- Flames first-rounder Carson Carels skipped the 2026 Draft to stay on his Manitoba family farm
- The No. 6 pick wrapped Calgary’s development camp by hoisting the Snowy Cup
- Read below for what Carels said about camp, North Dakota, and calving season
Carson Carels wasn’t going to let a little farm work keep him from his first Flames development camp.
The No. 6 pick of the 2026 draft was front and center at WinSport this week, and he soaked up every second of it. Carels talked about what that opening day felt like.
“I’m embracing it all,” Carels said Wednesday. “It’s kind of settling in more and I get to feel like I’m a part of the organization more, so it’s nice.”
Watch Carels meet the media in Calgary:
The 6-foot-2 defenseman passed on attending the draft in Buffalo last month, choosing instead to celebrate with family and friends back home in Cypress River, Manitoba. He said it was a group decision, not a copy of Brady Martin doing the same thing for Nashville a year earlier.
Carels explained why the farm won out over the bright lights of draft night.
“We’re a really tight-knit family. We’re just calving cows still,” Carels said. “Right now we’re kind of in between, where we’re getting a little off calving and getting into the haying.”
General manager Craig Conroy had zero problem with it. He said Carels told the team at the combine that he planned to do draft night from the farm, and Conroy loved the answer.
“When I talked to him, he was definitely having a party in the background,” Conroy said. “I could hear all the noise, so they were having fun. He seemed very excited, too, about being a Flame.”
Carels closed out the week on the winning side. His Team McDonald beat Team Vernon 10-8 in the 3-on-3 tournament to claim the Snowy Cup, named for late Flames assistant GM Chris Snow, and the rookie accepted the hardware.
Check out the highlights from the Snowy Cup:
The production backs up the hype. Carels tied for fourth among WHL defensemen with 73 points (20 goals, 53 assists) in 58 games for Prince George last season.
He heads to the University of North Dakota in the fall, where he’ll line up alongside fellow Flames prospect Cole Reschny. Carels sees the college route as the right pace for his game.
“It’s going to be a good step for me to make a step instead of a leap to this next level,” Carels said. “I think UND is going to shape me to be a more complete player and continue my maturity as a player.”
Director of player development Ray Edwards made no secret of how Calgary rates the kid from Cypress River. Edwards said Carels sat atop the Flames’ defense board the whole way.
“He was our No. 1 defenseman all the time. He was our guy,” Edwards said. “To get him where we got him, we were ecstatic.”
It’s a busy summer in Calgary, with Conroy also working on a new contract for Simon Nemec. Carels is another young piece the Flames are betting on to turn things around.
