Welcome back to our pre-prospect rankings miniseries here at FlamesNation! Over the next three days, we’ll be taking a closer look at the six players who just missed out on earning a spot on our main list despite receiving top-20 votes from our panel.

Earlier today, we kicked things off with our first honourable mention: Arsenii Sergeev, a promising collegiate goaltender who transferred from UConn to Penn State back in the spring.

Now, it’s time to shift gears a bit and talk about a young winger slated to turn pro this fall after a solid junior career. This player earned a single 15th-place vote from one of our writers and slots in as our second honourable mention this year.

It’ll be nothing short of remarkable if the Flames manage to pull even one full-time NHL player out of their forgettable 2022 draft class.

After going all-in with deals for Tyler Toffoli and Calle Jarnkrok at that year’s trade deadline, the Flames entered the 2022 draft with just three picks: their own 2nd, 5th, and 7th. They exited with a trio of forward prospects: Topi Rönni, Parker Bell, and Cade Littler. (By now, that number is down to two, and you’re probably already familiar with the reasons why).

In any event, the Flames’ hopes of getting anything out of the 2022 NHL Draft now rest solely with Bell and Littler, both of whom have plenty of room to grow before they can join the big club.

Bell is a solid prospect in his own right, having just put together back-to-back 64-point seasons to wrap up his junior career with the WHL’s Tri-City Americans. The 6’4″ winger is one of the biggest prospects at any position in the Flames’ system and profiles as a bottom-six forward if he makes it, likely in the same vein as Lance Bouma, Eric Nystrom, or maybe even Micheal Ferland.

One encouraging sign is that Bell’s goal output increased significantly in each of his three full WHL seasons. He went from 18 goals in 64 games during his draft year to 25 in 55 in 2022-23 before finishing with a team-leading 33 goals in 59 games with Tri-City last season. Furthermore, in the back half of the 2023-24 campaign, Bell collected the second, third, and fourth hat tricks of his WHL career.

Before the Flames added six more quality forward prospects to their system at this year’s draft, Bell was in a bit of an unfair spot from an organizational standpoint. While he absolutely could have an NHL future, he’s probably not going to be a focal point for this group. But now that guys like Andrew Basha and Matvei Gridin are ahead of him on the depth chart, Bell should be able to slot in more appropriately in the years to come and could potentially even fly under the radar a bit as he begins his pro career this fall.

It’s hard to say how exactly Bell will be used by the Wranglers’ coaching staff in his AHL rookie season, particularly given that he’ll likely end up below guys like Sam Honzek and William Stromgren on the left side, but it’s entirely possible that he could leapfrog sophomore Lucas Ciona onto the third line relatively quickly. A lot will depend on which players end up making the Flames out of camp — assuming that Jakob Pelletier is part of that group, there’ll be more room for Honzek and Bell to become regulars. Justin Kirkland, Sam Morton, and Rory Kerins playing centre instead of the wing would also help matters.

If Bell can become even a 20-point guy with the Wranglers as a rookie, he could start to put himself into the conversation for a call-up near the end of the year. Anything more than that would be gravy. He’s a big-bodied forward with decent wheels and a nose for the net. Guys like that will almost always be given the opportunity to prove themselves in the NHL.