It’s as different as Calgary’s prospect cupboard has looked in quite a while.



It was a busy offseason for general manager Brad Treliving who signed four free agents (all in the early 20s) in the spring and then added five 18-year-olds at the NHL Draft. That means there are six new faces in this edition of the Flames top-20 prospect rankings, with three more first-timers listed as honourable mentions.



As is always the case, there’s an element of the unknown with all of them — first-rounder Jakob Pelletier is the only new face to crack the top dozen. But as we’ve seen in past years, put together a good season at whatever level you’re at and you can elevate your stock pretty quickly.



An example of that would be Andrew Mangiapane, who has now graduated to the NHL and is no longer considered a prospect. Drafted in the sixth round, 166th overall in 2015, he initially ranked 20th on my prospect’s list. By the following...