Matvei Gridin’s first pro season gave the Calgary Flames exactly the kind of proof they were hoping to get, even if it came in two different places.
He began 2025-26 as one of two teenagers on the Flames’ roster, a rare sight for the club. Zayne Parekh was there because he had already done everything he could in junior hockey and had no real ladder left to climb.
Gridin’s path was a little different. He had stood out with the Shawinigan Cataractes in the Quebec Martimes Junior Hockey League and turned heads in training camp, but his opening-night spot was really created by injuries to Jonathan Huberdeau and Martin Pospisil.
Once Huberdeau came back, Gridin was sent to the AHL’s Calgary Wranglers.
That demotion didn’t slow him down. If anything, it helped define his year.
Gridin put up 10 goals and 30 points in 37 games with the Wranglers as a first-year pro. His 0.81 points per game trailed only dependable AHL veterans such as Dryden Hunt, Rory Kerins and Martin Frk.
Most of that production came in a 29-game stretch from Oct. 18 to Dec. 27.
After that, he only appeared eight more times in the AHL during the 2026 portion of the calendar because he was carving out a regular NHL role.
And once he got back to Calgary, he stuck.
His first NHL look lasted just four games. But in the back half of the calendar, Gridin played in 33 of the Flames’ final 42 games and finished with 19 points. Over that stretch, he scored at a 0.58 points-per-game pace, basically the same rate as Calgary’s leading scorer, Matt Coronato.
That’s the real reason Gridin becomes such an interesting name heading into 2026-27. His rookie year wasn’t polished, but it was productive, and it showed a player learning fast.
He improved away from the puck. He got better at finding quiet pockets of ice.
He kept adjusting his game as he went.
So the idea here is pretty simple: the version of Gridin we saw in 2025-26 may have been the roughest one we’ll get. He spent the season revising things on the fly, but by the end of it, he looked like someone who had figured out he can already be effective in an NHL role.
That doesn’t mean he’s the automatic favorite to lead the Flames in scoring. But it does set up a real internal race, with Gridin, Coronato and the rest of Calgary’s younger players all chasing the same thing when next season begins.
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Flames Camp Could Reveal Who Really Matters In This Rebuild
With a shortened training camp and preseason ahead of the 2026/27 season, the Flames are heading into a stretch that feels less about immediate results and more about sorting out the long-term shape of the roster. Youth development is front and center, and the organization is clearly treating this as an important year for figuring out which prospects can begin to matter in a meaningful way, even if the standings are likely to look rough.
Abram Wiebe and Tyson Gross are among the names worth watching closely because they have the clearest path to pushing for an NHL spot out of camp. Jonathan Castagna, Andrew Basha and Axel Hurtig are in the conversation too, but they are more likely to start in the AHL, where their development can continue without the pressure of having to carry too much too soon. [Read more 🡒]