Prospects

Calgary Flames Prospect Roundup: More points for Coronato, Pelletier, as Flames’ prospects stay hot

The Calgary Flames are rolling, and their prospects are doing the same. While the Stockton Heat did lose a heartbreaker against the Ontario Reign, they still have two players in the top-10 in scoring in the AHL. Both the Flames’ Sweden-based prospects had huge weeks, and Daniil Chechelev finally made his pro debut, picking up a big win for the Kansas City Mavericks. Lots to dive into this week!


Welcome to the TWC Calgary 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.

Want to see where all the Flames’ prospects are playing this year? Check out our map visualization here:


Standout Performer

Arseni Sergeev: Tri-City Storm

GPGAASV%SORecord
This week21.000.95612–0–0
Season total111.180.951310–1–0

While all eyes have been on Matthew Coronato after his blistering start for Harvard, Arseni Sergeev has been arguably the Flames’ best prospect to start this season. This week he continued his torrid start to the season with another two wins.

In his first game against Des Moines, Sergeev allowed only two goals against as Tri City demolished the Buccaneers 10–2. Then on Saturday night, he put up a 22-save shutout on route to a 2–0 win for the Storm. Asked after the game, he game a good hockey answer to how the game went, “We played very well as a team last weekend in our two home games against Des Moines. The guys played great in front of me, and I was able to do my job and stop pucks.”

And stop pucks he did!

Is it too early to get excited about Sergeev? Yes it probably is. Reason being, he still has a long way to go before he makes the jump to pro hockey. A commit for the University of Connecticut—where Yan Kuznetsov played his college years—Sergeev will need to continue his excellent form through the NCAA in order to earn an entry-level contract. However, if he can do so, the Flames may have yet another seventh-round winner in him.

This and that

USHL

  • Things could not be going better in the USHL. Ilya Nikolayev picked up another two assists in two games, and remains at a point-per-game. He also remains on the team’s top line, which is phenomenal for the former VHL and MHL player in Russia.
  • It will be interesting to see what happens next for him. There is a chance the Flames take him right to the AHL next season, but if they feel he still needs some seasoning, he could spend a year or two in college. The USHL is a good league, but the jump to pro hockey is big for a player from any league let alone high school. Something to keep an eye on for sure.

AHL

  • Only two games for the Heat this week. They won one and lost one against the Ontario Reign. The loss was the Heat’s first regulation loss this season, but they still sit atop the Pacific division at 10–1–2 on the year.
  • Big Stockton standouts continue to be the top line of Matthew Phillips, Jakob Pelletier and Adam Ruzicka.
  • Ruzicka had just one goal this week, but he’s still inside the top-10 in scoring for the league.
  • Both Pelletier and Phillips recorded a goal and two assists. With 16 points, Pelletier has tied Ruzicka in points and is now eighth in points. It may be time to give Pelletier a look at the NHL level soon.
  • Phillips, meanwhile, has hit the point-per-game mark again. He has been super underrated this season, but remains an excellent skater for Stockton.
  • Speaking of underrated, Luke Philp put up two goals and an assist this week. He’s up to six on the year—the same as Pelletier.
  • Two more points for Glenn Gawdin, who continues to impress on the Heat’s second line. He is probably too good to be in the AHL.
  • On the flip side, Connor Zary still has been struggling to start the season. While he did play both games this week, he dropped to -8 on the year. Not great.
  • Belated Happy Birthday to Walker Duehr, who remains a healthy scratch with the Flames after debuting against the Ottawa Senators.
  • On the back end, Colton Poolman had two assists this week. After being held out of the lineup for a few games this year, he has quickly shown why he deserves a spot over Kuznetsov and Ilya Solovyov.
  • Speaking of the Russian and Belarusian defencemen, they featured in one game each this week. Probably not as many as either would have liked.
  • Still injured for Stockton: Martin Pospisil and Johannes Kinnvall. Kinnvall remains in Calgary with the Flames, as they cannot send down an injured player, but expect that when he comes back, he will be an impact defenceman for the Heat.
  • Finally, Dustin Wolf’s numbers edged up a touch this week. He is seventh in save percentage among goalies who have played at least five games this season.

NCAA

  • Another multi-point outing for Matthew Coronato at Harvard. After catching the Flames playing the Boston Bruins earlier in the week, the 2021 first-round pick scored a goal and had an assist as Harvard beat Brown University 5–1.
  • Josh Nodler picked up an assist for Michigan State this week. They are starting to creep into the top-20 in the NCAA rankings.
  • His teammate Mitchell Mattson did not feature in either game this week.
  • Jake Boltmann picked up another assist this week. While he hasn’t put up jaw-dropping numbers, being just south of a point-per-game as a rookie defenceman is nothing to sneeze at. He has a +10 on the year, and is third on his team in that regard.
  • He is also third in scoring among defencemen on his team as a rookie. The other two ahead of him are both 23-year-old seniors. Not bad for Boltmann.

Swedish hockey

  • A big week in Sweden for the Flames’ prospects. William Stromgren, the Flames’ second-round pick this past year put up a goal and three assists in the Swedish J20. He was then called up and featured in his first SHL game (Sweden’s top men’s league).
  • Emil Heineman, who the Flames acquired as part of the Sam Bennett trade, had three goals in the Champion’s League this week. Leksands is through to the round of eight.

OHL

  • Jack Beck remains sidelined for Ottawa at this point. Hopefully he’s back up and running soon.
  • Rory Kerins has fallen out of the news a little after a couple slow weeks, but has taken right back off. He had a goal and three assists for Soo this week. Kerins is sixth in scoring in the OHL, ahead of first-round selection Brennan Othmann, second-round picks Jan Mysak and Francesco Pinelli, and expected first overall pick this year Shane Wright. Kerins was a 2020 sixth-round pick of the Flames.

WHL

  • After a few slow news weeks for the Flames’ prospects in the WHL, Lucas Ciona is starting to come alive. He recorded a goal and two assists for Seattle this week.
  • Cole Jordan remained sidelined.

QMJHL

  • What a week for the Sea Dogs’ Ryan Francis. He recorded a goal and three assists, keeping him above a point-per-game. Francis has only played in 11 games so far, but sits inside the top-30 in the Q in points, and has climbed substantially since coming back into the league. Expect him to keep rising as the season progresses.
  • Another goal for Cole Huckins as he continues to be around the 0.8-point-per-game mark this season. Very decent.
  • Another assist for each of Cameron Whynot and Jeremie Poirier. Stick taps all around.
  • Still no news on the Kuznetsov front for him to move to Saint John or stay in Stockton. The smart money is on him heading out east given he has not been a regular feature in Stockton of late. If he does go out East, expect it to happen after the World Juniors, where he will no doubt be a feature for Team Russia. This would be a huge boost to the Sea Dogs as they will host the Memorial Cup next spring.

ECHL

  • Finally, big congratulations to Daniil Chechelev for playing in, and winning his first ever pro hockey game. After a miserable immigration saga, the Flames’ 2020 fourth-round pick is in North America, and sits 1–1–0 with a 0.904 save percentage so far this season.

NHLe Leaderboard

NHLe is a metric used to estimate a player’s offensive output at the NHL level from their point totals in their respective league. Here are the Flames current top-5 (bracketed numbers denote movement from previous week)

  1. Adam Ruzicka (AHL): 49.9 (Tied for first)
  2. Jakob Pelletier (AHL): 49.9 (Tied for first) (+2)
  3. Glenn Gawdin (AHL): 47.0 (-1)
  4. Rory Kerins (OHL): 41.3
  5. Matthew Phillips (AHL): 39.9 (NEW)

Overall regular season totals for all Flames prospects

Forwards

PlayerPositionGPGAPP/GPPIMNHLeTeamLeague
Jack BeckLW/RW12116171.42637.6Ottawa 67’sOHL
Lucas CionaLW153690.62814.9Seattle ThunderbirdsWHL
Matthew CoronatoRW846101.2028.2Harvard CrimsonsNCAA
Walker DuehrRW52130.6023.9Stockton HeatAHL
Mathias Emilio PettersenC/LW120330.3212.0Stockton HeatAHL
Lucas FeukC/W91120.20N/AVasterviks IKHockeyAllsvenskan
C/W50220.414N/ANybro IFHockeyEttan
Ryan FrancisRW/C4000000Stockton HeatAHL
RW/C947111.2828.4St John Sea DogsQMJHL
Glenn GawdinC/RW11211131.21447.0Stockton HeatAHL
Emil HeinemanLW/RW205160.31014.7Leksands IFSHL
LW/RW84150.60N/ALeksands IFChampions HL
Cole HuckinsC1877140.83718.2Acadie Bathurst TitansQMJHL
Rory KerinsC/LW181018281.6441.3Soo GreyhoundsOHL
Justin KirklandC/W113250.51417.9Stockton HeatAHL
Demetrios KoumontzisLW122240.34N/AArizona State Sun DevilsNCAA
Mitchell MattsonC81120.327.1Michigan State SpartansNCAA
Ilya Nikolayev C1349131.0822.1Tri-City StormUSHL
Josh NodlerC/RW1447110.8221.6Michigan State SpartansNCAA
Jakob PelletierC/LW13610161.2449.0Stockton HeatAHL
Matthew PhillipsC/RW1358131.0839.9Stockton HeatAHL
Luke PhilpC/RW136280.6224.7Stockton HeatAHL
Martin PospisilC/W72240.61222.7Stockton HeatAHL
Adam RuzickaC13106161.2249.0Stockton HeatAHL
William StromgrenLW23814220.98N/ARogle BK J20J20 Nationell
LW11233.00N/ARogle BKChampions HL
LW1000000Rogle BKSHL
Tuulola, EetuRW82130.4815.1Stockton HeatAHL
Connor ZaryC51010.2412.0Stockton HeatAHL
Dmitri ZavgorodnyW/C6000020Stockton HeatAHL

Defensemen

PlayerPositionGPGAPP/GPPIMNHLeTeamLeague
Jake BoltmannRHD131670.51015.0Notre DameNCAA
Cole JordanLHD2000000Moose Jaw WarriorsWHL
Johannes KinnvallRHD0000000Stockton HeatAHL
Yan KuznetsovLHD11000000Stockton HeatAHL
Connor MackeyLHD130420.31312.4Stockton HeatAHL
Jeremie PoirierLHD20513180.91021.0St. John Sea DogsQMJHL
Colton PoolmanLHD100220.268.0Stockton HeatAHL
Ilya SolovyovLHD5000000Stockton HeatAHL
Cameron WhynotLHD172790.52812.3Halifax MooseheadsQMJHL

Goalies

PlayerPositionGPGAASV%RecordShutoutsTeamLeague
Chechelev, DaniilG22.540.9041-1-00Kansas City MavericksECHL
Tyler ParsonsG0000-0-00Stockton HeatAHL
Arseni SergeevG111.180.95110-1-03Tri-City StormAHL
Dustin WolfG2.220.9316-0-20Stockton HeatAHL

Want to know more?

Still want to know more about the Flames prospects? Check out our interviews with a number of prospects down below:

Yan Kuznetsov

Ilya Solovyov

Dustin Wolf

Jeremie Poirier

Ryan Francis

Matthew Phillips

Demetrios Koumontzis

Jake Boltmann

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

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