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After 165 other names were called, the Flames took a flier on the 5-foot-10, 177-lb. speedster.

“It’s definitely a great feeling,” Mangiapane said. “There’s, I guess, less pressure now on you to impress everyone. You’re really just trying to impress the one team that drafted you, right? You’re just focusing on what Calgary says and what Calgary wants you to do.”

The higher-ups in Calgary, not surprisingly, have been impressed.

“He has high-end speed, plays at a high pace, and then he’s a skilled player,” said Flames GM Brad Treliving. “He can make plays. He’s a fearless guy. He’ll go to the areas that you need to go to score goals. He’s a real competitive player, too. He’s put up some big points.”

Of course, piling up points in major-junior doesn’t guarantee big-league success.

Several years back, the Flames signed an undersized winger after a 53-goal campaign with the OHL’s Colts. Bryan Cameron is now toiling for STS Sanok in Poland.

“He’s going to have to add that man strength for the next level,” Treliving said of Mangiapane. “When you’re not a big guy, you have to compensate in some other ways. He compensates with his speed. But you can still be strong. You don’t have to be tall, but there still has to be a heaviness and a thickness to you. That’s one area that he’s going to continue to work on.”

In the meantime, Mangiapane is focused on leading the Colts on a lengthy playoff run in what will likely be his final junior campaign.

The netminders in the OHL certainly won’t be sorry to see him go.

“It just seems like he always finds a way to put a couple of pucks into the other team’s net,” said Colts teammate and fellow Flames prospect Rasmus Andersson, who is averaging nearly a point-per-game from Barrie’s back-end. “He’s just an unbelievable player and an unbelievable guy who’s going to have a lot of success down the road.”

wgilbertson@postmedia.com

Twitter.com/WesGilbertson