2026, 23:58 EDT

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Pals, if you’re anything like me, you consume a lot of hockey content.

After covering the Calgary Flames and the National Hockey League for roughly 15 seasons, I still like reading, watching and listening to content about the sport – I didn’t play beyond the pee wee level, so I try to learn as much as I can. Sometimes the things I consume readily lend themselves to writing about on this site.

But sometimes, they might not inspire a specific piece on the site but I want to share them with you anyway in the spirit of showcasing things I consider to be Good Content. So this season, taking a page from my favourite author, British novelist Nick Hornby, I’m presenting my version of his “Stuff I’ve Been Reading” column he used to write for The Believer – when relevant, I’ll expand it to include videos or podcasts, too.

Here are the most interesting things I consumed in August.

What did Pike read in August 2026?

‘Kind of like a secret weapon’: Inside the Calgary Flames’ skating lab with Danielle Fujita – Sean Shapiro, Elite Prospects

I’m a sucker for pieces that draw back the curtain on people who work behind the scenes in hockey, but do a lot of really valuable work, so I really enjoyed Sean Shapiro’s profile on Calgary Flames skating consultant Danielle Fujita. If you’re unfamiliar with Fujita, she’s usually most prominent at development camp, where she’s the person putting the organization’s prospects through their skating paces.

During a summer filled with travel to visit Flames players and prospects to help work on their mechanics, Fujita discussed how her job worked in-depth.

Long Island’s Ethan Wyttenbach has big sophomore year goals in mind before realizing NHL dream – Alex Mitchell, New York Post

A year ago, the Flames selected Ethan Wyttenbach in the fifth round of the NHL Draft. Since then, he led the NCAA in scoring as a fairly unknown freshman and has vaulted from being a fairly under-the-radar figure into being one of the more exciting prospects in all of hockey. New York Post writer Alex Mitchell wrote a very good profile of Wyttenbach, which included this snippet that is not new information, but fans will enjoy reading:

“The goal is to play one more year and then head to Calgary at the end of the season,” the Roslyn native told The Post before heading back to campus.

‘It brings me joy’: Big-body D-man Mace’o Phillips says working hard is just how he’s made – James Tubb, Medicine Hat News

As Medicine Hat Tigers training camp kicked off, Medicine Hat News beat writer James Tubb profiled one of the most prominent new additions to the Tigers, massive defender Mace’o Phillips – who just happens to be a Flames draft choice. This piece gets pretty in-depth into what made Phillips and Medicine Hat such a good match for each other, and also features Phillips crediting his mom’s cooking for his large frame:

When the trade was announced in June, Phillips was listed as 6-foot-6, a height milestone he says he finally reached at Flames development camp a few weeks later. He credit’s his mom Amy’s home cooking for helping him hit his growth spurts, going from 5-foot-11 in Grade 8 to 6-foot-3 in his freshman year.

City of Calgary seeks bids to study feasibility of a major stadium project – Adam MacVicar, Global News

This is basically a pure news story, but it’s about the City of Calgary starting to figure out some sort of replacement plan for the rapidly-aging McMahon Stadium. Essentially, the City is looking to hire some consultants to look into the feasibility and planning for a new stadium. As that process goes on, there’s also a parallel track of inquiry in terms of potentially retrofitting the Calgary Stampede’s grandstand structure, GMC Stadium, to potentially host field sports, a possibility mentioned within the Stampede’s recently-updated 20-year master plan.

As the city evaluates options for stadiums, they may not have to look too far as the Calgary Stampede and Calgary Municipal Land Corporation are evaluating bids on a contract of their own to study the feasibility of multi-purposing GMC Stadium.

Now that the succession for the Scotiabank Saddledome has been figured out, McMahon is the next riddle for the City and stakeholders to solve.

What did Pike watch in August 2026?

Calgary Flames Prospect Pyramid 2026 – Scouching (YouTube)

We were neck-deep in prospect content on the site in August, as we conducted our annual prospect rankings and profiles process. In the midst of that, I found it refreshing to get a perspective on Calgary’s prospect pool from outside of the market. If you’re not familiar with Scouching, he does a ton of videos about prospects league-wide, including fairly regular deep dives on specific players using game video.

Final Season in Saddledome Likely to Be a Long One for Calgary – The Hockey Guy (YouTube)

In the same vein as Scouching, a perspective on the Flames from outside the market, The Hockey Guy did a pretty focused season preview on the Flames looking at where they are within their rebuilding process. His videos don’t have a ton of bells and whistles – they’re primarily the host and a white board and that’s it – but he obviously does a ton of research and it shows with how detailed his videos are.

What did you read, watch or listen to in August that you enjoyed? Let us know in the comments!

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