Calgary FlamesProspects

Calgary Flames Prospect Roundup: Francis and Poirier soar for the Sea Dogs

Another big week for the Calgary Flames’ prospects. Ryan Francis, Jeremie Porier and the Saint John Sea Dogs are soaring up the QMJHL standings. Closer to home, the Stockton Heat’s 8 game winning streak finally came to an end, but there were a number of huge performances from the team. Lots to get into this week.


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. 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.


On a solemn note before the prospect update: A harrowing tragedy occurred in the MHL earlier this week. TWC extends our deepest condolences to the friends and family of Dinamo’s Timur Faizutdinov.

STANDOUT PERFORMER

Ryan Francis – Saint John Sea Dogs

GPGAPPPGSHGNHLe
This week204400
Season181019294137.5

Did Ryan Francis deserve to be the Standout Performer last week after his four goal outburst? Yes absolutely. Did he continue to put up points like they were going out of style? Also yes, ab-so-lutely. Ryan Francis is fast becoming one of the Flames’ most prolific forward prospects, after another four point week.

Since joining the Saint John Sea Dogs from the Cape Breton Eagles at the Trade Deadline, Francis’ play has been bananas. He was named the QMJHL’s Player of the Week, and has been lighting it up across the board. As beautiful as his four goals were last game, he has shown his pass-first mentality more this week, with four assists this week. Becoming a more dangerous player by being known as both a passer and a shooter was something that Francis mentioned in his chat with us earlier in the season. Since moving over to the Sea Dogs, he has shown that.

While his pace will undoubtedly slow down, it will be interesting to see where he ends the season. He currently sits sixth in the league in points per game, and is looking more and more like a steal for the Flames.

Heat Update

When last we wrote, the Heat were on a six game winning streak and there seemed to be no stopping them. They continued this week with an overtime win over the Manitoba Moose, then another win over Manitoba in regulation, and finally their eight game winning streak came to an end in a 4-2 loss to Manitoba.

While the winning streak is now over, there were a number of key moments this week. First, Artyom Zagidulin has looked like a heck of a netminder for the Heat. Although he had a rough outing for the Flames earlier in the season, he was the difference-maker in the first win against Manitoba, stopping 22 of 24 shots he faced. He also kept the Heat close in their loss to the Moose, stopping 37 of 40 shots against. Check out a great save he made on a breakaway:

The Heat unfortunately had to send Connor Zary back to the Kamloops Blazers for his WHL season. While he will undoubtedly look to light things up in BC, the Heat will definitely miss his presence on their top line. Mathias Emilio Pettersen was elevated to the role, and has looked quite good so far. He put up a goal and an assist this week.

Finally, some good news, some bad news, and some mixed news to end this week for the Heat. Good news, last year’s sixth round pick, Rory Kerins finally found his way into the lineup. Although he has yet to find the back of the net, the fact that he is getting into professional games is great for his development. Bad news, this came at the expense of Eetu Tuulola, who drew out of the lineup for one game. He and Kerins both played in the loss to Manitoba on the fourth line. Finally, Dmitri Zavgorodny has yet to record a point this season, but he has had some great looks this week. This hopefully won’t last too long.

This and that

  • Ilya Nikolayev picked up a goal and an assist in Loko Yaroslavl’s wins over Dinamo St Petersburg last week.
  • This week marked the end of the season for the Flames’ NCAA prospects. Yan Kuznetsov (UConn), Josh Nodler (MSU), Mitchell Mattson (MSU), and Jake Boltmann (ND) all lost in the first round of their respective playoffs. We broke down how their seasons went here.
  • It was a big week for a number of Heat prospects, especially Matthew Phillips, who put up three goals this week. He is slowly outgrowing the AHL.
  • Another huge week for Glenn Gawdin, who has really found his feet this week. He picked up the overtime winner in the first game against the Moose, and has four points in his last five games.
  • Both Martin Pospisil and Luke Philp also had multi-point weeks with Philp recording a goal and two assists, whole Pospisil had two goals and an assist.
  • One player who has quieted down substantially has been Adam Ruzicka, who only had one assist this week. He put up a team-leading six shots in the loss to Manitoba this week.
  • Finally, one player who has really heated up of late has been Jeremie Poirier. He picked up an overtime winning goal this week to go along with three assists this week. His offensive play has never been an issue, but his defensive game is a work in progress. This has been a team-wide problem for Saint John, so it is hard to figure out whether it is a systemic problem or a player one.

Overall totals for all Flames prospects

Forwards

PlayerPositionGPGAPPPGSHGNHLeTeamLeague
Feuk, LucasLW14101002.1AIKAllsvenskan
8281010AIKJ-20 Nationell
171261800Kalix HCHockeyEttan
Francis, RyanC181019294137.5Saint John SeadogsQMJHL
Gawdin, GlennC/RW71340022.8Stockton HeatAHL
1000000EHC VispNational League
Kerins, RoryC0000000Soo GreyhoundsOHL
2000000Stockton HeatAHL
Kirkland, JustinLW/RW111341014.5Stockton HeatAHL
Koumontzis, DemetriosLW2246100012.4Arizona State Sun DevilsNCAA
Mattson, MitchellC21224005.5Michigan State SpartansNCAA
Nikolayev, IlyaC21810181012.7Loko YaroslavlMHL
3776134010.9Buran VoronezhVHL
Nodler, JoshC2738110011.6Michigan State SpartansNCAA
Pelletier, JakobC/LW22823312032.8Val-d’Or ForeursQMJHL
Pettersen, Mathias EmilioC114592032.6Stockton HeatAHL
Phillips, MatthewC1159142050.7Stockton HeatAHL
Philp, LukeC113582029.0Stockton HeatAHL
Pospisil, MartinC/LW1155101036.2Stockton HeatAHL
22981721HC KosiceSlovakia
Ruzicka, AdamC/RW1177142064.8Stockton HeatAHL
Sveningsson, FilipLW497714108.4MODO HockeyAllsvenskan
Tuulola, EetuRW112240010.7Västerviks IKAllsvenskan
4000000SaiPaLiiga
10112008.0Stockton HeatAHL
Zary, ConnorC93470031.0Stockton HeatAHL
Zavgorodny, DmitriC/RW60330033.0SKA St PetersburgKHL
11000000Stockton HeatAHL

Defensemen

PlayerPositionGPGAPPPGSHGNHLeTeamLeague
Boltmann, JakeRHD6000000Lincoln StarsUSHL
19000000Notre DameNCAA
Kinnvall, JohannesRHD29715223037.1HV-71SHL
Kuznetsov, YanLHD161560012.9UConn HuskiesNCAA
Lerby, Carl-JohanLHD100440015.9Stockton HeatAHL
Mackey, ConnorLHD111450018.1Stockton HeatAHL
Poirier, JeremieLHD18614203025.9St. John Sea DogsQMJHL
Poolman, ColtonLHD10022008.0Stockton HeatAHL
Solovoyov, IlyaLHD412790014.5Dynamo MinskKHL
Yelesin, AlexanderRHD10022008.0Stockton HeatAHL

Goalies

PlayerPositionGPGAASV%WLSOTeamLeague
Chechelev, DaniilG212.580.912873HK RyazanVHL
192.490.9241170Russkie Vityazi ChekhovMHL
Parsons, TylerG000000Stockton HeatAHL
Wolf, DustinG000000Everett SilvertipsWHL
33.240.895210Stockton HeatAHL
Zagidulin, ArtyomG33.340.908210Stockton 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: Saint John Sea Dogs

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