The Colorado Avalanche are a very good hockey team. But in the life of any young professional, they’re going to be pit against some very good hockey teams from time to time, and the aim is to learn from the experience.

On Thursday night at the Scotiabank Saddledome, the Calgary Flames dressed a pair of 21-year-old rookies in forwards Jonathan Castagna and Aydar Suniev against the Avalanche. It was Castagna’s first NHL appearance, and Suniev’s eighth.

And while the duo didn’t play perfect games of hockey – disclosure: you could argue nobody on the home side did – they did a lot of good things in a 7-3 Flames loss to the Avalanche.

Here’s our observations of the rookie duo’s first game of the 2026-27 season.

Castagna played the entire game on the fourth line, skating between Suniev and Adam Klapka. He was a bit over-excited jumping onto the ice after the Flames cleared the zone after an icing, leading to a first period too-many-men bench minor. (The Flames killed that penalty off.)

Later on, Castagna earned his first NHL assist after sending Klapka in on a rush sequence on Avalanche netminder Scott Wedgewood. Klapka made a very nice approach and shot that resulted in the goal, but Castagna getting the puck past Avalanche forward Zachary L’Heureux in the neutral zone was instrumental to the tally.

“He did a really nice job on Adam Klapka’s goal, winning a wall battle,” said head coach Ryan Huska post-game. “I thought he worked really hard when he was on the ice. I thought he handled himself well.”

Castagna played 9:09 in his NHL debut. He won three of the six face-offs he took, he registered an assist, and he was minus-1 on the night.

Suniev played most of the game on the wing with Castagna and Klapka.

“I thought Suny played well, too,” said Huska. “In the third period, we started moving around a little bit on the lines. He was moving his feet and he was around the puck and he was generating.”

Suniev ended up getting third period shifts with Matt Coronato & Morgan Frost and Ryan Strome & Martin Pospisil. Overall, he played 11:41, with a shot on goal and a minus-2 plus/minus rating.

Neither Castagna or Suniev were brought up to be saviours for the Flames. They’re good young players who are still developing as pros. Thursday night’s game wasn’t the ideal result for the Flames, but it definitely gave Castagna and Suniev things to build on moving forward.

The Flames are back in action on Saturday night when they face the Anaheim Ducks.