When the Calgary Flames announced their opening night roster for the 2023 season, there was a grand total of two players under the age of 25.
Their 23-man roster for the start of the 2025 season currently features six players in that age bracket.
That includes Dustin Wolf, their starting goalie, and two teenagers, in Matvei Gridin and Zayne Parekh. Matt Coronato, Sam Honzek and Connor Zary round out the youthful group.
In just two short years as the general manager, Craig Conroy has more than lived up to his promise of adding an injection of youth into the Flames’ lineup.
“You don’t want to force them in, but if they earn a spot and deserve it and you see the young guys here and they really have,” Conroy explained. “You want your first-rounders, obviously, but Wolfie is a seventh-rounder; it doesn’t matter to me, but you want to get your draft picks opportunities, especially when they deserve it.”
Of the six players in their early 20s who are on the Flames’ roster heading into the 2025-26 season, five of them were first-round draft picks taken in the 2020s.
Zary went 24th overall in 2020, Coronato was taken 13th in 2021, while Honzek went at No. 16 in 2023. In 2024, Parekh was selected ninth and Gridin was picked 28th.
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That is very much by design. It’s a necessity for any team undergoing a retool and in Conroy’s introductory press conference in 2023, he spoke candidly about wanting to make sure there were places on the roster for young and emerging talent to play.
He’s followed through on that promise.
“It’s awesome to see guys take the next step and guys succeeding and that’s building throughout the organization,” Zary said. “I think you always want to see that and guys you’re familiar with come up and take the next step and fit right in.
“Everyone is family, everyone knows what to expect from each other. It’s not a new guy coming in from somewhere random, so I think that’s awesome.”
Calgary Flames forward Connor Zary battles Seattle Kraken forward Eeli Tolvanen in second-period pre-season NHL action at the Scotiabank Saddledome in Calgary on Tuesday, Sept. 23, 2025.
While there’s been disappointment among fans that Parekh and Honzek weren’t going to be playing in the opening night matchup with the Oilers in Edmonton, they’ll be getting game time soon enough. It’s worth remembering, too, that there are lots of highly-regarded prospects around the NHL who won’t be playing on opening night. Easton Cowan won’t be playing for the Toronto Maple Leafs in their opener and neither will Sam Dickinson and Michael Misa of the San Jose Sharks.
It really isn’t unusual for a player like Parekh to be sitting out on the first night of the season, and that he and Honzek have cracked the roster can and should be seen as proof that Conroy hasn’t wavered from his stated desire to make the Flames younger.
“You’re trying, there’s no perfect solution,” Conroy said. “You’re trying to work through it and you need the guys to perform. They’re going to show us in the game whether they can do it. The way we worked with Wolfie, he played so well in the American League and I know he probably wanted to be up here before he was, but we had (Dan) Vladar and (Jacob) Markstrom and now, here we are.
“It just takes a little more time than people might like. I’d love it to be today but it might take a little time, but we’re going to see how these guys are. They’re the future of the team moving forward.”
Calgary Flames defenceman Zayne Parekh smiles during the first day of training camp at the Scotiabank Saddledome on Thursday, Sept. 18, 2025.
If it feels like the future has arrived, well, there are lots more prospects on the way over the next few years. There’s a very good chance the Flames will be getting even younger going forward.
Conversely, there’s no guarantee that guys like Gridin or Honzek will spend the whole year in the NHL and nobody should be surprised if and when they get sent to the Wranglers.
For now, though, the Flames are younger than they’ve been in ages — this will mark the first time this century that the team starts a year with two teenagers on their roster — and the plan Conroy set in motion two summers ago appears very much on track.