One of the most exciting young players in the Calgary Flames system has been included as a nominee for college hockey’s most prestigious award. On Wednesday, the long list of initial nominees for the Hobey Baker Award were announced. Flames prospect Ethan Wyttenbach was included as one of the 86 players nominated. (The long list will get whittled down by fan voting and other methods to 10 finalists.)

So far in his freshman season with the Qunnipiac University Bobcats, Wyttenbach has scored 13 goals and 20 assists for 33 points through 24 NCAA games. Among freshmen, he’s first in points and assists and fourth in goals. Among all NCAA players, he’s fourth in points and sixth in assists.

A product of Roslyn, New York, on Long Island, Wyttenbach is a right shot winger listed at 5’10” and 181 pounds. He’s a February 2007 birthday, so he’ll turn 19 in a couple of weeks. (Because he started college at 18, he’s what’s known as a “true freshman.”)

Now, we know what you’re thinking: how come this kid was still available when the Flames took him in the fifth round (144th overall) in June’s NHL Draft? Well, Wyttenbach’s relatively small compared to a lot of hockey players. He also had a knee injury that required surgery, which is why he wasn’t on the ice at Flames development camp in July. And he spent just a single season with the United States Hockey League’s Sioux Falls Stampede, where he had 24 goals and 27 assists for 51 points as a rookie. If you’re a scout, it’s tough to try to project his development and progression based on just a single year of high-end junior hockey.

The Flames felt comfortable rolling the dice in the fifth round. Wyttenbach was encouraged by the Flames to head to college instead of going back to the USHL, and both gambles have paid off in the form of one of the most exciting stories in college hockey.

Two Flames prospects have won the Hobey Baker Award throughout the years: 1985 third-rounder Lane MacDonald won the award with Harvard in 1989, while 2011 fourth-round pick Johnny Gaudreau won it with Boston College in 2014, getting the award immediately before signing and joining the Flames. Coincidentally, Wyttenbach won the USHL’s inaugural Gaudreau Award in 2024-25; we’ll see if he ends up following in Johnny Hockey’s footsteps in the spring when the Hobey Baker is awarded.

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