The Calgary Flames did a lot with relatively little at the 2025 NHL Draft.

Hamstrung from the start by the loss of their own first-round pick, which former GM Brad Treliving traded away three years in advance in a short-sighted deal to clear Sean Monahan’s contract off the books, the Flames — now led by Craig Conroy — successfully managed to pivot and ultimately made two selections in Round 1, followed by six picks on Day 2.

The Flames made more draft picks in 2024 and 2026, but their 2025 class still stacks up incredibly well against its competition. Five of Calgary’s 2025 picks cracked our Top 20, representing a larger contingent than from any other draft class under Conroy. And coming in at No. 15 on our list is towering defenceman Mace’o Phillips, who is set to step into a major role north of the border this coming season after spending most of his developmental time to date in the USNTDP and the USHL.

Phillips is a funny player. One cursory glance at his HockeyDB page, or perhaps his Hockey Prospecting profile, will tell you that he produces almost no offence, which typically doesn’t bode well for any prospect — even a defensive defenceman — aiming to make the jump to the NHL someday. But if you watch Phillips, you usually come away wondering how he doesn’t score more points, given his seemingly unquenchable thirst to skate with the puck and go virtually anywhere on the ice.

Two things can be true at once: Most defencemen who don’t score at lower levels won’t go on to become NHLers, but the ones who manage to break through typically possess certain attributes that allow them to become more effective as the games become more structured, intense, and physically demanding. Phillips is a very good skater who plays with a ton of confidence, and, best of all, he’s absolutely huge — although he doesn’t look uncomfortable with his size like Keegan Kanzig and Hunter Smith often did. He much more closely resembles Nikita Zadorov, a player who is certainly not without his faults but has always been keenly aware of his strengths and limitations. Zadorov is on track to reach the 1,000-game mark without breaking a sweat.

A product of the ultra-competitive high school ranks in Minnesota, Phillips joined the USNTDP in 2023 and spent two seasons there before being drafted by the Flames with their 2025 third-round pick. In search of a bigger opportunity, Phillips moved to the USHL’s Green Bay Gamblers for the 2025-26 season and collected 11 points, 187 penalty minutes, and multiple suspensions in 44 games, while also serving as an alternate captain. That was enough to put him on USA Hockey’s radar for the 2026 World Junior Summer Showcase, where, in true “Big Buff” fashion, he alternated between defence and wing in scrimmages and practices.

Very few players are as physically mature as Phillips at this age, which gives him a lot of flexibility to grow in other areas over the coming seasons. He’ll be allowed to develop at his own pace; he’s only just now heading to the WHL’s Medicine Hat Tigers in his D+2 season, after which he’ll presumably follow through on his long-standing commitment to attend the University of Minnesota. If and when Phillips turns pro in the Flames organzation, it’ll probably be when he’s 21 or 22, at which point he’ll still likely be a couple of years away from the NHL. By then, Scotia Place probably won’t even feel new anymore!

Here’s the description McKeen’s Hockey contributor Linc Zdancewicz provided when asked about Phillips:

Medicine Hat head coach and general manager Willie Desjardins made the drive to Calgary to see Phillips play at the Flames’ 2026 prospects development camp, and you can bet he’ll feature prominently on the Tigers’ blue line this coming season, particularly with Bryce Pickford and Jonas Woo both moving on to bigger and better things. Phillips has never really been deployed as anything but a pure shutdown defender in his young career, and it’ll be interesting to see whether Desjardins chooses to use him as more of a jack-of-all-trades. It certainly isn’t uncommon for defensive defenders to gain a bit more leeway in that area as they become more experienced; notably, even Kanzig scored 13 goals as an overager with the Calgary Hitmen back in 2015-16 after having managed a total of just six goals over the previous four seasons.

This year won’t make or break anything for Phillips, who will remain Flames property through the natural conclusion of his forthcoming NCAA tenure with Minnesota. But it’d be really nice to see him convert some of his obvious gifts with and without the puck into a few more goals and assists. Under Desjardins, Medicine Hat plays an up-tempo style that allows its top players to put up highly impressive numbers, as we saw with Pickford, Woo, Andrew Basha, and the Rucks last year. The Rucks will be back in 2026-27, and while Phillips will undoubtedly be tasked with looking after them, he’ll also probably get a few more points just by being on the ice at the same time as them.

The Flames appear to be set for the foreseeable future on defence, with Zayne Parekh, Simon Nemec, and Hunter Brzustewicz on the right and Carson Carels, Kevin Bahl, and Yan Kuznetsov on the left. But nothing is ever a guarantee in the NHL, and the Flames don’t have another prospect in their system who profiles quite like Phillips does. Not many folks expected Dustin Byfuglien to turn into the player he ultimately became; after all, he was an eighth-round pick who followed a highly unorthodox developmental pathway before becoming a Stanley Cup champion and Norris Trophy contender. If Phillips achieves even a quarter of what Byfuglien accomplished in his own career, the Flames will be very happy. But he still has a long way to go.