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My colleague Paige Siewert said it best in the last edition of the prospect rankings here at FlamesNation: General manager Craig Conroy and his Calgary Flames staff have made it a priority to focus on the squad’s future defense. Moves he made, like acquiring Kevin Bahl from the New Jersey Devils in the Jacob Markstrom trade, help the team now, but when he’s had the chance to acquire high-skill, high-ceiling defenders, he has seized it.
A perfect example of that philosophy is the drafting of Henry Mews in the 2024 NHL Entry Draft. He is ranked ninth in our prospect ranking.

Henry Mews

Defenceman; Shoots Right
Born March 9, 2006 (age 18) in Ottawa, Ontario, Canada
6’0”, 187 lbs
Drafted in the third round (74th overall) by the Calgary Flames in the 2024 NHL Draft.
Mews’ journey to becoming a Flames prospect truly began when COVID-19 struck the entire world and slowed down or stopped everything in its path. Professional sports were impacted and halted, but fortunately, playing on the Ottawa Myers Automotive U14 AAA team at the time, Mews saw a season in which he scored 25 goals and 37 assists for 62 points in 29 regular-season games and 10 points in eight post-season games finish right before the league was shut down due to the pandemic.
After Covid, Mews moved to the Toronto Jr. Canadiens in 2021-22, scoring 78 points in 52 games before taking on the OHL the following season.
In his first season with the Ottawa 67’s of the OHL as a 17-year-old, Mews played in 55 games, scored 12 goals, and tallied 19 assists from the blue line. He also scored four points in 11 post-season games. That season was also the year he captained the Canada White U17 team, tying for first on the team and 10th in the tournament, scoring eight points in six games.
Looking to improve his first season in the OHL and, most importantly, improve his draft stock coming out of a vital summer for his on-ice game and physical maturity, Mews stole the show on the back end for a decent 67’s squad. Columbus Blue Jackets forward prospect Luca Pinelli led the team in points with 82 in 68 games, including an impressive 48-goal total, which fell into third place in the league by season’s end, but Mews finished second with 61 points in 65 games. He led the 67s with 46 assists, twelve more than the next-highest player, and sat seventh among defencemen in points and eighth in assists.
While Mews isn’t the biggest defenceman of all time, it’s clear that Conroy and his staff found his skill to be the more important aspect of his game. Take in some of his film, and it’s easy to see why this was a great choice, especially in the third round. Not only is Mews’ skating something he uses to work his way out of a potential jam or find open shooting lanes, but his poise with the puck in the offensive zone and creativity to find space gave scouts plenty to like.
Here’s what Brock Otten, one of our ever-reliable sources for insights for this series and director of scouting at McKeen’s Hockey, had to say about Mews’ game:
“Mews’ draft year would be best classified as inconsistent. It’s why he went from being a nearly unanimous first rounder at the start of the year to being selected in the third round by Calgary. There’s a lot to like. He skates well. He is highly skilled. He is creative. He can be a real difference maker in transition. He possesses significant upside. A lot of people have pointed to his switching from forward to defense late in minor hockey as the reason for his inconsistency, and there’s certainly credence to that. His reads with the puck do need to improve; he can be turnover prone in his own end and in the neutral zone. That could be chalked up to experience. However, the lack of physical intensity and effort defensively, at times, can not be. That’s going to be one of his biggest stumbling blocks. The intensity level needs to be consistent in the defensive end. Can he put it all together? We likely won’t know for another couple years, following his fourth OHL season.”

Expectations for 2024-25

As Brock said, it’s hard for us to know anything for certain now other than the kind of player Mews has presented himself as being in the early stages of his OHL career: a creative player with the puck on offence who can help in transition and find his teammates in plenty of different situations. However, as he develops over the next few seasons (and during this upcoming season in particular), the defensive and physical sides to the game developing, along with building on his offensive toolkit, will be of the utmost importance if Mews wants to reach the NHL in a faster period. There is plenty to like about Mews’ game, but there are still some question marks that could prevent him from reaching his potential, and the OHL would be a great place for him to work on those things, especially during his D-1 season.