As a hockey fan there is always an urge to look forward to the next time of the year when there will be an opportunity to place your team under additional scrutiny and take on an extra bit of wishful thinking. Playoffs, trade deadline, the All-Star break, and for some… even the pre-season serves as a boost of intrigue.

Another underappreciated but never forgotten time of year is when the college season comes to an end and NHL clubs are able to have a miniature free agent frenzy. Calgary Flames fans will never forget the unadulterated thrill that was winning the Spencer Foo sweepstakes in 2017. It was unfortunate that that signing never did pan out but when a team takes a chance on a college player they aren’t worried about the bust when the boom is signing a Chris Tanev, Torey Krug or a Tyler Bozak to their team for essentially nothing.

Let’s take a look at five players who are making waves in the NCAA and what vacancies they could fill on the Flames.

Nadeau was an invitee to last year’s Montreal Canadiens development camp and is former BCHL teammate of Flames’ prospect Aydar Suniev. (His brother is Carolina prospect and 2023 first-round pick Bradley Nadeau.) Nadeau has burgeoning skill on a slight frame and the team that drafted Johnny Gaudreau and Matthew Coronato would probably be a good place to learn how to be small but effective in the NHL.

Michigan’s Eernisse is big, physical, and knows how to hustle.  He attended Pittsburgh’s development camp last year and for a team that has coveted rough and tumble players like Martin Pospisil, Eernisse could be a fantastic depth addition and with a pedigree of toughness and commitment he could be giving shades of early Martin Pospisil who would drag his teammates into the fight on any given night.

Prokop is in the top ten of scoring for NCAA defensemen. He attended the 2024 Vegas Golden Knights’ development camp and was deemed notable by NHL.com who listed him as among the top undrafted defencemen in the NCAA. (He also attended Flames development camp in 2023.)

As FlamesNation’s own Mike Gould wrote last week, Isa Parekh could be a fit for the Flames. He is the older brother of Flames’ prospect Zayne Parekh and could be a depth defenceman on the team that has always longed to bring brothers together.

The Flames have not been shy with grabbing goaltending talent from any place they can see it and the undrafted Boija is a Hobey Baker hopeful boasting a .931 SV% and a 1.66 GAA in 31 games this season.

As with any pick or prospect there is an element of luck and an enormous amount of patience needed when signing and conditioning them to be NHL ready. However, when the only real barrier to entry into the NCAA sweepstakes is pitching a player on a vision of what their life could look like on this particular team it isn’t a shock how intently teams focus on this unique crop of players.

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