For the Calgary Flames (and their fans), the club’s 2024 development camp arrived at an interesting time.

First and foremost, early July coincides with the Calgary Stampede – for out-of-towners, it’s part carnival, part rodeo, and part cowboy-themed Mardi Gras – and it’s either a time to delve into the festivities or leave town entirely for a respite from them.

But in a more cosmic sense, this year’s development camp represented the first such event since general manager Craig Conroy seemed to really sink his teeth into a demolition and renovation of the club’s NHL roster. Since arriving, Conroy has traded seven NHL regulars, and development camp was one of the first chances for fans to see the early fruits of Conroy’s labours.

All-told, four draft classes were represented at the event, with 21 of the 37 prospects in attendance being homegrown draft selections:

The inclusion of the 2021 draftees was a bit of a unique circumstance.

Under the terms of the CBA, players can only be asked to attend three summer “conditioning camps.” In the case of Coronato, Strömgren and Ciona, the timing of the 2021 NHL Draft in late July and the NHL’s desire to have a quicker-than-usual turnaround to the 2021-22 season, to get things back on track after COVID derailed their usual routine, meant that there was no 2021 development camp.

As a result, the 2024 camp was the third development camp for both the 2021 and 2022 draft classes – coming a year later than usual for the 2021 draftees. When the camp roster came out, there was a bit of fan confusion expressed on social media for the inclusion of the three 2021 draftees – typically players don’t attend once they’ve completed the first year of their entry-level deal, because typically they’ve already attended three camps by then.

Amidst these unique circumstances, the Flames opted to invite the 2021 picks to this year’s camp to lead the way for the younger players. Speaking to the assembled media following Saturday’s scrimmage (and asked about Coronato and Strömgren specifically), Conroy praised their efforts in the camp.

“The one thing about them, they want to help the young guys,” said Conroy. “They want to be a leader, help them, and then even coming back, because I was thinking ‘Should they come back to camp this year?’ But I talked to them right after the first meeting and they were excited to be back and they were going to help the younger guys and show them what to do, and they really did. I think to have them here, Zayne [Parekh] might have mentioned watching Coronato, in one of his interviews, so I’m thinking it is good to have those guys back. They’re really good people and I think good leaders for the young group.”

Even with the sheer number of highly-touted newcomers in the camp, the inclusion of the three 2021 picks undoubtedly added a competitive element to the camp. Strömgren just came off a heck of a breakout campaign in the American Hockey League, while Coronato also grew his game by leaps and bounds – and he was the only player attending that had played any games in the National Hockey League.

The leadership of the older prospects, showing their young counterparts the standard needed to push for NHL duty, is one element the Flames are hoping will contribute to the team developing a strong culture – a similar mindset can be see on the big club, with the Nazem Kadris and Mikael Backlunds mentoring the Connor Zarys and Martin Pospisils.

But fans may have noticed that the players at camp took awhile to get off the ice after Saturday’s scrimmage. That was because groups of players were taking photos in varying combinations and enjoying the atmosphere of the event. The cross-section of young players at the camp – even the eight from the 2024 draft class – already knew each other, which could contribute to the organization’s prospects developing chemistry and growing together towards the NHL roster.

“It’s weird, because this draft class… a lot of guys in the OHL, but there’s just a lot of players, they all seem like they know each other,” said Conroy. “They have a little bit of chemistry already, they’re kind of hugging, and they seem like they’re really tight already. So to build that chemistry, it is about culture. We want people that want to be here, that’s one of the things we talked about. I think the young guys think there’s an opportunity for them, and that makes everyone hungrier.”

If Conroy’s intended roster renovation is going to result in the team becoming a contender again, a lot of that falls on the shoulders of the players he’s drafted and that his staff develops. The likely hope is that they create a critical mass of competitive young talent that can bring out the best in each other – much like how the likes of Sean Monahan, Sam Bennett, Johnny Gaudreau and Matthew Tkachuk did in the mid-2010s.

There’s obviously no guarantee that it’ll work out as intended, and there’s a long road ahead for the club, but the first glimpses of the approach at development camp seem promising.