Calgary FlamesProspects

Calgary Flames Prospect Roundup: Koumontzis stays hot, more leagues cool down

Welcome to the TWC Flames prospect update. Each week, we’ll take a dive into how the Flames’ prospects have done in their respective leagues. With the ongoing pandemic, not every league is currently playing. Here is this week’s league status report:

AHL

Currently not playing. The most recent return date announced is February 5th, but it is likely tied to the NHL starting.

QMJHL

On pause until January 3.

WHL

Currently not playing, but expecting to start January 8. This date is in flux, however.

ECHL

Eleven of the ECHL’s 26 teams have opted out, with two others still on the fence. At the same time, numerous teams have started their training camps including the Kansas City Mavericks. Some teams are expected to start this weekend, while others will not start until the new year. Standings to be determined by points percentage.

NCAA

The NCHC will begin its season in a bubble in Omaha in December before moving on to regular games in January.

The WCHA has started with nine teams currently going.

The Big-10 is a go, but some teams have COVID-19 concerns

Atlantic Hockey are playing exclusively against teams from their own divisions, but have allowed Long Island University to join their conference.

Hockey East is a go, but numerous games have been cancelled.

The ECAC is down to four teams with the Ivey League schools not participating as of now.

ushl

The league is a go, but cases are still a growing concern.

Russian Leagues

Full steam ahead in Russia with all three leagues, MHL, VHL, and KHL currently operational. While there have been numerous cases of COVID-19, this has not slowed the league down much, with just the occasional game being cancelled.

Swedish Leagues

Ditto for the SHL and Allsvenskan – numerous teams including HV-71 have had to cancel games.

The J-20 Nationell has been postponed due to numerous cases of COVID-19.

Finnish Leagues

The Liiga eague has prematurely paused the season until December 19th.

Prospect breakdown

With the ongoing pandemic, numerous Flames prospects have been loaned overseas to get some playing time in. To learn more about the various leagues where the Flames players are playing, check out our guide on all major hockey leagues outsite of North America.

We have defined a prospect as a skater who has played fewer than 65 NHL games, and is younger than 25 years of age. All data is from QuantHockey and EliteProspects. We also use an NHLe calculator built by Christian Roatis (@Croatis) which is used to estimate a player’s equivalent point total in the NHL based on how they are performing in their respective league. The calculator uses the difficulty of the given league combined with the ease at which a player puts up points to determine the NHLe.

Let’s get into it.

This week’s highlights

Demetrios Koumontzis (F) – Arizona State University

Time PeriodGPGAPNHLe
Season Total833620.5
This Week2134

Even more chai this week for Demetrios Koumontzis. A goal and three assists for him this weekend as Arizona State split the back-to-back series with Notre Dame. He has jumped up to second on the team in points, although it is still very early in the season. To put this in perspective, he had eight points all of last season.

Koumontzis is playing on a line with Matthew Kopperud, who is second in the entire Big-10 in points. Relatively unknown and undrafted, he has lit it up this season with the Sun Devils. Time will tell if Koumontzis is being carried by his linemate, or vice versa. That being said, the Flames prospect had an incredible freshman year where he put up 20 points in 35 games, and may be back to his initial form. He is currently on track to hit 23 points in 28 games assuming he stays healthy and games continue as normal. Read our interview with him here.

This and that

  • This is likely one of the last weeks for prospects playing on loan in Europe. Expect Juuso Valimaki, Martin Pospisil, Artyom Zagidulin and others to begin flying back across the pond shortly.
  • Two losses for Michigan State this weekend against fifth ranked Minnesota. They were due to play mid-week, but that has been cancelled
  • UConn has been off for a couple of weeks but the Ice Bus is due to face number 2 ranked Boston College at the weekend.
  • A couple players have struggled to get into games of late. Artyom Zagidulin has not suited up since the end of October (but was playing backup earlier this week). Hopefully things go better for him on the North American front.
  • The other player who has struggled of late is seventh round pick Ilya Solovyov. Sitting in a 6/7 D role for Minsk, he has not been playing well enough to command regular playing time per his coaches. Hopefully he can turn that around.
  • Daniil Chechelev has been promoted to the KHL for the time being. His second trip to the top Russian league this season, this time Chechelev dressed as the backup for Vityaz Podolsk. Read our piece on his progression here
  • A minor soft tissue injury has kept defenceman Johannes Kinnvall out of the lineup this week. He should be back in form soon. He will be one of the players staying in Sweden until the end of the season. We wrote about his meteoric rise up the Flames’ prospect rankings.
  • Connor Zary and Jakob Pelletier both survived the first round of cuts at Team Canada camp. They resume training in a full bubble (no media, no linesman etc.) this week.
  • After a huge victory over the Swift Current Broncos at the Memorial eCup last week, the Soo Greyhounds led by Rory Kerins faced off against the Saginaw Spirit in round two. A back in forth battle, but the Saginaw Spirit ultimately prevailed 5-4. Hopefully Kerins and the Greyhounds can get some revenge on the ice when the OHL starts up again.

Overall totals for all Flames prospects

Forwards

PlayerPositionGPGAPPPGSHGNHLeTeamLeague
Feuk, LucasLW6101004.9AIKAllsvenskan
8281010AIKU20 Nationell
Francis, RyanC15615213132.6Cape Breton EaglesQMJHL
Gawdin, GlennC/RW0000000Stockton HeatAHL
1000000EHC VispNational League
Kerins, RoryC0000000Soo GreyhoundsOHL
Kirkland, JustinLW/RW0000000Stockton HeatAHL
Koumontzis, DemetriosLW83360020.5Arizona State Sun DevilsNCAA
Mattson, MitchellC62130013.7Michigan State SpartansNCAA
Nikolayev, IlyaC1267131016.0Loko YaroslavlMHL
195493014.8Buran VoronezhVHL
Nodler, JoshC60440018.2Michigan State SpartansNCAA
Pelletier, JakobC/LW9310131033.6Val-d’Or ForeursQMJHL
Pettersen, EmilioC0000000Stockton HeatAHL
Phillips, MatthewC0000000Stockton HeatAHL
Philp, LukeC0000000Stockton HeatAHL
Pospisil, MartinC/LW0000000Stockton HeatAHL
16941321HC KosiceSlovakia
Ruzicka, AdamC/RW0000000Stockton HeatAHL
Sveningsson, FilipLW17235008.7MODO HockeyAllsvenskan
Tuulola, EetuRW112240010.7Västerviks IKAllsvenskan
4000000SaiPaLiiga
0000000Stockton HeatAHL
Zary, ConnorC0000000Kamloops BlazersWHL
Zavgorodny, DmitriC/RW60330033.0SKA St PetersburgKHL

Defensemen

PlayerPositionGPGAPPPGSHGNHLeTeamLeague
Boltmann, JakeRHD6000000Lincoln StarsUSHL
Kinnvall, JohannesRHD1459142048.9HV-71SHL
Kuznetsov, YanLHD20110016.1UConn HuskiesNCAA
Lerby, Carl-JohanLHD0000000Stockton HeatAHL
Mackey, ConnorLHD0000000Stockton HeatAHL
Poirier, JeremieLHD15511163024.8St. John Sea DogsQMJHL
Poolman, ColtonLHD0000000Stockton HeatAHL
Solovoyov, IlyaLHD23033008.6Dynamo MinskKHL
Valimaki, JuusoLHD19217190037.1IlvesLiiga
Yelesin, AlexanderRHD0000000Stockton HeatAHL

Goalies

PositionGPGAASV%WLSOTeamLeague
Chechelev, DaniilG142.590.915632HK RyazanVHL
112.000.9381010Russkie Vityazi ChekhovMHL
Parsons, TylerG000000Stockton HeatAHL
Wolf, DustinG000000Everett SilvertipsWHL
Zagidulin, ArtyomG000000Stockton HeatAHL
54.240.869140Metallurg MagnitogorskKHL

Which prospects are you most excited about? Let us know below in the comments or on social media.

Photo credits: Winslow Townson/AP

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