Gang, the 2025 edition of FlamesNation’s summer prospect rankings is now complete!

It’s one of our favourite things to do every year, as it allows the writing staff to have some interesting debates, and we can see how players progress from year to year. As we draw the curtain on this year’s rankings, we’ve assembled our staff for a roundtable to reflect on how the process went.

Adrian: Zayne Parekh. It’s been a while since the Flames have as such a highly touted prospect within their system.

Mike: Parekh was our consensus #1, so I’d imagine everyone will probably default to him, but I’d like to single out Jacob Battaglia, who was the clear-cut #4 on my list. Felt real good about that one and still do.

Paige: Zayne Parekh. Self explanatory.

Robert: Zayne Parekh and Cole Reschny were the easiest to place. They are the Flames two best prospects and there is not much debate around that. Other than Parekh and Reschny, I’d say putting Cullen Potter at #3. I think he has a ton of upside and in my mind is easily the third best prospect in the Flames system.

Ryan: Parekh was the clear-cut top prospect for me and Reschny was a pretty clear second. Heck, I feel like there was a pretty well-defined top dozen or so players, but the order within those first 12 slots I jostled with for awhile.

Ryley: The easy answer to this question is Zayne Parekh, but elsewhere on the list, it’d have to be Arsenii Seergev. The netminder has future backup written all over him.

Adrian: Ilya Solovyov. Nothing against him, he’s a solid player. It’s just difficult to think of him still as a prospect. Maybe others would have been more deserving.

Mike: I had absolutely no idea to do with Cullen Potter, a player I really like but struggle to compartmentalize relative to his peers. He has such a high ceiling but I really don’t know where his floor is at this point. Dunno!

Paige: William Strömgren. I’ve seen him in different levels and stages of his game and the inconsistency makes him hard to place. On his best day, he might be higher on this list, on his worst, he may not make the list. The truth seems to lie somewhere in between.

Robert: William Strömgren. I had him 19th on my ranking. There are times when you watch Strömgren and think he can play in the NHL. But then he will go quiet for long stretches. His inconsistency and questionable upside made it difficult to place him. I don’t know what he could be at the NHL level.

Ryan: Andrew Basha. He was so good in his draft year and now we know he wasn’t playing at 100%. But we also have a really small recent sample size for him. I ended up slotting him at five.

Ryley: Aydar Suniev. As much as I’ve liked what I saw from him when I’ve been able to watch him, he fell to 13th on my list. To me, that’s just a reflection to how strong the Flames’ farm system is.

Adrian: Well with this being my first time doing rankings, I have no comparison. But it was difficult given how deep the Flames prospect pool currently seems to be.

Mike: Not really. The Flames have a lot more good prospects than they usually do, but there’s still a pretty clear hierarchy — to me, at least. But my list looks a lot different than the others.

Paige: I did. I found it quite difficult to place guys with NHL experience against the younger prospects and some of the players who didn’t quite make the list felt like they should be in that top 20. The organization has a lot of options. This is a good problem to have.

Robert: Yes I found it more difficult compared to years past. The Flames haven’t had this type of quantity and quality in their prospect system in modern team history. It was tough to place players because I think so highly of so many of them.

Ryan: I mentioned my anxiety over how to slot the first group of 12 players, but I left a bunch of players I really like out of my top 20 because of the added depth in the system lately.

Ryley: This is my first year participating in building the list. While difficult, it was a blast.

Adrian: Luke Misa. Maybe it’s just the last name but he strikes me as an young player with great potential. He’d probably be ranked higher in other prospect systems but found himself at 13 in ours.

Mike: Etienne Morin, who profiles as a bonafide top-four defenceman in my view. I’m much more confident on his ability to translate into the NHL compared to some of the guys ahead of him on our rankings.

Paige: Ilya Solovyov feels a little too low but he could very well graduate from the “prospect” title in the next season. He does a lot of things outside the camera view of a game that you come to appreciate when you watch him live. He’s a grinder and a very consistent defender but placed against points by forwards could drop him down on a list like this.

Robert: I think Ethan Wyttenbach should have been ranked higher. I think he has more upside than some of the players who ranked ahead of him.

Ryan: Trevor Hoskin was really, really good for Niagara last year… and he didn’t crack our top 20. Heck, I couldn’t find a spot for him in my top 20. But if he has a good year at Merrimack College… can we keep him off the list next year?

Ryley: Arsenii Sergeev ranked as our 14th-best prospect, but I had him ninth. Hunter Laing didn’t rank on the list, but I really like his makeup of being a 6’5″ right-shot centre.

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.