Three players who made their National Hockey League debuts last season took the ice at Calgary Flames’ prospect camp Thursday at Canada Olympic Park.

Defenceman Hunter Brzustewicz and forwards Samuel Honzek and Aydar Suniev all have a shot to make the Flames when training camp kicks off next week.

Honzek surprised many by making the team out of camp a season ago, while Brzustewicz and Suniev played their first games in the regular-season finale after the Flames were eliminated from playoff contention.

“I did an okay job last year but I’m just trying to get better every day,” Brzustewicz said.

At training camp a year ago, head coach Ryan Huska compared Brzustewicz to Rasmus Andersson, whose future with the organization is tenuous.

Brzustewicz, an offensive defenceman the team acquired from Vancouver for Elias Lindholm back in 2024, said he’s tried to get stronger and cut out bad off-ice habits to adapt to the pro game.

“You learn from other guys,” he said. “Become more of a pro. Less snacks off the ice is always a big one…ice cream is my favourite.”

Brzustewicz believes he can make the jump to the NHL on a more full-time basis after getting a taste in April.

“Every single thing you see within the NHL teams, it makes you want it that much more, just to be there,” he said.

Honzek, the team’s 2023 first-round pick, said he put on 15 pounds of muscle over the summer after tallying 21 points in 52 games with the AHL’s Wranglers last season. Prior to joining the Wranglers, he skated five games on a line with veterans Nazem Kadri and Andrei Kuzmenko to start the season.

“Be better on the walls,” he said, of areas he’s been challenged to improve in. “Play harder. Be harder on the puck…getting the pucks on the forecheck and using the extra muscles I gained during the summer to my advantage.”

Honzek has previously spoken about how motivating it was to train with teammate Martin Pospisil two summers ago. Pospisil would push him at the gym to an extra set or rep. The two trained together again this year in Slovakia, this time with a different dynamic.

“This time…I pushed him,” Honzek said with a smile. “I just want to be better than him and he wants to be better than me. It’s a good kind of competitiveness between us. We had a great summer, and he looks good.”

Honzek said he is relying on the self-belief he gained this time last year.

“Having the right mindset, even if things don’t go well,” he said. “Still focus, work hard, and whatever happens, I have to be ready for it.”

Suniev spent part of his summer training with established NHLers Chris Kreider and Trevor Zegras in New York. He played last season with UMass-Amherst, tallying 38 points in 35 games before signing his entry-level contract at the end of the season.

“I tried to get faster and work on my skill work…[and] a little more details in the defensive zone,” he said of his focus during the off-season.

Suniev said he soaked in the experience of being around those veterans.

“It’s fun,” he said. “It’s a cool environment to learn something…they’ve played a long time in the NHL.”

General manager Craig Conroy has constantly preached that he wants young players to steal jobs at the NHL level, and goalie Dustin Wolf’s recent seven-year, $52.5 million extension is the most recent evidence of that coming to fruition.

The third-year GM is slowly building around a young core that includes Wolf, defenceman Kevin Bahl, and forward Matt Coronato, all of whom have signed long-term deals to remain in southern Alberta.

Ahead of two games versus Edmonton Oilers prospects on Friday and Sunday, Flames rookies know there’s a chance they can be part of the youth movement initiated by Conroy.

Top prospect Zayne Parekh is a big part of the organization’s future, but is injured and won’t play this weekend, though he is expected to be ready when main camp opens.

“I get more and more confident that I potentially could make the team,” Brzustewicz said. “I think that should be everyone’s goal – to make the team, even if you’re 18 or 25.”

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