{"id":529909,"date":"2026-03-11T20:53:10","date_gmt":"2026-03-11T20:53:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/529909\/"},"modified":"2026-03-11T20:53:10","modified_gmt":"2026-03-11T20:53:10","slug":"flames-making-waves-on-u-s-college-front","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/529909\/","title":{"rendered":"Flames making waves on U.S. college front"},"content":{"rendered":"

NEW YORK \u2014 Jonathan Castagna is open to signing with the Calgary Flames<\/a> as early as this spring, and he\u2019s not alone.<\/p>\n

Sportsnet has learned the lone U.S. college free agent the Flames have targeted, Tyson Gross, is days away from inking an NHL contract, and his hometown Flames are on the short list of teams the highly sought-after Calgarian is considering.<\/p>\n

The six-foot-three, 195-pound centre, who captains St. Cloud State, is a product of Springbank minor hockey, who sits 15th\u00a0in the nation in scoring and won more faceoffs than any other player in college hockey.<\/p>\n

The 23-year-old just wrapped up his third year in college with 18 goals and 41 points in 36 games.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n

It\u2019s an exciting possibility for the Flames, who already own the rights to a handful of other high-end U.S. college players, one or two of whom could also potentially join the club before season\u2019s end.<\/p>\n

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Castagna was one of the latest to join that list when the third-year centre at Cornell was acquired in last week\u2019s MacKenzie Weegar trade with Utah.<\/p>\n

While it was clear the six-foot-two, 198-pound Toronto native wasn\u2019t intending to sign with the Mammoth because of the logjam of centres in their system, he said in a phone call Monday he\u2019s wide open to the possibility of inking with the Flames when his season ends.<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019m definitely excited because there is a lot more opportunity for myself in Calgary, and I\u2019ve heard such great things about the staff and organization from top down,\u201d said the third-round pick from 2023 out of St. Andrews College high school, who leads the Big Red with 14 goals and 32 points in 29 games.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt will be nice to stay in Canada.<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019m not saying anything definite right now, but hopefully I can contribute to the Flames. It\u2019s been my dream. If I get to have that opportunity to play in the NHL, and make an impact in the NHL, I\u2019m going to take it. So we\u2019ll have to see how it all plays out.<\/p>\n

\u201cI guess the only thing I can tell you right now is I will not shut it down.\u201d<\/p>\n

The Flames have three of their 50 roster spots open, and some of those could be filled by U.S. college stars soon after their respective seasons end.<\/p>\n

Gross\u2019s season at St. Cloud State is already over, making his decision on where to sign imminent.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Collegiate players who make the jump to the NHL often like to do so immediately after the conclusion of their school\u2019s season, so they can burn one year of their entry-level contract.<\/p>\n

\u201cI don\u2019t like to get into that, because they\u2019re still playing in the playoffs, but there\u2019s definitely players that we want to sit down with and talk to and figure out what\u2019s best for them,\u201d said Flames GM Craig Conroy, when asked about college kids who could debut with his club before season\u2019s end.<\/p>\n

\u201cI don\u2019t want to rush them, even though they are good players and they\u2019re having really good years. But I want to see where their mindsets are at, and what they think is best for them too. We will work together, and if that means going back for another year, or come out and sign, we\u2019re open to that too.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe\u2019re going to do it the right way \u2014 we\u2019re not going to try to just rush something for one year.\u201d<\/p>\n

One of the Flames\u2019 most exciting college hotshots is Ethan Wyttenbach, who has been one of the NCAA\u2019s biggest stories of the year, going from a fifth-round pick in 2025 to a Hobey Baker frontrunner. Despite being a freshman, the 19-year-old New York native leads the nation with 24 goals and 57 points in 36 games at Quinnipiac University.<\/p>\n

That\u2019s nine points ahead of second-place Gavin McKenna of Penn State, who is projected to go first overall in this summer\u2019s draft.<\/p>\n

On Tuesday, Wyttenbach dropped by Madison Square Garden with his advisor to watch the Flames and chat with Conroy, telling Sportsnet that while his breakthrough season has likely sped up his timeline to turn pro, he hinted he\u2019s likely content to stay in school another year.<\/p>\n

Same goes for Cole Reschny, the Flames’ first-round pick from last summer, who has also had a brilliant freshman season at the University of North Dakota, where he has 33 points in 32 games, despite being just 18.<\/p>\n

Reschny had a stellar showing as an underager at the World Juniors, where the playmaker from Macklin, Sask., had four goals in seven games for Canada.<\/p>\n

Abram Wiebe is a six-foot-three, 209-pound left-shot defenceman at North Dakota who has made plenty of headlines of late, being named his conference\u2019s defenceman of the month, following three straight weeks of being named NCHC defenceman of the week.<\/p>\n

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Acquired from Vegas in the Rasmus Andersson trade, the 22-year-old alternate captain has 27 points in 36 games, and will seriously consider signing with the Flames this spring, given the opportunities that abound with the club\u2019s deadline decision to go into a full rebuild.<\/p>\n

Castagna, who was named Ivy League’s First Team on Wednesday, certainly sees it that way.<\/p>\n

\u201cTo get to be a part of that would be pretty cool,\u201d he said of the team\u2019s youth movement, which could very likely include him, Wiebe and Gross this spring.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019ll always have a soft spot for Utah because they took a chance on a kid from a high school program three years ago. Same goes for Calgary right now, taking a chance on me in a pretty big trade. So I\u2019m flattered and honoured to be part of that deal.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"NEW YORK \u2014 Jonathan Castagna is open to signing with the Calgary Flames as early as this spring,…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":529910,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[433],"tags":[49,48,448,82],"class_list":["post-529909","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-nhl","tag-ca","tag-canada","tag-nhl","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/529909","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=529909"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/529909\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/529910"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=529909"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=529909"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=529909"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}