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Matvei Gridin is defying convention to become the Flames’ next young star

Mike Gould
Mike Gould
Apr 9, 2026, 14:07 EDT
Matvei Gridin is defying convention to become the Flames’ next young star
Credit: Sergei Belski-Imagn Images

The Calgary Flames‘ selection of Matvei Gridin with the No. 28 overall pick in the 2024 NHL Draft was met with mixed responses, to say the least.

Although he led the entire USHL with 83 points in 60 games with the Muskegon Lumberjacks in his draft year, Gridin was generally viewed as more of a second-rounder than a late first by most public scouts. The initial reactions expressed on the Canadian national telecast ranged from “this isn’t the best available” to “he wasn’t on my list at this point.” And many fans in Calgary, while intrigued by Gridin, had been clamoring for the Flames to draft hometown kid Andrew Basha in that spot — but they ended up getting him in the second round anyway.

The Flames hadn’t drafted a Russian player in the first round since 1999, when they took Oleg Saprykin with the No. 11 overall pick. They’d already made a serious play for elite skill earlier in the 2024 first round, taking Zayne Parekh with the No. 9 selection, but after trading seven key roster players over the previous 12 months, the Flames needed to take as many swings as possible. Gridin was nothing if not a swing for the fences.

Not even two years later, Gridin certainly looks like he shouldn’t have been on Calgary’s list at No. 28, but only because he should’ve been taken much earlier. The 6’1″ winger has risen through the ranks at a meteoric pace since being drafted, making huge leaps look small and putting up a ton of points along the way. And now, Gridin looks to have established himself as an indispensable piece of Calgary’s top six, with the potential to become a bona fide star.

The Flames drafted Gridin with the first-round pick they acquired from the Vancouver Canucks in the Elias Lindholm trade, which also netted Calgary four other assets (top defense prospect Hunter Brzustewicz among them). Gridin had initially committed to the University of Michigan for the 2024-25 school year. But those plans changed when the Flames signed him to an entry-level deal shortly after the draft.

Instead, Gridin spent the 2024-25 season playing Canadian major junior hockey. The Val-d’Or Foreurs selected Gridin first overall in the 2024 CHL Import Draft, but he never played a game for them before being traded to the Shawinigan Cataractes, with whom he put up a team-leading 79 points in just 56 games and won the QMJHL’s Rookie of the Year award.

Again, though, the Q is generally considered the weakest of the three Canadian junior leagues, and Gridin had the benefit of playing for a Shawinigan club that had just won the league in 2022. But after a brief adjustment process at the start of the year, Gridin lived up to his billing as a top prospect with the Cataractes and set himself up nicely to take another huge step forward in 2025-26.

As a 2006-born player, Gridin would not have been eligible to play in the American Hockey League as a 19-year-old had the Flames drafted him directly out of the CHL. That rule is about to change, although not in time for Parekh, Gridin’s fellow 2024 first-rounder who would’ve stood to benefit enormously from an extended stint with the AHL’s Calgary Wranglers this year. But since Gridin played his draft year in the USHL and only shifted to major junior after becoming a Flames prospect, he had the benefit of joining the Wranglers a full year ahead of schedule.

The jump from major junior to professional hockey is a big one, especially for teenage prospects. Basha, for example, managed just one goal and five points in 27 games with the Wranglers to start the 2025-26 season before returning to the WHL’s Medicine Hat Tigers. The AHL is a difficult league littered with savvy veterans and a healthy contingent of ultra-physical enforcers and agitators. It can take a long time for young players to get up to speed at that level.

For whatever reason, that axiom doesn’t seem to apply to Gridin, who almost single-handedly elevated a brutally underpowered Wranglers team in 2025-26. The product of Kurgan, Russia collected 10 goals and 30 points in 37 games with the club and was named an AHL All-Star. The Wranglers went 15-14-8 with Gridin in the lineup this season, but managed only a pitiful 6-18-7 record without him.

Had the Wranglers been able to keep Gridin all year, they might’ve made the playoffs. Instead, they’re at risk of finishing in last place in the AHL. Meanwhile, Gridin has already graduated to full-time NHL duty with the Flames, who have experienced a notable uptick in offensive output and overall watchability across the board since he became a regular. He has 18 points in his first 33 games with the Flames.

Gridin made the Flames out of training camp last October and made his first five NHL appearances with the club to start the 2025-26 season. But he looked more like a bit player than a comfortable pro in that initial run of games. Hence, why he went to the AHL. But Gridin returned to the Flames in mid-January and immediately looked more at ease, with his comfort at the top level only becoming more and more apparent over the past month.

After playing in his final AHL game (purely for procedural reasons) on March 7, Gridin has appeared in every single game with the Flames in the five weeks since. Over those 15 games, Gridin is tied with Matt Coronato for first on the Flames with 11 points, not including his shootout winner against the St. Louis Blues on March 18. His 31 shots over that span rank third on the team, behind only Coronato and Blake Coleman. As with the rest of the Flames, Gridin is getting killed in the underlying on-ice metrics, but his individual chance generation is strong enough to suggest he’ll be just fine with a bit more experience and support.

For the Flames, Gridin’s ascent is particularly encouraging given their struggles to score over the past few seasons. He also represents something of a paradigm shift the organization has undertaken under general manager Craig Conroy, who took over from Brad Treliving in 2023. During the tenures of Treliving, Brian Burke, Jay Feaster, and Darryl Sutter, the Flames went nearly 15 years without a single Russian-born player ever suiting up for them. They occasionally drafted them, but only in later rounds, and none of them ever amounted to much in North America. For all intents and purposes, the Flames largely ignored the talent from that part of the world.

Under Conroy, the Flames have been much more receptive to the notion of drafting, signing, and trading for players from the Eastern Bloc. In addition to Gridin, the Flames have drafted center Yan Matveiko, winger Aydar Suniev, and goaltenders Kirill Zarubin and Yegor Yegorov. Conroy has also traded for Andrei Kuzmenko, Daniil Miromanov, Artem Grushnikov, and Nikita Okhotiuk, and one of the biggest contracts he’s handed out as GM has been to Belarusian winger Yegor Sharangovich. Generally speaking, Conroy has shown himself to be quite open-minded towards players of any background, so long as they can help his team.

It’s a welcome change of pace for a Flames team that won its only Stanley Cup in 1989 and was one of the most progressive teams in the league. With legendary executive Cliff Fletcher at the helm, the Flames were one of the first teams to actively recruit players from the NCAA, including such names as Joe Nieuwendyk, Gary Suter, Joel Otto, and Colin Patterson. Later on, Fletcher’s management group became the very first to import players from the Soviet Union, led by Sergei Pryakhin and 1990 Calder Trophy winner Sergei Makarov.

Unlike Makarov, who was already 31 when he arrived in Calgary, Gridin only just turned 20 and is still developing at an incredible rate. He’ll only need to beat 345 games played and 292 points to become the most accomplished Russian-born player in Flames history. Since Makarov, the only other real contenders for that title have been German Titov, Valeri Bure, and Nikita Zadorov. It’s not a very long list.

Gridin wears No. 92 with the Flames in honor of his favorite player growing up, longtime Washington Capitals forward Evgeny Kuznetsov. It won’t be long before young fans in Calgary start wearing No. 92 to the Saddledome to cheer for Gridin, and by the time Scotia Place opens in 2027, there’ll be jerseys adorned with his name and number everywhere you look.

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