My (possibly drunken) game notes:
Bryce VanBrabant: Yeah, I'm mentioning him first...wanna fight about it?!
Looked surprisingly fast out there. He must have spent a lot of time in the off-season working on his skating. Still don't see a lot of upside with him, but definitely improved his chances of making the show with that alone. Defensively responsible 4th liners with an edge and descent skating are invaluable.
Johnny Hockey: Got knocked around a bit at the start of the game, but got his footing very quickly. I expect that will be a pattern with him. Expect a lot of razzing in our future from other teams' fans about Gaudreau getting knocked down a lot. Unfortunately for them he always gets back up, and makes them pay where it really hurts. No, not there....on the scoreboard.
Sam Bennett: Not surprisingly he was pretty tentative in his first game as an NHL prospect. He seemed somewhat scared of making mistakes in his first outing. I don't know if that was just nerves with playing against higher caliber players, or trying to impress his old coach, but either way I'll admit I was a bit disappointed. He turned it on a bit in the 3rd, but even then I was a bit underwhelmed with our 4th overall pick.
Markus Granlund: To think this time last year this kid was rated our 12th overall prospect. He is nothing but professional out there. Does all the little things right. Always seems to make the right decision, no matter what section of the ice he's in. I'm not really in agreeance with those that think he's a top-6 or bust player. With how defensively responsible he is he could definitely make it as a 3rd line scoring depth winger.
This and That: Winnepeg was pretty impressive out there. That is an enviable prospect pool in several aspects. They're definitely comparable to us goalie wise (Helleybuyck looks like a goalie you'll never beat clean), and have the edge on us defensively. Ehlers, Petan and Lowry all looked damned good out there.
As far as other Flames' prospects I think Hunter Smith was over his head/intimidated playing on a line with Gaudreau/Arnold. There were more than a few instances where he tried to be too fancy with the play. He needs to play to his strengths more. He was gold diggin the puck out of the corners and wreaking havoc in the offensive zone
Ferland looked pretty good considering how much time he had off. Still a lot of rust to shake off, but coming into camp thinner than ever seemed to work for him. Looked fast on his skates with the same great hands in tight and tenacity we expect from him
Defense looked like they'd never played together before....oh, right...
Ortio: Meh, could've saved some of those...maybe, but really got hung out to dry by poor coverage.
I'm sure more will come to me later, especially after I actually read the rest of this thread
