The hometown kid. Calgary native Andrew Basha is a 20-year-old left-shot winger who was taken by the Flames in the second round of the 2024 NHL Draft. He was born to be a Flame. He wears number 34 because Miikka Kiprusoff wore it.

Widely regarded as an excellent skater and elite playmaker with a good head on his shoulders, he’s had to overcome a lot, including a season largely wiped out by injuries a year ago and a jump to pro hockey that just didn’t go quite to plan.

Basha started playing in the WHL at age 16, but his first season there isn’t a career highlight by any means. With 14 points in 48 games and a minus-31 rating, he may have had some doubts in his head about this hockey thing, but he stuck with it.

The next two seasons both saw massive improvement. With 56 points in his second year, followed by a 30-goal, 85-point campaign the year after, he saw his stock rise just in time for the NHL Draft.

Many people actually had Basha as almost a lock to be a first-round pick. It was somewhat surprising to see him fall to Calgary at 41st overall. The biggest question mark in his skill set by far was his physicality. He isn’t the smallest player on the ice by any means — listed at five-foot-11 and 180 pounds — but his reluctance to get his body involved in the play made his presence on the ice smaller. This likely played a role in why he fell so far, but with that, he became a great steal for the Flames.

His first season after being drafted, back with the Medicine Hat Tigers, was rocky as he dealt with a couple of injuries. He played the first 17 games for the Tigers, putting up 20 points before going down with an upper-body injury that caused him to miss 11 games. He returned and recorded nine points in six games before going down with a lower-body injury that knocked him out long term. He got back in time to join the Tigers for the playoffs. It was a comeback for the storybooks, as he had been out for months and then scored less than a minute into his return game. In five playoff games, Basha recorded five points on the team’s way to becoming WHL champions. Even with moving in and out of the lineup, he was still able to maintain better than a point-per-game pace.

Then came this season. It was thought his days in the WHL would be over as he turned pro, but his time with the Calgary Wranglers was far from successful. In 27 games, he had just a single goal and four assists while recording 33 penalty minutes. For the most part, he was cycled in and out of the lineup and just wasn’t getting consistent playing time. It’s a hard adjustment for anyone – and especially someone who hasn’t played at 100 per cent in well over a year.

As the New Year rolled over, the Flames announced they were assigning him back to the Medicine Hat Tigers, who at the time were a surging team. The goal was to get Basha playing as much as possible — going from limited minutes with the Wranglers to potentially helping lead a team to another WHL championship.

Since returning to the Tigers, Basha has thrived. In 18 games, he has nine goals and seven assists. He’s helping lead a team that lost Gavin McKenna to the NCAA at the beginning of the year. Still, the Tigers sit second in the standings with a 37-9-5 record on the season and have already clinched a playoff position. As this is the final year of junior eligibility for Basha, another WHL championship would be a fitting way to officially go out.

It’s still unclear exactly what the Flames have in Basha at the moment. He was ranked No. 8 in this past summer’s FlamesNation prospect rankings. He may be more of a B-tier prospect at this point — maybe a B-plus if you’re feeling generous. Hopefully, he will continue to develop into a potential top-nine option for the Flames in a couple of years, but only time will tell how high his ceiling can be.

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