The 2025 NHL Draft helped the Calgary Flames add some much needed prospect centre depth. They also added some bigger defenceman and some scoring wingers in later rounds. Calgary selected eight players in this year’s draft. They came into the draft with seven picks, but added an extra 7th rounder in a trade with the Detroit Red Wings. The Flames sent their 2026 7th rounder to Detroit for 211th overall. How is Flames Director of Amateur Scouting Tod Button feeling after the draft? Hear from him about each of the eight selections made the club over the last 24 hours.
A look into each of the drafted player’s
Cole Reschny, C, 5’11”, 181 lbs, selected 18th overall
Really excited. Centre. We needed the centre icemen. We talked about it a lot. We weren’t going to reach for it. Skill, hockey sense, compete, winner. That’s how you describe Cole Reschny.
Cullen Potter, LW/C, 5’10”, 172 lbs, selected 32nd overall
Centre. People are going to debate whether he’s a centre or a winger at the next level. We said when we drafted him he’s a centre. If it doesn’t work out that way, that’s just something that goes on in development and player maturity and the process. But we drafted him to be a centre. One of the best skaters in the draft. Great vision. Great hands. And he’s self-driven. He’s a motivated kid. If you know his background with his Mom, the Olympian, the bloodlines are there. Doing the school (going to college) early to get in and challenge himself. He wanted a better challenge. Some people you could knock a guy that goes to school early and doesn’t put up the numbers he might of if he stayed at the program or in junior. I look at it as a positive. He wanted to challenge himself against bigger, stronger guys. And in my opinion he aced the test. Really excited to get Cullen. I know Conny told you guys we tried to move up a little bit. We obviously had him higher, so we tried to move up last night, didn’t work. And we still got him at 32.
Theo Stockselius, C/LW, 6’3″, 196 lbs, selected 54th overall
Left wing, centre. He played a lot of left wing. I saw him on both wings. I know he played centre and he’s listed as a centre. You guys will do your backstory with the cancer a couple years ago. Smart, smart kid. Thyroid cancer. Did you guys know that? He had Thyroid cancer a couple years ago. He’s beat it. It’s a really good story. Didn’t play on the Nationel team until November this year. Played on a strong Djursgarden team with some really good players. Skilled, smart, he’s got reach. He needs physical development. But when we did the whole process with Rick Davis (Director of Sport Performance) and our doctors, we think he was physically hampered obviously going through the cancer treatment. So we think that’s going to come. 6’3″. His brother is a thicker kid. So we think he’s a little behind that way, but we’re not worried about it at all.
Mace’o Phillips, LD, 6’6″, 230 lbs, selected 80th overall
We had a subset of defencemen that we really liked. It’s almost like goalies now. You get those bigger, stronger, long, hard-noses defencemen and when one of them starts to go, a bunch of them start to go. So we didn’t want to reach for any of them, but when we got to that pick, we just said we’re taking him now. Our U.S. guys were on board. He’s a long-term guy. We had Marty Gelinas and Ray (Ray Edwards) in the room, so they know all about him, so the know where he has to get to. So he’s going to the University of Minnesota in two years. I don’t know if you guys talked to him but what an engaging young man. He’s got a unique story too (single Mom, took care of his younger sibling). He told us in the interviews that he was either going to go to Portland or Green Bay, but he’s going to wait and see which team drafted him and get their consult to make the final decision.
Ethan Wyttenbach, LW/RW, 5’10”, 181 lbs, selected 144th overall
It was a neat side story, ribbon on top, to have him win the first Johnny Gaudreau story (Wyttenbach won the Johnny Gaudreau Smaller. Skilled. Smart. Over a point a game in the USHL. Not an easy league to score in. Especially at that size. So you have to have unique escapability and evasiveness to be able to point those points up. So, he was a case where certainly our analytics department really helped. Our guys were worried about his size early. They were like it matches up with what you’re seeing as far as the IQ, the tenacity, the skill. We just kept tracking it all year and our analytics department was like yeah, take that guy. That’s a guy. So after Phillips is where we kind of turned it over to our area guys. They were going to have a big say in this draft. They usually do, but this one was a little earlier.
Aidan Lane, RW, 6’1″, 192 lbs, selected 176th overall
Started at St. Andrew’s College. We saw him last year a lot when we were in to see Dean Letourneau. So he was on the radar for us last year. Myself and Terry Doran saw him early and then he went to Brampton for a few games. I stopped tracking him a bit but Terry kept on him. And then he watched him through the playoffs. He’s going to Harvard next year. I think he could be a centre. He’s played a lot of centre at St. Andrew’s but they played him more on the wing at Brampton just because of a lack of experience there but he’s 6’1″, he’s thick, he’s strong. I’d say his core asset is his hockey sense. He’s a smart player.
Jakob Leander, RD, 6’4″, 196 lbs, selected 208th overall
We got down to two guys with the last pick and Conny said I’ll get you another pick. So, we took the Swede. Big, rugged, 6’4″ defenceman. Our Swedish scout, David Akerblom, said, you watch the playoffs, you see these guys on winning teams.
Yan Matveiko, C/LW, 6’4″, 185 lbs, selected 211th overall
Denis Grebeshkov (Calgary’s Russian scout) has been such a valuable addition to our staff in Russia, covering them off. Since we haven’t been able to go there that much. He tracked him last year and we watched him. He wasn’t on our list last year, but he said the improvement from last year to this year made him put him on the radar. Much like Eric Jamieson last year, same thing this year. Denis was really happy with Yan, and he said great pick there. I think 6’4″, 185 lbs. Centre. Has a chance to play in the KHL next year. Just by that you can tell he’s made some strides.
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