As we all know, the Calgary Flames are in the beginning stages of a roster re-tool. One of the most important aspects of a re-tool is the development of your young players at all levels of the organization. Those are going to be the guys who take you from a re-tool into your contention window.

2025 is going to be critical year for the development of the future stars of the Flames, especially for Dustin Wolf, Connor Zary, Matt Coronato, and Zayne Parekh. Arguably the four most important young players in the organization.

Beyond those four, the Flames have a large group of talented young prospects who all have potential to be NHL players at some point in their careers.

Let’s take a look at these young players and what the Flames need from them in order to transition into a legit playoff contender.

There is no young player in the Flames organization that can make a bigger impact on the success of this re-tool than Dustin Wolf.

If Wolf can turn into a legit number one starting goalie in the NHL over the next year or two, this Flames re-tool can be expedited.

Look at what Wolf has been able to do in year two of the Flames re-tool. He has been in net for 12 of the Flames 18 wins this season. He has a .914 save percentage, and a 2.61 goals against average as a rookie. The Flames and the Boston Bruins are the only teams in the bottom 12 of goals per game to be anywhere near a playoff spot as of Jan. 3. The Flames can thank Wolf in large part for that.

There is an argument to be made that he is the most important player in the organization and the degree of future success rides on his shoulders.

We’re seeing Zary turn into a legit top six forward in the NHL. He’s put up 22 points in 38 games, good for a 48 point pace over 82 games. And he’s been unlucky to not score more goals and pick up more assists. He’s been that good.

After Wolf, Zary might be the most important young player for the Flames. They have zero depth at centre in their prospect pipeline. Conroy needs Zary to become a top six centre if he wants to turn this team around in short order.

Coronato has had a great start to his first full season in the NHL. He’s on pace to score 23 goals and 47 points over 82 games.

He’s starting to show the skill, smarts, and shot to be a consistent 25-35 goal scorer for the next 10+ years. His development has been one of the most positive stories to come from the 2024-25 season.

The Flames 2024 1st round pick is going to be an integral part of turning things around. He is clearly their top prospect not he back end.

Parekh is talented enough to be a potential top pairing, power play quarterback defenceman for a long time in Calgary.

He has picked up his game up after a slow start. He’s put up 40 points in 30 games which is good for fourth in the OHL. It’s going to be fascinating to see how Parekh develops between now and Penticton in September.

The Flames will need at least three of Jakob Pelletier, William Stromgren, Sam Honzek, Rory Kerins, Matvei Gridin, Andrew Basha, Jacob Battagila, Luke Misa, and Aydar Suniev to become top nine forwards by the time Scotia Place opens. Their development in 2025 is going to be critical in determining if they can be NHL players or not.

Same thing goes for the defence. The Flames will need at least two of Hunter Brzustewicz, Artem Grushnikov, Henry Mews, Etienne Morin, Ilya Solovyov, Yan Kuznetsov, and Jeremie Poirier to become NHL regulars. Calgary can fill out their blueline with those prospects and their veterans on the roster as well as in trades and free agency.

The Flames want to turn their team into a legitimate playoff team by the time Scotia Place opens in 2027. In order for that to happen, they desperately need their group of prospects to turn into the next core group of players for this team, especially when it looks like they won’t get a pick in the top 10 at the 2025 draft. There are a lot of talented players in the Flames system. On the surface, it doesn’t look like there are many, if any, future NHL super stars. But there is the potential for there to be a lot of long time NHLers in this organization.