For years now, the Calgary Flames have struggled to put together a deep prospect pool, but in three seasons under General Manager Craig Conroy, things have shifted completely. Under Brad Treliving, the Flames went all in for a Stanley Cup, giving up draft capital and prospects in the future, but with the team pivoting towards a rebuild, it's now all about their young pieces of the future.
Over the weekend, the Flames added another nine prospects, giving them one of the deepest prospect pools in the National Hockey League, and as we know, we can't rule any of them out from being potential NHLers, especially given that a seventh-round pick is now one of the Flames most exciting players.
That means that plenty have gone overlooked, including 2025 seventh-round pick Jakob Leander, a defenseman out of Sweden who posted 12 points in 36 games for HV71 at the Swedish Junior level in 2025/26. Now, he may be headed closer to Calgary, as he was selected by the Calgary Hitmen of the WHL in the recent CHL import draft, No. 48 overall.
How Swede it is! 🇸🇪
— Calgary Hitmen (@WHLHitmen) June 30, 2026
With the 48th overall pick in the #CHLImportDraft the Calgary Hitmen select @NHLFlames prospect Jakob Leander.
Welcome to the Hitmen, Jakob! pic.twitter.com/JsprO0qHMQ
Leander now becomes the second Calgary Flames defenseman whose rights are owned by the Hitmen, with 2025 second-round pick Theo Stockselius also a potential Hitman of the future. It's unclear whether either will be heading to the WHL soon, but given how good it would be for both to get closer to the eyes of the Flames organization, it would be a smart move.
Of course, there's contracts that both currently have in Sweden, but with the Flames looking to continue their development of the prospect group, it would be ideal to see one, if not both in North America in the coming months.
Add us as a preferred source on Google