The annual Young Stars Classic Tournament kicks off on Friday in scenic Penticton, British Columbia. The event brings together the National Hockey League’s four Western Canadian clubs in a battle of their youngest and most promising non-college/non-European prospects.

Now that all the rosters have been announced, how do the Flames compare to the teams from Edmonton, Vancouver and Winnipeg?

Goaltenders

CALGARY EDMONTON VANCOUVER WINNIPEG Jon Gillies

Mason McDonald

Tyler Parsons

Nick Schneider Keven Bouchard

Nick Ellis

Dylan Wells Thatcher Demko

Michael Garteig

Rylan Parenteau Mikhail Berdin

Jamie Phillips

Lots of interesting connections here: the Flames have an NCAA champion goalie (Gillies) and a Memorial Cup goalie (Parsons). Ellis was Gillies’ backup with Providence College for two seasons. Demko was selected after McDonald in the 2014 NHL Draft.

In terms of pedigree, Calgary and Vancouver probably have the advantage here.

Defensemen

CALGARY EDMONTON VANCOUVER WINNIPEG Rasmus Andersson

Riley Bruce

Ryan Culkin

Roman Dyukov

Stepan Falkovsky

Aaron Hyman

Keegan Kanzig

Oliver Kylington

Kenney Morrison Ethan Bear

Matt Benning

Ben Betker

Kayle Doetzel

Aaron Irving

Kyle Jenkins

Caleb Jones

Markus Niemelainen

Dallas Valentine Guillaume Brisebois

Cole Candella

Olivier Galipeau

Olli Juolevi

Evan McEneny

Carl Neill

Tate Olson

Ashton Sautner

Troy Stecher

Mackenze Stewart

Jordan Subban Luke Green

Jan Kostalek

Matt Murphy

Nelson Nogier

Kristians Rubins

Logan Stanley

Tyson Wilson

Every team is an interesting mix on the blueline. The Flames and Oilers each have nine defenders, Vancouver has 11 and Winnipeg has seven – and each team plays three games, so it’ll be interesting to see how they get rotated.

Names to watch: Kylington (Calgary), Niemelainen (Edmonton), Juolevi (Vancouver) and Green and Stanley (Winnipeg). Heck, Rubins is pretty solid, too.

Forwards

CALGARY EDMONTON VANCOUVER WINNIPEG Mikkel Aagaard

Brayden Burke

Austin Carroll

Justin Doucet

Dillon Dube

Mark Jankowski

Morgan Klimchuk

Dennis Kravchenko

Ryan Lomberg

Andrew Mangiapane

Matthew Phillips

Brett Pollock

Mathieu Sevigny

Hunter Smith

Matthew Tkachuk

Eetu Tuulola Lane Bauer

Joey Benik

Tyler Benson

Chad Butcher

Drake Caggiula

Greg Chase

Braden Christoffer

Jaedon Descheneau

Thomas Foster

Kyle Platzer

Jesse Puljujarvi

Patrick Russell

Collin Shirley

Tomas Soustal

Carson Stadnyk Rodrigo Abols

Michael Carcone

Cole Cassels

Tyler Coulter

Alexis D’Aoust

Joe LaBate

Yan-Pavel Laplante

Kyle Maksimovich

Brett McKenzie

Danny Moynihan

Marc-Olivier Roy

Jakob Stukel

Curtis Valk

Dmitry Zhukhenov Axel Blomqvist

Kyle Connor

Chase de Leo

Brandon Denham

Jiri Fronk

Matteo Gennaro

Jansen Harkins

Brendan Lemieux

Jimmy Lodge

Jack Roslovic

Michael Spacek

Jordy Stallard

Antoine Waked

The Flames are taking the most forwards out of any of the teams, and Winnipeg is taking the least. The Jets crew is pretty good on paper, boasting Connor, Lemieux, Roslovic and Spacek. The Oilers boast Puljujarvi and Benson, while the Canucks have an interesting mix of secondary prospects but nobody to the level of the other teams. The Flames stack up well, with Tkachuk, Jankowski and a bunch of interesting WHL products like Pollock, Klimchuk, Dube and Phillips.

First Rounders

CALGARY EDMONTON VANCOUVER WINNIPEG Jankowski (2012)

Klimchuk (2013)

Tkachuk (2016) Puljujarvi (2016) Juolevi (2016) Connor (2015)

Roslovic (2015)

Stanley (2016)

Jankowski, having finished college, is by far the oldest previous first rounder at the tournament. The Flames and Jets each have three past firsts, while Edmonton and Vancouver each have one apiece. Winnipeg won’t have Patrik Laine, who’ll be at the World Cup of Hockey, but the other three teams have their firsts from this June’s draft going.

Bigs (Players 6’4″ or Taller)

CALGARY EDMONTON VANCOUVER WINNIPEG Gillies (6’6″)

McDonald (6’4″)

Kanzig (6’7″)

Falkovsky (6’7′)

Bruce (6’7″)

Hyman (6’5″)

Smith (6’7″)

Jankowski (6’4″)

Doucet (6’6″) Betker (6’6″)

Niemelainen (6’4″)

Valentine (6’4″) Abols (6’4″)

LaBate (6’4″) Rubins (6’4″)

Stanley (6’7″)

Blomqvist (6’7″)

Denham (6’4″)

The Flames are bringing as many big bodies as the other three teams put together. Deep down, it’s a Brian Burke team. Interestingly, their size is distributed throughout the line-up – a couple of big goalies, a few big defensemen and a few big forwards. No other team has big goalies, while the remaining “bigs” are a mix of defenders and forwards on the other teams, but not to the degree they are with Calgary’s roster.

Smalls (Players Shorter Than 5’10”)

CALGARY EDMONTON VANCOUVER WINNIPEG Phillips (5’7″)

Lomberg (5’9″)

Kravchenko (5’9″) Descheneau (5’9″) Stecher (5’8″)

Subban (5’9″)

Carcone (5’8″)

Maksimovich (5’9″)

Valk (5’9″) nobody

The Flames continue to love their tiny guys – Andrew Mangiapane and Brayden Burke just missed the size cut-off – and bring three with them. The Canucks have five, Edmonton has one, and Winnipeg is devoid of tiny guys.

Despite having the most big bodies by a wide margin, the Flames seem to also value small, skilled guys.





