Jacob Battaglia sailed through his first season as a Calgary Flames prospect on some of the smoothest waters possible, which is what made his inconsistent start to the 2025-26 campaign all the more worrisome.

The 2024 second-round draft pick scored 40 goals and 90 points in just 68 games with the OHL’s Kingston Frontenacs in the 2024-25 regular season, which was enough for us here at FlamesNation to put him at No. 7 in our prospect rankings last summer.

But this season’s Frontenacs are far removed from the group we saw last year. Even after Battaglia was named Kingston’s captain ahead of the 2025-26 season, he started uncharacteristically slow with 14 goals and 27 points in 36 games.

Nevertheless, Battaglia was still leading a depleted Frontenacs team in scoring when the Flint Firebirds acquired him in early January in exchange for eight (!) draft picks. Flint is a much better offensive team than Kingston and a legit championship contender.

Battaglia scored twice in his first three appearances with the Firebirds, but he managed just two points in his next seven games to conclude the month. But here’s the rub: Battaglia played the majority of those games as a centre, marking a significant departure from his previous experience with the Frontenacs.

In an encouraging development, Battaglia’s production has gone way up since the calendar flipped to February — and he’s still been playing centre. The 6’1″, 202-pound forward has six goals and nine points in eight games this month, enough to put him back on track for a third consecutive 30-goal season.

Before the trade to Flint, Battaglia had taken just seven faceoffs in 36 games with the Frontenacs. Since then, he’s gone 95-for-192 in the dot over 18 games with the Firebirds, putting him just shy of 50 percent on draws. Not bad for a first-timer.

Battaglia has a great shot and very good hands. He’s a smart forward who takes charge with the puck through the neutral zone and finds soft areas where his teammates can find him in the offensive end. If there’s one big area where he could stand to improve, it’s his skating speed, but he should be able to excel at the next level with the right coaching and usage.

On the surface, Battaglia having 23 goals and 40 points in 54 games this year feels like a big step back. He’s about to turn 20 and is well below a point-per-game pace in the OHL; that’s typically not a harbinger of major NHL success. But it’s been a year full of adjustments, and we’ve already seen Battaglia thrive at the major junior level. He didn’t have much to prove this season, but he’s still finding ways to show us new things.

Next year, Battaglia will join a Calgary Wranglers team that needs someone who plays with his particular assortment of attributes. The Flames’ AHL affiliate has struggled to score at times this year and could use more size at the top of its forward rotation. Battaglia will bring a desirable combination of skill and physicality to the Wranglers in 2026-27, most likely to a middle-six forward line.

Would it make sense to put Battaglia and Andrew Basha on a line together in the AHL next season? The two 2024 second-round picks are both in the midst of tougher years but would seem to complement each other nicely on paper. Basha could be Battaglia’s set-up man, and they could alternate taking draws. It’d be fun to watch those two on a line with a veteran like Dryden Hunt or Justin Kirkland.

Battaglia’s projection might be a little less clear than it seemed after the 2024-25 season, but he still has the potential to become a top-nine forward in the NHL. With a strong finish to his final junior campaign, he could be on track to burst onto the scene in the AHL next year.

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