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All due respect to him, but a year ago only the most hardcore Calgary Flames fans had Connor Zary pegged as the team’s next big breakout prospect. He was well-regarded, for sure, finishing tied for fifth spot on FlamesNation’s prospects ranking in 2023, but the thought at the time was he was a bit of a longer-term project after a tough transition to the pro ranks.
But an awesome start to the 2023-24 season with the American Hockey League’s Calgary Wranglers earned him an NHL call-up in early November with the Flames – who needed a spark after a dreadful October – and Zary was ready for the opportunity.
Zary ended up posting 14 goals and 34 points over 63 games, finishing eighth in Calder Trophy balloting.
Over at Daily Faceoff, our pal Frank Seravalli has included Zary on his listing of 10 potential breakout candidates. Here’s what Seravalli had to say about Zary:
Scoop: There’s no doubt it’s been an impressive training camp for Zary, who appears poised to take the next step and avoid the dreaded sophomore slump. While he may lean toward a natural center, Zary has been impressive on the flank. No need to bleep with happy. It’s working. There weren’t many lulls in his season last year. He had six multi-point games, which means he collected at least one point in nearly half (28) of his 63 games. Zary could well double that this year playing at the top of Ryan Huska’s lineup card.
Seravalli projects that Zary could score 22 goals and 65 points over an 80 game season.
In 2023-24, you could see the Flames coaching staff start figuring out what Zary could do. He was primarily used at five-on-five with Nazem Kadri and Martin Pospisil, and his trio was used primarily in fairly sheltered offensive situations – that’s not a knock on Kadri, but his calling card is scoring, so you’re going to skew his usage towards those types of situations. (He also served on the second power play unit for much of the season.)
Based on the end of 2023-24 and 2024-25’s training camp, though, we could see Zary used in more game situations. He spent the first chunk of camp skating on a line with Mikael Backlund and Blake Coleman, and he had two goals and an assist against Edmonton in the Flames’ first pre-season home outing. We’ll have more on the illustrious history of Backlund on the site as he approaches his 1,000th game, but he’s built a career around elevating his linemates through strong two-way play.
If you’re playing with Backlund, you’re probably playing against the other team’s top players more often and your usage isn’t going to necessarily be sheltered. But you’re also going to have the puck a ton because of how strong Backlund and Coleman are as two-way players. If Zary can play anywhere close to how he performed last season (or even find some small improvements), he could take a big step forward offensively.
For a look at Seravalli’s other breakout candidates, head on over to Daily Faceoff!
