The influx of young hockey players into the Calgary Flames system over the past few years made the 2025 edition of FlamesNation’s summer prospect rankings insanely competitive – and very challenging for those casting ballots.

27 different players made appearances on our panel’s ballots. Here are the two prospects that just narrowly missed the top 20 cut-off.

King is a left shot forward that joined the Flames as a college free agent back in the spring. He appeared on five ballots and finished 21st in our voting. Primarily a centre, he spent 2024-25 with the University of Denver Pioneers before signing an NHL deal and joining AHL’s Calgary Wranglers on a try-out contract for the tail-end of their season.

After a handful of games with the Wranglers: we get why the Flames were so excited to get him. King isn’t the biggest or the fastest or the strongest, but he’s really smart and adaptable, and there are no obvious holes in his game. Look at how he was used at Denver: he played in every situation and he played a really structured, disciplined brand of hockey. He might not be the guy that’ll score fancy goals or big dangles, but he’s the type of player teams win with because he can help a team in so many different ways. Case in point? Denver won a pair of NCAA national championships during his time there.

Hoskin is a right shot forward that was selected by the Flames in the fourth round, 106th overall, in the 2024 NHL Draft, taken in his third year of eligibility. He’s primarily a winger, but can play centre as well. Drafted after four seasons in the junior A Ontario Junior Hockey League with the Cobourg Cougars, he had a breakout 2023-24 season offensively and was one of the best players at that level of hockey in the country.

He moved onto the Atlantic Hockey America conference for 2024-25 to play at Niagara University. Is Atlantic Hockey a weaker conference than others? Sure. Did Hoskin play a heck of a season there? Oh yeah. He was named the conference’s top rookie and was one of the top scorers in that circuit. He moved onto Merrimack College in the more competitive Hockey East conference for 2025-26. He’s a bit of a late bloomer, but he’s played two really strong seasons back-to-back. If he can turn that into three in a row and continue that upward trajectory he’s on, we’re really fascinated to see what he could become.

This article is a presentation of Platinum Mitsubishi, family owned and operated by lifelong Calgarians. Home of the industry-leading 10-year, 160,000-kilometre powertrain warranty. Check out their showroom at 2720 Barlow Trail NE or online at www.mitsu.ca.