The Calgary Flames made a big splash last week, adding college centre (and Calgary kid) Tyson Gross as a free agent signing.

Gross’ addition continues an annual tradition of teams battling against each other to ink a handful of highly-touted collegians. Dating back to Jay Feaster’s time with the Flames, nearly a decade and a half ago, the Flames have grabbed a bunch of NCAA players as undrafted free agents.

Some of them have turned out better than others.

Here’s a brief look down memory lane.

(Note: We’re not including USports signing Luke Philp or Ryan Lomberg, who signed out of the USHL after spending some time in the NCAA.)

Before Gross, the Flames had added three prominent college free agents under Conroy’s regime: centre Sam Morton (March 2024), goalie Owen Say (March 2025) and centre Carter King (April 2025). All three remain in the Flames organization, with Morton having logged four NHL games over the past two seasons.

Treliving was pretty active in college free agency, grabbing seven fairly prominent free agents.

A few of them didn’t play any NHL games, like blueliners Kenney Morrison (March 2015), Josh Healey (March 2017) and Colton Poolman (March 2020), who primarily all spent their time in the AHL.

A handful played some NHL games in-between AHL runs, like forward Spencer Foo (July 2017), Connor Mackey (March 2020) and Walker Duehr (April 2021). Duehr was arguably the best of this group, as he was a bubble NHL player with a good amount of impact before being claimed off waivers by San Jose. (He’s now with the Winnipeg Jets’ AHL affiliate.)

Garnet Hathaway (AHL deal in March 2014, NHL deal in April 2015) is the biggest success story of Treliving’s college signings, though he was brought into the organization originally under Burke on an AHL deal. Hathaway became an NHL regular with the Flames before joining the Washington Capitals as a free agent. He’s now with the Philadelphia Flyers and has played over 600 NHL games.

Forward and Morinville product Bryce van Brabant (March 2014) joined the Flames briefly after his signing but primarily played in the AHL.

Forward David Eddy (March 2012) bounced between AHL Abbotsford and ECHL Alaska during his run with the Flames, while blueliner Brady Lamb (March 2012) played with Abbotsford only.