Welcome back to The Win-Column’s Calgary Flames 2025 Prospect Rankings. At #9 we have the 2024 second-rounder Jacob Battaglia.

The Kingston Frontenacs forward was a fan-favourite from our writers, only being left off of two total ballots, while receiving votes as high as sixth overall in the Flames pipeline.

PositionYear DraftedHighest RankingLowest Ranking2024 RankingLW/RW2nd rd, 62nd overall, 20246th (2 votes)Unranked14th

Battaglia’s development so far

Battaglia is a Mississauga, Ontario, product and the 2006-born forward first jumped on scouts’ radars after playing for the Toronto Jr. Canadiens U16 team, which led to him being drafted by the Kingston Frontenacs in the second round of the 2022 OHL draft.

From there, Battaglia established himself as a shifty playmaking winger and made his OHL debut the following season in 2022–23. Battaglia’s role expanded in 2023–24, and he had a breakout season, posting 65 points across 67 games.

This performance gained NHL traction which led to his selection in the 2nd round of the 2024 NHL draft. The high hockey IQ forward was then poised to have an OHL breakout this past season, which he accomplished with 90 points across 68 games.

SeasonTeamLeagueGPGAP2022–23Kingston FrontenacsOHL66720272023–24Kingston FrontenacsOHL673134652024–25Kingston FrontenacsOHL68405090

This past season, Battaglia was a heavily relied upon forward for the Frontenacs, averaging 20:06 of TOI, while being a power play workhorse, averaging 3:48 of power play time. His ability to read plays, anticipate, and absorb pressure really set him apart from the rest of Kingston’s forwards.

Expect him to continue that this upcoming season in Kingston.

Battaglia’s strengths

Battaglia plays a smart playmaker’s game with touches of a power forward. The Flames draftee has a game that is highlighted by strong offensive senses, puck skills, and flashes of higher-end physicality. All of which make him an effective generator of offensive chances and sustained pressure.

Offensive senses

Battaglia’s offensive senses display a high hockey IQ, quality creativity, and good spatial awareness that make him a consistent offensive play driver for Kingston.

Battaglia plays a thinker’s game, which displays good hockey IQ through quality play anticipation, space manipulation, and high-end play reading/processing. A lot of this hockey IQ is generated by Battaglia’s high scanning frequency, which allows the young forward to always be aware when he’s on.

This scanning and play anticipation also allows Battaglia to frequently pick off opponent passes in defensive transition, to the tune of four per game. His scanning also allows him to exert some clear risk assessment, with the occasional stick lift or by targeting opponent passing lanes.

This scanning and anticipation, mixed with high-quality pass selection, is so advanced at times that other teammates sometimes struggle and miss perfectly placed passes for chances and opportunities.

Battaglia also shows high-end offensive instincts through quality play driving, unique offensive creativity, and manipulation of play pace. In short, Battaglia is a play driver, and this articulates itself in offensive transition, where he implements smart, deceptive cross-crease, high-paced plays with a flick of his wrist.

Battaglia also has a tendency to manipulate pace with smart, efficient cutbacks, lane manipulation, and give-and-go plays, which increase the overall offensive pressure generated by him and the Frontenacs.

This is demonstrated through his 0.46 goals expected rate per game, and a 13% scoring percentage chance conversion.

There’s no doubt that Battaglia is a quality playmaker at the OHL level, and like will continue an upwards trajectory in the upcoming years to the professional ranks.

Puck skills

Immediately noticeable upon any viewing of Battaglia is the second-rounder’s puck skills. These articulate themselves in the form of silky handling mechanics, quality vision, and a solid puck placement ability. This allows the 6’1″ forward to be a consistent breakout asset for his club.

Throughout, Battaglia has solid puck management ability and serves as a transitional and zone facilitator. The Ontario product’s handling looks so smooth at times that he produces highlight-reel plays on a regular basis. There’s also no such thing as a bad pass reception for Battaglia.

The forward excels as both handler and passer. This is exemplified by Battaglia’s play in transition where he often suckers pressure in, reads and processes plays quickly, identifies options with ease, and administers effective passes.

The Flames prospect shows quality offensive poise and rarely cracks under pressure, too. This poise and previously mentioned awareness/creativity blend seamlessly. The best measurement of this blend is the fact that the Flames draftee only has 2.3 dump-ins per game.

This transitional play of Battaglia oozes pressure awareness, vision, and puck placement. It also hints at high-end timing, control, and solid pass accuracy. His pass diversity stands out too; with a consistent arsenal of slip, bank, stretch, or seam passes, Battaglia can and will hit his teammates.

This quick pass ability blends seamlessly with his previously mentioned offensive awareness to generate deadly rush-based passing plays. This partly explains the 2006-born forwards’ four leading offensive zone entries and 2.8 scoring chances per game.

Overall, he makes 19 passes a game, with an 81% accuracy, which is an upward improvement both by the eye test and statistically from Battaglia’s play this time last season.

Much like Battaglia’s transitional play in the offensive zone, Battaglia’s puck skills demonstrate decent decision making, quality cycles, and play facilitation ability. This is particularly evident when the OHL product serves as a net front down-low cycle presence.

Physicality

The 6’1″ forward continues to thrive in the grittier areas of the ice, and showcases moderately effective physicality through a beneficial frame, consistent fights for solid body positioning, and physical pressure exertion.

An element that both new and old Flames fans can appreciate is his overall non-avoidance of the physical game. The OHL product engages in 13 puck battles per game, is a consistent board play engager—solid balance and positioning—and shows quality grit and toughness as a capable net-front presence.

He serves as a stable screen with his 6’1″ frame, and plays it with energy and eagerness.

It’s in these physical elements of the game that the overall strength of Battaglia’s game is shown, as it allows him to slow the pace of his opponents down and thrive. One area of notable growth this past season has been in his puck battles, which he now wins 50% of compared to 44% this time last year.

This increased physical success is largely due to more maturation, muscle mass, and more successful fights for body positioning, which he had mixed results in the previous season.

His physicality also continues to show flashes of an NHL projectable motor as well.

Battaglia’s weaknesses

Skating remains Battaglia’s biggest barrier for play into the pro-ranks. Additionally, this season he has shown a more selective compete level in the defensive zone.

Skating

Fundamentally, his posture remains quite upright, with limited flexion, a choppy-short stride, and particularly noticeable short extension/gait. These limitations with stride create issues in pace, particularly in transition play.

This is best articulated by Battaglia often being the last one back in defensive efforts, and in transitional play, he attempts to counteract this by stationing himself at centre-ice. This limits his forechecking ability due to problems with acceleration, top speed, and separation speed.

These shortcomings in terms of skating speed, if not for strategic positioning, would likely lead to him getting burnt on incoming rush plays at the pro-level.

Battaglia largely projects as a pass-first forward who uses deception, hockey IQ, and efficient space usage—such as cuts, backchecks, and lane manipulation—to largely offset these skating shortcomings at the OHL level. The Canadian forward slows the pace down in a very beneficial way for his club.

Compete level

Overall, another evident limitation of Battaglia’s play is his inconsistency in his compete level in terms of defensive play engagement, hustle, and intensity. This hustle and intensity are demonstrated through some premature cheating by Battaglia, both in defensive transition and defensive zone play.

This cheating is also compounded by his defensive zone play as a high forward, where he displays inconsistency in play engagement in terms of an active stick and hovering above the actual play, which harms his overall defensive pressure exertion as well.

This inconsistency in defensive play partly explains why Battaglia does not play an active role on Kingston’s penalty kill, which will likely continue into next season and beyond.

There are additionally minor issues with Battaglia’s shot selection, which is often from the outside, or with blocked shot lanes.

This selection and accuracy are less problematic in junior, as he takes 5.9 shots (62% accuracy) per game, but will become more prominent at the pro ranks, where opportunities for shots are fewer. Fundamentally, Battaglia’s shooting mechanics, shot leverage, and power all remain around average.

Battaglia’s next steps

The Frontenacs forward has shown that he has taken a step forward in his development through this explosion in OHL production this past season. Expect Battaglia to return to the Frontenacs for the 2025–26 season, and also reach the 100-point mark next season, as he further develops.

Battaglia is still a handful of years away from competitively competing for an NHL roster spot. With Battaglia’s timeline, it would not be unusual for the 2006-born forward to spend a season or two with the Wranglers before he makes his debut with the Flames.

NHL ETA: two-to-three years

Projection: top nine two-way playmaker

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