The Calgary Flames started the 2025-26 regular season with a pair of teenagers on their roster for the first time since 1997-98.

One of them, top prospect Zayne Parekh, had accomplished basically everything he could as a junior player and was essentially forced to make the leap to the National Hockey League because there was nowhere else for him to play.

The other one, Matvei Gridin, had impressed in junior with the Quebec Martimes Junior Hockey League’s Shawinigan Cataractes and had a strong training camp, but he fundamentally only made the opening roster due to injuries to Jonathan Huberdeau and Martin Pospisil that opened up a spot in the top nine. He ended up being assigned to the AHL’s Calgary Wranglers when Huberdeau returned to action.

But man, Gridin ended up having a really, really impressive 2025-26 campaign across both leagues.

As a first-year pro, Gridin had 10 goals and 30 points in 37 games with the Wranglers. His 0.81 points-per-game put him behind reliable, veteran AHLers like Dryden Hunt, Rory Kerins and Martin Frk. His time in the AHL was primarily a run of 29 games between Oct. 18 and Dec. 27. He played just eight times in the AHL during the 2026 part of the calendar, as he got a toehold on a regular NHL role.

Gridin’s initial NHL audition was just four games. In the 2026 half of the calendar, he played in 33 of the Flames’ final 42 games and posted 19 points. His 0.58 points-per-game scoring pace during that span is more or less the same rate the team’s leading scorer, Matt Coronato, produced at.

Based on the growth we saw from Gridin in 2025-26, what can he do over a full season in 2026-27?

When we discussed Parekh’s growth, our observation was that Parekh had a tough year but probably learned a lot. Now, Gridin had a pretty good year – in two different leagues – and probably learned a lot, too. Parekh had to show a ton of grit over the year, but Gridin quietly did a lot of really smart things with his game, including really improving his play away from the puck and figuring out how to find quiet areas of the ice to create scoring chances.

In other words: we’re thinking that Gridin’s rookie season was probably the worst version of his game we’ll see, in the sense that he was a rough version of himself and kept having to make revisions to how he did things. In 2026-27, he arrives probably feeling pretty good about how his season went and knowing that he can be effective in an NHL role.

We’re not ready to predict that he’ll lead the team in scoring necessarily, but we’re fascinated to see a year-long battle between Gridin, Coronato and the rest of the Flames’ younger players for the internal scoring crown.

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