The original plan was that Ethan Wyttenbach wouldn’t even start his college hockey career until next season.
After fast-tracking to this fall, the Calgary Flames forward prospect has left little doubt he was ready.
A fifth-round pick in the 2025 NHL Draft, Wyttenbach has notched four goals in his first six outings with the Quinnipiac Bobcats.
With seven points, he’s currently tied for the NCAA’s freshman scoring lead.
“To be not even expected to play college hockey a couple months ago and then coming in here and obviously having a pretty good start and being recognized with some other really great players who were first-rounders or high draft picks, it’s cool,” Wyttenbach told Postmedia. “When you go into a new level, it’s always, ‘OK, how quickly can I get that first goal?’ You never want to be worrying about those things in the back of your head, where you’re hitting Game 10 and you haven’t scored yet and you start overthinking and you start holding the stick too tight. So I think that aspect of it, it definitely helps me a lot.
“And obviously, for me, I’m a guy who does his best when he’s producing and I think contributes the most to the team when I am producing. So for me, it’s more of, ‘How much can I produce to help the team win?’”
Flames fans already are optimistic that Wyttenbach could someday be helping their team win.
You could probably pinpoint the exact moment that this 18-year-old right winger burst onto their radar — it was this past weekend against the Maine Black Bears, when he ended a shootout with a gorgeous deke. The highlight clip is worth a watch, not only for the silky move but for the reaction of the home crowd.
Calgary’s director of player development, Ray Edwards, was in attendance to witness that dazzling deke.
Flames forward Matt Coronato, who has a history with Wyttenbach, accounted for one of the thousands and thousands of views on social media.
“Really nice,” appraised Coronato, who has the same summer-time trainer as this fellow New Yorker and has been on the ice for joint sessions with Wyttenbach and skating coach Danielle Fujita. “He has always been so skilled. He has great hands.”
That shootout snipe certainly proved that. With that backhand-forehand beauty, this late-round long-shot — Wyttenbach was selected at No. 144 overall — hinted at a bright future.
It adds to the excitement for the C of Red that he has a right-shot curve on his stick, something that remains in short supply in the Flames’ prospect pipeline.
“I think I got 200 or 300 Instagram followers from that one video and I saw Twitter was going crazy with a couple of the Flames’ fan accounts and all those things,” Wyttenbach beamed. “It’s definitely really cool to be talked about.
“Obviously, I’m hoping to play for Calgary one day. That’s the plan and that’s the goal. So having that support and that love from so far away and so early … I mean, being drafted just a few months ago, I didn’t really expect this much support so quickly. But obviously getting it is unreal and I’m super excited to hopefully continue to make them say good things about me.”
Wyttenbach skated last season with the Sioux Falls Stampede in the USHL, averaging 1.16 points per game and earning a special salute as the inaugural winner of the Gaudreau Award, a leaguewide nod to the player who “best embodies the legacy of Johnny and Matthew.”
The reason that he intended to spend another winter at that level was that he was recovering from surgery on a torn medial patellofemoral ligament, an important stabilizer that connects the thigh bone to the kneecap.
“A lot of the people around me just didn’t want me to rush the decision,” he explained. “But I got to a point where I knew I’d be back for the season, I knew hockey-wise I was ready to be in this environment and I think Calgary really wanted me to be challenged.”
True. And the way he has responded so far has been awfully encouraging.
It’s not like Wyttenbach is piling up points against pushover opponents. The Bobcats have played three of six against fellow Top-10 teams.
His stat-sheet includes a pair of man-advantage markers, plus two more at even-strength.
“What I noticed early was how confident he was, without even stepping on campus,” Edwards said of Wyttenbach, who is listed at 5-foot-11 and 185 pounds, and doesn’t turn 19 until mid-February. “I’m thinking, ‘OK, this is good, but this is going to be a challenge.’ Now that he’s played five or six games, he’s like, ‘Yep, I’ve got more. I can be better than this.’ He has lofty goals.
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“So I’m really impressed by the level of confidence that he has. He’s not brash and he’s not cocky, he’s just real confident in himself. And when you watch him play, you can see it. If he makes a mistake, he’s not afraid to make that same play again and execute it. A lot of guys, they make a mistake and all of a sudden, you can see the confidence squeezed out of them and now they’re afraid to make that play again. That’s not him. He’ll try it again and he’ll show you, that type of thing.
“His coach and I have talked a lot about him and as much as we’re really excited about the start, there’s still plenty of area for him to grow,” Edwards added. “I think what’s encouraging is the league and the pace and the strength hasn’t been too much for him. But there’s still another level.”
Wyttenbach stresses the same.
He’s determined to improve his defensive-zone details — winning more battles along the wall and clogging more shooting lanes.
He’ll dig in on his off-ice workouts, believing that more lower-body strength is key to continuing to boost his skating speed.
And when he has the puck on his stick around his net, he’ll try to do … well … more of what has made him one of the NCAA’s standout freshmen in the early stages of this season.
“I think I’m showing people I deserve to be here,” Wyttenbach said. “But it’s only a few games and we have a long ways to go. We’re hoping to play 40 this year and hopefully win that 40th game (for a national title).
“Obviously, a really exciting start so far, but we have a long ways to go.”