Folks, if you’ve been following either us or our colleagues at Daily Faceoff over the last little while, you’ve probably noticed that July and August were Prospects Season. Over the last while, our pal Steven Ellis has been doing deep dives on the prospect systems of all 32 National Hockey League clubs.

He’s capping off this marathon of prospect evaluations with his annual rundown of the top 75 NHL-affiliated skater prospects. (Ellis uses a less strict criteria than our rankings did for what’s considered a prospect: skaters need to be under 23 and have played in 50 or fewer NHL games.)

After listing the Flames as having the third-best prospect system in the NHL, Ellis included six different Flames prospects within his top 75 skater prospects: Carson Carels, Zayne Parekh, Cole Reschny, Matvei Gridin, Hunter Brzustewicz and Ethan Wyttenbach. (The Flames also had goaltender Tobias Trejbal on Ellis’ list of the top 25 NHL-affiliated goaltending prospects.)

Carels was ranked 5th. He was a first-round pick, sixth overall, by the Flames in the 2026 NHL Draft. After impressing with the Western Hockey League’s Prince George Cougars and Canada’s national junior team last season, he’s headed to the University of North Dakota this season.

Parekh was ranked 6th. He was a first-round pick, ninth overall, by the Flames in the 2024 NHL Draft. He spent last season primarily with the Flames in the NHL, as a teenager, but spent time with Canada’s national junior team (for the World Juniors) and the AHL’s Wranglers (on a conditioning stint). He’s expected to be an NHL regular this season.

Reschny was ranked 27th. He was a first-round pick, 18th overall, by the Flames in the 2025 NHL Draft. He spent last season with the University of North Dakota, and joined Carels and Parekh on Canada’s national junior team, and he’s headed back to North Dakota as a sophomore this fall.

Gridin was ranked 28th. He was a first-round pick, 30th overall, by the Flames in the 2024 NHL Draft. He spent last season split between the Flames and Wranglers, and impressed with both clubs. He’s expected to be an NHL regular this season.

Brzustewicz was ranked 70th. He was a third-round pick, 75th overall, by Vancouver in 2023 NHL Draft and was traded to the Flames in the Elias Lindholm trade. He split last season between the Flames and Wranglers and performed quite well. He’s expected to push for an NHL job this season, but his waiver exemption and a glut of incumbent NHL blueliners might keep him in the AHL to start.

Wyttenbach was ranked 72nd. He was a fifth-round pick, 144th overall, by the Flames in the 2025 NHL Draft. He was the NCAA’s leading scorer and a Hobey Baker contender as a freshman with Quinnipiac University. He’s headed back to Quinnipiac for his sophomore campaign.