As a youngster, Simon Mack studied one of the NHL’s all-time greats, wearing out a way-back-when highlight tape of Bobby Orr.
As a college hockey standout, Mack studied pre-med courses. His teammates at Penn State, where he served last season as captain of the Nittany Lions, nicknamed him ‘Doc.’
Before signing a minor-league contract in the Flames’ system, there’s no doubt that Mack studied the defence depth chart in Calgary. And while there is no clear path to primetime on the right side of the blue-line, this 24-year-old from Brockville, Ont., made a strong impression during prospect camp.
He’s a smooth skater, poised with the puck and picked up a pair of assists in Sunday’s 5-4 victory over the Edmonton Oilers’ hopefuls at the Saddledome.
“This guy is brilliant,” said Flames assistant general manager Brad Pascall. “I mean, he’s going to be a doctor.
“When I talked to him about that, he told me, ‘That’s what I’m going to do. Whether it’s a year or five years from now, I’m eventually going to go into medicine. But for now, I want to play. I want to give it a whirl.’ ”
Indeed, while Mack confirms that he’s considered a career in “something in the medical realm,” he has always hoped to earn his paycheques in skates before potentially switching to a stethoscope or scalpel.
“This is Plan A,” he told Postmedia after a prospect practice. “This is what I’ve wanted to do my entire life.”
For Mack, Plan A starts, quite literally, in ‘The A.’ His minor-league pact with the Wranglers means he’s not currently eligible for an NHL call-up.
While it’s not the most common path, there are dudes who started in the Flames organization on AHL/ECHL deals and eventually earned upgraded contracts and big-league gigs. Ryan Lomberg and Garnet Hathaway, both forwards, are two that come to mind.
The Flames seem relatively set for right-shot rearguards, with MacKenzie Weegar signed for six more years, Zayne Parekh flashing superstar potential and both Hunter Brzustewicz and Henry Mews on the rise.
However, if Mack can further complicate that conversation, it would be a really nice find. As the game gets faster and faster, you can’t have too many plus-skaters in your pipeline, and there will always be trade options for a team with an overflow of NHL-calibre blue-liners.
Calgary Flames prospect Simon Mack was photographed during the game against the Edmonton Oilers at the Scotiabank Saddledome on Sunday, September 14, 2025. Brent Calver/Postmedia
Mack was one of the most productive point-patrollers in the NCAA last season, notching three goals and 27 assists in 40 outings as a senior science major and leading the Nittany Lions on their first trip to the Frozen Four.
Across the Div. I landscape, only four defencemen had more helpers — Zeev Buium and Cole Hutson led that list — and only seven registered more points.
While three goals isn’t a huge splurge, Mack must have some clutch in his genes because two of those were overtime winners.
He also posted a plus-23 rating, tied for tops on his team.
If he was a few inches taller than 5-foot-10 or a bit heavier than his listed weight of 181 pounds, he likely would have been a popular target as a college free agent.
“He can really skate, really mobile, and he can move pucks,” praised Pascall, who brought Mack to Calgary for a four-game tryout with the Wranglers last spring. “Obviously his stature is small, but this guy has a big heart. He plays hard.”
The undersized part isn’t news to Mack.
He’s studied for that too.
“I grew up kind of modelling my game after Torey Krug,” said Mack, who spent three seasons in the Junior A ranks — two with his hometown Brockville Braves of the CCHL and one with the USHL’s Des Moines Buccaneers — before enrolling at Penn State.
Simon Mack receives the Brockville Braves top defenceman award for the 2018-2019 season. Mack is in Iowa playing for the Des Moines Buccaneers of the United States Hockey League. File photo
“I actually watched a lot of Bobby Orr tapes as a kid. My dad was a big Bruins fan, so The Best of Bobby Orr was the movie I would always watch on repeat. We had one of the Ford Explorers with the movie players in the back of the head-seats, and I’d pop that DVD in there and watch it on the way to all my games. That was my go-to all through minor hockey.
“But as far as smaller defencemen in the modern-day game, Torey Krug was someone I watched, Jared Spurgeon, all those undersized defencemen who move really well. Quinn Hughes, too. Those guys, I’ve tried to take bits and pieces from their game and add it to my game where I can.
“For me, using my feet is a big part of it,” Mack added. “My skating is my strongest attribute. When I can use that, both on the offensive and defensive side of the puck, I think that’s where I’m at my best.”
He was one of the best blue-liners at Flames’ rookie camp, a good starting point even though he was also among the oldest guys on the ice.
His most impressive play Sunday came when he tricked an opponent into thinking that he was about to dump the puck into the corner on the penalty-kill, then instead dished to a wide-open Parker Bell for a shorthanded scoring opportunity.
“He’s calm, he’s skilled and he knows exactly what to do with the puck so he’s in the right place at the right time,” said Flames goaltending prospect Arsenii Sergeev, the starter last season at Penn State and now embarking on his own pro career. “I just love to have a teammate like this. It’s definitely a great call by Calgary to bring him here.”
“He’s just really smart,” added Wranglers head coach Brett Sutter, who was at the helm for the Flames’ Next Gen squad in two wins over the Oilers’ own rookies. “He skates really, really well. He’s a great kid. I mean, doctor … Wow. And he’s coming to play hockey?
“He’s one of those guys, he reads plays so well. He’s so smart. I hate to use the word ‘predictability,’ but you know exactly what he’s going to do all the time. And as a teammate, those are the kind of defencemen you want because you know exactly where to be and when to be there. He’s one of those guys that makes the right plays at the right time.”
When the time is right, he might become Dr. Mack.
But he has other aspirations to chase first.
“Every kid, especially in Canada, you grow up dreaming of playing in the NHL, and even more so for a Canadian market,” Mack beamed. “It’s absolutely a dream come true to be here. I’m just trying to make the most of it every single day.”