Very seldom do NHL prospects move straight from point A to point B in their development.

Sure, you get the odd duck every now and then who makes a three-course meal out of every challenge thrown their way. On the other hand, some prospects don’t pass a single test after being drafted.

As it stands, the vast majority of the Calgary Flames’ prospect group falls somewhere between those two extremes, and it sure makes them a lot more interesting to track. So, let’s check in on a select few members of the Flames’ prospect pool to determine who’s trending up, holding steady, or in need of a rebound.

It’s time for the Flames prospect stock watch!

What we’ve seen from Wyttenbach in his first post-draft season has been extraordinary. The 18-year-old Long Islander has points in all but three of his 26 games with the Bobcats this year, and it’s not like he’s being carried by more skilled or experienced teammates — if anything, he’s the one elevating them. Wyttenbach currently ranks second in all of NCAA Division I men’s hockey with 36 points, putting him a full 10 points above any of his Quinnipiac teammates and six clear of any other freshman. We haven’t seen a late-round pick progress like this immediately after being drafted by the Flames since Dustin Wolf’s time with the Everett Silvertips. It’s been an incredible season for the 5’11” winger, and you can support his case for the Hobey Baker Award by texting 26064 to 1-844-623-9688.

It certainly isn’t easy for an 18-year-old to play any role for a contending NCAA team, much less to be a top-line centre at that level. But that’s precisely what we’ve seen from Reschny in his freshman year at UND, even if his pure goal output hasn’t exactly been overwhelming. The Macklin, Saskatchewan is already one of the very best two-way centres in college hockey and has 25 points in 22 games, although only four of them are goals. The devil is truly in the details with Reschny, who has won over 55 percent of his faceoffs this year and regularly appears in all game situations. We saw that more and more as the games got bigger at the World Juniors, where Reschny tied the likes of Gavin McKenna and Tij Iginla with four goals in seven games despite also featuring prominently on Canada’s power play and penalty kill. He’s certainly lived up to his pedigree as a 2025 first-round pick and very much still projects as a future top-six NHL centre.

After kicking off his first professional season with the ECHL’s Rapid City Rush (and earning an All-Star nod in the process), Sergeev has gotten an extended look in the AHL of late with both Ivan Prosvetov and Owen Say sidelined. And despite joining the Wranglers in the midst of a long losing skid, Sergeev has done an admirable job of holding the fort. The 6’3″ netminder has posted a .911 save percentage through his first nine AHL contests, and while his 1-3-4 record doesn’t look that good at first glance, it’s worth noting that he’s at least managed to get this underpowered Wranglers team to overtime in half his starts. He also set a Wranglers record for most saves in a single game, with 52, in a 2-1 victory over the San Diego Gulls back on Dec. 21.

The Wranglers haven’t gotten much in the way of secondary scoring for large swaths of the 2025-26 season, which makes Suniev’s recent surge all the more encouraging. The Kazan, Russia product and former UMass Minutemen sharpshooter has nine goals in 30 games with the Wranglers this season, but five of his tallies have come in the team’s last nine contests. (For reference, the Wranglers have won just two of their last 11 games). Suniev is a crafty and resourceful goal-scorer who can find the back of the net in a variety of ways, with his most recent goal coming by way of a high deflection in Calgary’s 5-3 home loss to the Laval Rocket on Saturday:

The Wranglers didn’t have much use for Basha this season, which was reflected both in his average ice time and production (or, in both cases, lack thereof) over 27 AHL games this season. He should become a good pro in time, but to put it bluntly, Basha was in no man’s land with the Wranglers before they sent him back to the Tigers earlier this month. Thank goodness they did, because Basha has found his stride again in Medicine Hat while playing on a line with the Ruck twins. Basha has five goals and 16 points through 10 games in his return to the Tigers, who recently completed a 19-game winning streak. A second-round pick of the Flames in 2024, Basha missed most of the 2024-25 season due to injury and desperately needed to regain any sort of positive momentum this year. After running in place with the Wranglers, he finally seems to have gotten back on track.

It’s been a trying D+2 season for Battaglia, whose numbers are down across the board from his standout 2024-25 campaign with the Kingston Frontenacs. Taken 21 spots after Basha in the 2024 NHL Draft, Battaglia certainly looked the part of a second-rounder as an 18-year-old with the Fronts, putting up 40 goals and 90 points in 68 games during the 2024-25 regular season and adding 16 points in 11 playoff games that spring. But it’s been tough sledding for Battaglia throughout the 2025-26 season. The 6’1″ winger wore the ‘C’ for Kingston in 36 games to start the year but managed just 14 goals and 27 points, a far cry from his production a year prior. Nevertheless, that was still enough to lead a substantially depleted Frontenacs team in scoring, and there was plenty of optimism that Battaglia would rebound after being traded to Flint on Jan. 5, but since then, he has three goals and an assist in eight games. Perhaps he needs more time to adjust to his new surroundings, and he’ll be given plenty of opportunities to succeed with the Wranglers next year, but it’s never a great sign to see a prospect seemingly take a step backwards in the OHL.

Once regarded as the top offensive D prospect in Calgary’s system, Poirier’s stock has fallen considerably to the point that he is unlikely to be qualified as a restricted free agent following the 2025-26 campaign. If anything, it wouldn’t be surprising if the Flames found a way to include the 23-year-old rearguard in a trade by the end of the season. The 2020 third-round pick is plenty capable of manning a top power-play unit, but his defensive shortcomings have only become more and more pronounced with each passing season. Making matters worse, he has just six points through 33 games with the Wranglers this year. It just isn’t going to happen for Poirier in Calgary, but he might still have a chance to carve out a Nick DeSimone-type career in the NHL with the right change of scenery.

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