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Flames sign college forward Jonathan Castagna to entry-level deal (3 years, $1.075 million AAV)
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Photo credit: Sergei Belski/USA Today Sports
Ryan Pike
Mar 30, 2026, 20:04 EDT
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The Calgary Flames have locked up a very promising young centre to a contract.
On Monday, the Flames announced that they’ve signed centre Jonathan Castagna to a three year entry-level deal with a $1.075 million cap hit. His deal begins next season and he’ll be joining the AHL’s Calgary Wranglers on an amateur try-out deal for the rest of this season. His contract runs through the 2028-29 season, at which point he would be eligible to become a restricted free agent.
An Ontario product, hailing from Etobicoke, the 20-year-old Castagna is a left shot centre listed at 6’2″ and 203 pounds. (He turns 21 next month.) He played prep school hockey at St. Andrew’s College – the same school Flames prospect Aidan Lane played last season – and was selected by the then-Arizona Coyotes in the third round of the 2023 NHL Draft, 70th overall.
Castagna joined Cornell University in 2023 as a “true” freshman – he was 18 during his freshman year – and he had two pretty decent campaigns to begin his college run, posting 25 points in 35 games in 2023-24 and 15 points in 32 games in 2024-25. This past season, though, he found a new level to his game and emerged as one of the top players in the ECAC, posting 34 points in 34 games and winning 65% of his face-offs. He was named an ECAC First Team All-Star and the conference’s Defensive Forward of the Year for 2025-26.
Castagna’s rights moved to the Flames as part of the MacKenzie Weegar trade earlier this month – along with Olli Maatta and three 2026 second-round picks.
Here’s what Daily Faceoff’s prospect guru Steven Ellis had to say about Castagna earlier this month:
Utah managed to acquire one of the top blueliners on the market in MacKenzie Weegar without shipping out any of their top prospects. But Castagna was still a nice get for the Flames, especially with the season he has had. The St. Andrew College alum was a star prep-school player, but scouts were interested to see if he could carry that scoring into the NCAA. He had a solid rookie campaign, fell a bit in his second year at Cornell and is now back to putting up huge numbers. Cornell has had its struggles at times, but Castagna has been the primary scoring threat for the group that lacks a ton of high-end NHL prospects. Castagna is a big, strong, power forward who has the potential to become a solid middle-six NHLer. He’s speedy, always moving and consistently finding ways to generate quality scoring chances. Castagna has instantly become one of Calgary’s most interesting prospects, which is ideal during a rebuild.
Adding Castagna to the NHL roster does not impact the Flames’ call-up numbers from the Wranglers – they still have two “regular” call-ups remaining at their disposal – and bumps the active roster up to 27 players: two goaltenders, eight defencemen and 17 forwards.
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