The Calgary Flames took a swing on one of the draft’s most recognizable names this year, and they did it with a pick that surprised plenty of people.
With the first selection of the third round in the 2026 NHL Draft, Calgary grabbed Joe Iginla at No. 65 overall, betting on upside, pedigree and growth instead of consensus. That kind of move fits the way the Flames have operated under Craig Conroy, who has been general manager since 2023 and has overseen 33 selections across four drafts - five more than the club’s original allotment of seven picks per year, including three extra first-rounders.
Joe Iginla is the son of Jarome Iginla, one of the franchise’s defining players, and the younger brother of Tij and Jade, both highly successful hockey players as well. But Calgary’s decision was not simply about the family name. The Flames clearly saw enough in Joe to make the call, especially after already using five other picks in the first two rounds.
A right-shot forward from Lake Country, B.C., Iginla was born Aug. 13, 2008, and is listed at 5’10” and 170 pounds. He was a third-round pick at 65th overall, and his selection came as something of a jolt because Central Scouting had him at No. 200 among North American skaters. He wasn’t viewed as a sure thing by most draft publications, but Calgary was comfortable going off the board.
There’s real development runway here, too. Iginla was one of the youngest players taken in the class, with his birthday landing just over a month before 2027 draft eligibility.
At Calgary’s 2026 prospect development camp, he said he had already added 15 pounds since the end of the 2025-26 WHL season. That matters, because his production last season was modest: 15 goals and 31 points in 59 games split between the Edmonton Oil Kings and Vancouver Giants.
But that stat line doesn’t tell the whole story. Iginla spent much of the year dealing with injuries, including broken ribs, which gives his numbers a different context.
He also wasn’t coming from nowhere. In 2022-23, he led a Rink Academy Kelowna U15 team that included future NHL draft picks Keaton Verhoeff and Gio Pantelas.
The Edmonton Oil Kings then took him 12th overall in the 2023 WHL Bantam Draft, and he started his WHL career with three goals and five points in his first five games in 2023-24.
Still, the last two seasons with Edmonton were quieter than expected. Across 98 games in 2024-25 and 2025-26, he produced 20 goals and 37 points while mostly filling a depth role on a strong team.
The January trade to Vancouver was supposed to open things up, but his debut was delayed for three weeks while he recovered from the rib injury, and he still looked affected after returning. He finished with four goals and 10 points in his first 22 games with the Giants.
Not everyone is sold. McKeen’s Hockey assistant scouting director Derek Neumeier said his western scouting group discussed ranking Iginla in its final 2026 list but ultimately left him off.
“To be completely honest, Iginla is a prospect that my western scouting team and I discussed ranking in our final 2026 list, but as a group we ultimately decided against it. He never really popped when I watched him and I still struggle to envision what kind of value he could bring to an NHL roster.
I think they took a big risk by picking him where they did. That being said, he does look like he still has a lot more physical development coming, and you can’t deny the advantages provided by his family connections.
The Flames will know him much better than anyone else does, obviously, so they must feel confident about how they can help him develop long-term.”
For now, the expectation is that Iginla goes back to Vancouver for 2026-27. After joining the Giants partway through last season, he should get a clean start and a bigger role from the opening night of the new campaign.
The Giants are coming off a last-place finish in the WHL’s 2025-26 Western Conference standings, and they’ve lost Cameron Schmidt, Ryan Lin and Tyus Sparks. That leaves Iginla and former CSSHL rival Mathis Preston at the center of the offense under returning head coach Michael Dyck, who previously guided the club from 2018 to 2023 before moving on to become an assistant with the AHL’s Toronto Marlies.
The Flames will be hoping for a leap similar to the one Josh Doan made after Arizona drafted him in 2021. Doan had gone unselected in his first year of eligibility after posting five goals and 14 points in 45 USHL games with the Chicago Steel, then broke out with 31 goals and 70 points in 53 games the next season and helped the Steel win a league title. Calgary is clearly hoping Iginla can follow that kind of path with the Giants - and if he grows a couple inches along the way, even better.
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