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Don’t sleep on Flames prospect Lucas Ciona as a bottom six call-up option
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Photo credit: Terence Leung/Calgary Wranglers
Ryan Pike
Sep 30, 2025, 15:45 EDTUpdated: Sep 30, 2025, 10:57 EDT
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It’s no secret that the Calgary Flames have made a lot of draft choices over the past few years. Heck, over the past three NHL Drafts alone, they’ve drafted 24 players.
But while the Flames have added a slew of offensive-minded, high-ceiling players to their organization, they’ll need role players that can crash, bang, and make life miserable for the opposition in order to help those skill players have room to operate.
A candidate for such a future position is Calgary Wranglers forward Lucas Ciona.
A Edmonton product – don’t hold it against him – and a sixth-round selection by the Flames in 2021, he’s adapted to the pro game quite well after a challenging transition season in 2023-24.
“Year one was definitely a tough one, a lot of learning in that year,” said Ciona, speaking to FlamesNation last week during Flames training camp. “I mean, coming out of junior, I wouldn’t say I expected it to be easy by any means, but I definitely came into it thinking I was already at the pace and whatnot. So after year one, you know, that summer I knew I had to go home, get a lot quicker, work my hands, work on pretty much every facet of the game so I could come back and really play the game well. And then I got back last year and I felt really good.”
Hockey can be tough sometimes, as often changing from one league to another or one level to another can also involve significant off-ice changes to a player’s life, too. Ciona knows all about that. He joined the Western Hockey League’s Seattle Thunderbirds in 2019 as a 16-year-old and earned a bigger role year by year, eventually serving as captain as the team won the 2023 WHL Championship.
He drew on his WHL experience to build upon a challenging AHL rookie season that saw him register just six points in 55 AHL games.
“You know, my first year in Seattle was pretty similar to my first year here in Calgary,” said Ciona. “You know, I had to change a lot of my game, go home, reset, and keep building my way up. And I kind of feel like that’s very similar to being in this situation. I started low as a depth guy and I still am that depth guy who’s going to grind my way and play that third, fourth line role. But I am just trying to grow every single season and day. So I can just become better and better so I can make the jump.”
The polite way to phrase it is that Ciona’s game found an identity early in the 2024-25 season. The less polite way to phrase it is that he became the team’s primary agitator, putting up 22 points and adding 75 penalty minutes – and drawing a ton of penalties in the process – by way of being a pain the backside to opponents in the corners and around the blue paint. Much like Martin Pospisil, who graduated to the NHL from the Wranglers in 2023, Ciona became adept at making opponents lose their tempers in 2024-25.
“I feel like my role as a player can translate to the NHL very well,” said Ciona. “And I know that my speed is there. I feel confident with the puck. I feel confident going into corners. And I think my first year I knew it was a little intimidating. You know, you go up against a 6’6″, 230-pound guy who’s, 28, 30 years old. That was, I wouldn’t say intimidating, but it was definitely something you had in the back of your head. Now it’s not, you know, if I want to play in the NHL and make my role presence and, you know, use that identity to my advantage, then I have to do that and I have to have confidence in that.”
If the Flames have an injury to one of their forwards and want to bring up a skilled forward, you can take a look at the Wranglers roster and have an abundance of choices. But if they want to bring up someone that can fill in on the fourth line and be a menace in a smaller role, the list of candidates is pretty short.
If Ciona can keep building his game, perhaps adding a little bit more snarl and scoring to his repertoire, he could be swapping the W on his sweater for a Flaming C before too long.

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