The Calgary Flames’ newest top prospect knows first hand the feeling of loss.
Last week, the franchise selected 18-year-old shutdown defenceman Carson Carels with the sixth selection at the NHL draft.
Carels is known for being physical and tough to play against on the ice, while adding a healthy dose of offence.
In 58 games with the Prince George Cougars of the Western Hockey League, he tallied 73 points.
Carels already weighs in at nearly 200 pounds and will surely get bigger before he sets foot on the new Scotia Place ice.
It’s his upbringing and perspective, however, that drew the Flames to him.
18-year-old Gavin McKenna makes hockey history as the first Yukon-born player selected first overall by the Toronto Maple Leafs in the 2026 NHL Draft.
Carels was raised on his family’s 2,500-acre farm in rural Manitoba. Instead of embracing the pomp and glamour of attending the draft in person in Buffalo, N.Y., he spent the life-changing evening where he grew up, with family, friends and cows around him.
“We’re calving cows still,” he said, moments after the Flames selected him.
“Right now, we’re kind of in between, where we’re getting a little off calving and getting into the haying.”
Despite his aspirations of a lengthy NHL career, Carels knows there are other things in life as well. He gave credit to his father for the lessons he instilled in him all those hours in Cypress River, made famous in Neil Young’s song Prairie Wind.
“The ups and downs of farming and the ups and downs in hockey go hand-in-hand,” Carels said.
“You lose a lot of animals or lose a lot of money — there’s bigger issues like that — but in hockey if you have one bad pass, one bad shift, you can’t really get stuck on that because there is bigger things going on in life that hurt more, so you’ve got to just shake that off.”
The perspective Carels already has as a teenager — that there’s more to life than the game he loves — is partly why general manager Craig Conroy heaped praise on him after the selection. Conroy didn’t think he was simply selecting another stay-at-home defenceman to wear the red and white for the next decade.
“If you can have a guy that can play 20 to 25 minutes; left-shot defenceman that can play in every situation; and … [with his] character could become the captain one day of the Calgary Flames, I don’t think you can pass that up,” he explained.
Like father, like son
Conroy also couldn’t pass up the opportunity to select Joe Iginla, whose father, Jarome Iginla, starred for the team for over a decade. Joe’s brother, Tij Iginla, was taken sixth overall in the 2024 NHL draft by the Utah Mammoth.
Joe, who split last season with the Edmonton Oil Kings and Vancouver Giants, had to wait longer to hear his name called. The 17-year-old was taken 65th overall, but was still elated to go to a franchise he has such a heartfelt familiarity with.
He was also introspective, acutely aware of the pros and cons of his father’s legacy.
“Haters are always going to say something, and people will say something about your dad,” he said. “But I feel like at this point in my career, I’ve heard about every insult and chirp there is about my dad, so I think I’ll just go out there and try to prove them wrong.”
Conroy was asked about taking Iginla in the third round, despite many analysts pegging him as a later round selection.
“He’s a little bit of a late bloomer and we believe there’s still room to grow,” he said.
“Maybe we could have waited, but we’ve waited at different times, and you lose the player and then you’re mad at yourself.”
He also clarified Jarome’s role in the selection, given he works as Conroy’s special adviser.
“[He] wasn’t involved in any of it, to be totally honest with you. Anytime we even talked about Joe, he got off the line … he didn’t want to be a part of it. If we took Joe, it was because Joe earned it.”
Standing in front of Calgary media this week at the team’s development camp, Joe displayed his dad’s polish in front of the TV cameras. He was smiling, joking and grinning from ear to ear, revelling in the fact he was wearing the same jersey as his dad.
“I was actually sleeping when I got picked,” he revealed. “I woke up to a text from my coach, so that’s how I found out. And then right after, my brother came in and he tackled me.”
Joe sounded like a Flames super fan.
“Parekh followed me on Instagram today, so that was cool,” he said, of the team’s burgeoning star blueliner Zayne.
Joe pledged to follow him back later in the day.
