Once upon a time, the Calgary Flames were annual participants in an annual prospect tournament hosted by the Vancouver Canucks in Penticton, BC. Now, the Flames do their own thing with the Edmonton Oilers. With more games and more teams, was the Penticton model better for the prospects?
The Young Stars Classic tournament dates back to 2010, when the Canucks hosted four other teams. The first couple of events saw every team play four games, while it dropped to three later on once the tournament’s size dipped to four teams. The 2018 event dropped further as the Edmonton Oilers and Flames opted out – the Oilers went to Europe that fall, the Flames went to China – and instead played a pair of games against each other.