Calgary Flames general manager Craig Conroy is preparing to manage contracts as a wave of recent first-round draft picks aims to join the NHL team by the end of next season. Carson Carels, selected sixth overall in the 2026 NHL Draft, envisions a single season at the University of North Dakota before turning professional. He wants to be competing for a roster spot with the Flames by the conclusion of the 2026-27 campaign.
Top prospects eye early jump to pros
Carels is not alone in his ambition. Cole Reschny, chosen 18th overall by the Flames in the 2025 draft, will join Carels at North Dakota and also hopes to make the move to professional hockey next spring. Cullen Potter, taken at No. 32 in 2025, is set to play at Michigan State this year and shares the same goal of joining the Flames within a year.
All three prospects have communicated their intentions to Conroy, who acknowledged the need to reserve contracts for them. “I have to save contracts for them, that’s the first thing,” Conroy said Wednesday from the Flames’ development camp at Winsport. He noted that the team’s free-agency strategy reflects this, adding, “That’s why a lot of signings wouldn’t make a lot of sense. They said the same thing to me ‘We all want to come out after the year’ so I think their teams would know that, too. I’ve talked to their coaches and for the most part, if not all of them, it’s good. It gives them a goal and we’ll watch them all year.”
Additional prospect pushing for promotion
Ethan Wyttenbach, another Flames prospect, could also be ready to jump to the professional ranks after his college season. The forward posted impressive numbers at Quinnipiac University last season, recording 25 goals and 34 assists in 40 games. If he replicates that level of productivity, it will only make sense to bring him up, according to Conroy.
Conroy aims to have four or five contracts available when the college season ends. As of Wednesday morning, the Flames had 42 contracts on the books, leaving some room under the NHL’s 50-contract limit.
Development camp showcases depth
Ray Edwards, the Flames’ director of player development, described the talent on display at the development camp as the highest it has ever been at these annual camps. He expressed no surprise that several top prospects are hoping to make the leap next spring. “There’s a handful of guys who are going to force us to make decisions, and that’s what we want,” Edwards said. “There are a number of those guys where we did talk about it last year and we went through it with their agents and their families and had a really good back and forth and dialogue and at the end of the day decided it was the best thing for all of them to go back. They’re going to be pushing, for sure.”
The Flames’ rebuild is generating anticipation among fans, with the next generation of prospects showing promise to accelerate the timeline.
