{"id":661792,"date":"2026-09-13T23:36:35","date_gmt":"2026-09-13T23:36:35","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/661792\/"},"modified":"2026-09-13T23:36:35","modified_gmt":"2026-09-13T23:36:35","slug":"flames-prospect-jonathan-castagna-making-early-impression-at-rookie-camp","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/661792\/","title":{"rendered":"Flames prospect Jonathan Castagna making early impression at rookie camp"},"content":{"rendered":"

The word “maturity” comes up a lot when people around the Saddledome talk about Jonathan Castagna.<\/p>\n

And while it’s true that at 21 years old he’s got a few more years under his belt than some of the recently drafted players who skated this weekend at Calgary Flames<\/a> rookie camp, it’s not just age.<\/p>\n

After three seasons at Cornell University, the 6-foot-1, 183 lbs. centre has developed a polished, intelligent game that could put him on the NHL team’s radar sooner rather than later.<\/p>\n

“I think he’s a very mature hockey player already, both on and off the ice,” said Calgary Wranglers head coach Brett Sutter, who was running the on-ice sessions at rookie camp.<\/p>\n

“I think he did everything right, he asked the right questions, he picked everything up quick. He’s not a guy you’re going to have to babysit, he was out there doing things he was supposed to do, he’s a hard worker, he works hard in the gym, he’s a player that’s ready to go.”<\/p>\n

There are a couple of young centres at camp this weekend who are hoping to push for NHL playing time in the season ahead. Castagna is one of them, as are Tyson Gross and Sam Morton. It’s still way too early to be making predictions about how the competition for spots will shake out, but Castagna is definitely a guy fans should be keeping an eye on this fall.<\/p>\n

Acquired as part of the trade that sent MacKenzie Weegar<\/a> to the Utah Mammoth in March, the Toronto native signed his first pro contract after completing his season at Cornell and arrived in Calgary soon after.<\/p>\n

An ankle injury prevented him from playing with the Wranglers or Flames in the spring, but he has the look of a player who is ready to hit the ground running so far at rookie camp.<\/p>\n

Related<\/p>\n

“His maturity, he’s smart, he’s a 200-foot player and his size and the detail to his game, there’s a lot of things I like,” said Flames director of player development Ray Edwards.<\/p>\n

“When we were watching at the end of last year before we signed him, we didn’t know it but he was playing with a high ankle sprain. He was actually playing and we went in to see him at the ECAC Championships and loved the way he played. We watched him in Colorado at the Sweet 16 and when they got put out, that’s when we found out he was banged up and we were like, ‘Holy Cow’. To see him out here healthy is really good, he’s put a lot of work in this summer, he looks like he’s in great shape and we’re excited to see him over the next couple weeks.”<\/p>\n

Drafted in the third round in 2023 by the then-Arizona Coyotes, Castagna has quietly seen his stock rise in the years since.<\/p>\n

Last season, he put up 15 goals and 19 assists in 34 games for Cornell while also boasting the best faceoff winning percentage (65.2%) in the ECAC and emerging as one of the conference’s top two-way centres.<\/p>\n

How quickly can that skill set translate to pro hockey? There are reasons to believe it could happen faster than some might assume and Castagna is intent on earning an NHL spot.<\/p>\n

“I’m going to try everything I can. I would never count it out,” Castagna said. “I think that would be foolish of me to say I’m going to settle for anything less than trying to make the big team, so we’ll see what I can do.<\/p>\n

“I think I’ve just got to play my game. Be a reliable, 200-foot guy, be physical, win faceoffs and just compete all over the ice. There’s a reason why they took me in that trade and I think I need to be that player that they took in. If I can do that, at least I can say I put my best foot forward to be in that spot.”<\/p>\n

Get more Calgary Flames<\/a> coverage delivered directly to your email inbox: Sign up here for our Playing With Fire newsletter.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The word “maturity” comes up a lot when people around the Saddledome talk about Jonathan Castagna. And while…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":661793,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5124],"tags":[895,26,163,5294,58074,7182,896,5,58046,4,30021],"class_list":["post-661792","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-calgary-flames","tag-calgary","tag-calgary-flames","tag-calgary-wranglers","tag-calgaryflames","tag-castagna","tag-cornell-university","tag-flames","tag-hockey","tag-jonathan-castagna","tag-nhl","tag-rookie-camp"],"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/channels.im\/@nhl\/117266362120166196","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/661792","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=661792"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/661792\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/661793"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=661792"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=661792"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=661792"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}