With the 2025 NHL Draft a little over a month away, it’s the perfect time to take a trip down memory lane to look at how the Calgary Flames’ recent draft classes look. Grading a draft class is an impossible exercise right away. With that said, with two years of results to review, the outcome of the Flames’ 2023 draft class is starting to take shape. It’s still very early, but some positive and negative trends are forming. Let’s take a look at who the Flames picked up with their six picks in Craig Conroy’s first draft.

16th overall – Samuel Honzek

I wasn’t a fan of this draft pick at 16th overall from the moment it happened, and so far, my concern has unfortunately been realized. Samuel Honzek was always a project pick. He was a big but talented forward who had just 43 games of North American hockey under his belt when he was picked. Leading up to the draft, he was considered a low-ceiling, high-floor type of prospect. On top of that, he was one of the older players in the draft. Two years on, that ceiling looks to have lowered, as has his floor. Needless to say, it was a questionable pick considering some of the names that were available at 16th.

Honzek’s time in the Flames organization got off to a disastrous start in his D+1 year, dealing with a serious injury and then watching his WHL production plummet to below a point per game. Anytime a top draft pick experiences a drop in production in his D+1 season in a league like the WHL, it’s a massive red flag. That’s a level at which a 19-year-old Honzek should’ve dominated. Instead, he finished fourth on his team in scoring with just 31 points in 33 games.

Honzek’s most recent struggles

This past season, Honzek had a great camp and preseason in Calgary, even earning five NHL games to start the year. He would go pointless in those five games before suffering an upper-body injury that kept him out of action for a couple weeks. Once he returned, he was sent down to the AHL, where he played with the Calgary Wranglers for a couple months before suffering yet another injury. Honzek ended up returning at the end of the Wranglers’ season, but managed just three points in his final 16 games to close out the year. All said, he put up a respectable but very modest 21 points in 52 AHL games on the year.

It’s hard to judge Honzek too much thus far, given his long list of injuries. At some point, though, the injuries can’t be an excuse for poor production anymore, but instead simply a red flag about his durability. The 20-year-old has now suffered a notable injury in his draft year, his D+1 year, and then two in his D+2 year. All in all, he’s managed just 135 games of hockey over the past three seasons.

Next year will be a massive one for Honzek. He needs to prove he can stay healthy for a full season and absolutely needs to see a jump in production in the AHL. If not, this pick could be considered a whiff sooner rather than later.

48th overall – Etienne Morin

The Flames’ only second-round pick of the draft, Etienne Morin, looks like a good bet at 48th overall. Morin has been one of the QMJHL’s best defencemen since his draft year, with his production staying consistently strong. Morin just turned 20 this past March, but has been the Moncton Wildcats’ number one defenceman for three straight seasons now. That included playing an absurd 28 minutes a night during his draft year, leading to his career-best 72-point season in which he added 17 points in 12 playoff games.

His production has dipped slightly since then, but mainly because the Wildcats have built a better team around him, so he’s able to play much less. Still, this past season he posted 58 points in 62 games and played around 23 minutes a night to lead the QMJHL’s best team in scoring from the blueline. His Wildcats are currently playing in the QMJHL final, with Morin sitting on 18 points in just 15 playoff games. That total is good for third across the entire QMJHL.

This coming 2025–26 season will be a huge one for Morin, with the defenceman expected to play full-time with the Calgary Wranglers in his first year of pro hockey. With the Flames completely devoid of talent on the left side of their defence pool, Morin looks like the organization’s best left-handed D prospect right now. If he can step into the AHL next year and not look out of place, it will be a great sign for what could be a sneaky good find at 48th overall.

80th overall – Aydar Suniev

Much like Morin, Aydar Suniev very much looks like a good bet at where he was picked. The 6’2″ Russian has taken huge strides since being picked two years ago, and even made his NHL debut this past season in the Flames’ final game. Selected after a monster 45-goal, 90-point season in the BCHL, Suniev’s jump to the NCAA in his D+1 year was a smashing success. With some worries of how his game would translate against bigger, faster opponents, Suniev posted a solid 12 goals and 25 points in 36 games in his freshman year. It was the first sign that this could be a homerun pick by the Flames.

He didn’t stop there, though, as Suniev took another big leap forward this past season by posting 20 goals and 38 points in just 35 games in the NCAA. He finished second on his UMass-Amherst team in both goals and points behind only 22-year-old Cole O’Hara. His 0.57 goals per game was good for 13th across every D1 college player, finishing ahead of 2023 first-round pick Matthew Wood.

Again, like Morin, Suniev will be making the jump to pro hockey full-time next year with a spot on the Wranglers looking likely. Given the Wranglers’ depleted roster, Suniev has the chance to take on a major role with the team right away. With his size, shot, and history of performing against men at the NCAA ranks, it wouldn’t be a surprise to see Suniev have a great rookie season in the AHL. Time will tell, but this looks like a potential coup at 80th overall. Suniev looks to have very real middle-six NHL upside at the moment.

112th overall – Jaden Lipinski

This is where the Flames’ 2023 class starts to drop off, which is expected once you start getting into the fourth round and later. Taken as a big, hulking centre prospect, Jaden Lipinski’s progression looked to be trending in the right direction before taking a steep decline this past season in his D+2 year. Lipinski came firing right out of the gates in his D+1 year, posting an impressive 66 points in 67 games in the WHL as a 19-year-old. In fact, he actually outscored Vancouver Giants teammate and Flames first-rounder Honzek that year, leading the Giants in scoring. That same year, he also skated in one game with the Wranglers.

This past year, however, Lipinski took a very worrying step back. In what should’ve been his best year in the WHL yet, Lipinski’s production dropped below a point per game to only 58 points in 59 games. A concerning sign from a 20-year-old at the WHL level. He did manage another two games with the Wranglers, but Lipinski’s time in the Flames organization may be coming to a close soon. Still unsigned, it’d be a surprise if the Flames offer a contract at this point, given his backwards progression.

176th – Yegor Yegorov

Without a doubt, the best name in the draft, Russian goaltender Yegor Yegorov, is unfortunately not the best goalie in the draft, either. A dart-throw pick in the sixth round, Yegorov has seen his results get worse over time since being drafted in 2023. He did have a strong D+1 season in Russia’s MHL, posting a .917 save percentage across 25 games, but this past season, his results really took a dive.

Yegorov saw his save percentage plummet to just .904 across 20 games in the MHL in 2024–25. In four appearances at the VHL level—Russia’s second-highest league behind the KHL—Yegorov posted an ugly .870 save percentage. Goalies are voodoo, but it would be a real surprise to see Yegorov play pro hockey in North America at this point.

208th overall – Axel Hurtig

The Flames’ final selection of the 2023 draft, Axel Hurtig, has done just about as well as you can expect from the 208th overall pick. A gigantic 6’5″ defenceman, Hurtig isn’t known for his offence. Following his 11-point D+1 season in Sweden’s J20 league, Hurtig made the jump across the pond to play in the Flames backyard for the Calgary Hitmen. All things considered, his D+2 season was a pretty big success for a seventh-round pick.

Hurtig posted 16 points in 55 games in the WHL and was even named the Calgary Hitmen’s defenceman of the year ahead of 2024 seventh overall pick Carter Yakemchuk. He also represented Sweden at the 2025 World Juniors, collecting one point in seven games.

Still just 19 years old, Hurtig looks to have a real shot at becoming a pro defenceman one day, although that will almost certainly cap out at the AHL level. Still, though, for a seventh-round pick, you can do a whole lot worse than Hurtig.

Related