Prospects

Calgary Flames Prospect Roundup: Phillips nets four goals, organizational offence firing on all cylinders

While the Calgary Flames were off for the NHL All-Star break, their prospects were on fire, putting up points left, right, and centre. Nearly every prospect who played this week got at least one point, while budding star Rory Kerins had six. He still remains the top scorer in the QMJHL. Two Flames netminders earned Goaltender of the Week honours, and no Flames netminder who played this week lost a game in regulation. So much to get into, let’s do it!


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

Matthew Phillips – Stockton Heat

GPGAPP/GPNHLe
This week24042.0N/A
Season total341819371.143.4

What more can you even say about Matthew Phillips. He has been the Heat’s best skater this season, and has been probably one of the most complete AHLer this season in the entire league. What is more, he continues to dazzle in ways that he hasn’t typically in the last few years.

This week he became the Heat’s all-time leading scorer, taking the title from Andrew Mangiapane. Here is the goal that took the title:

He then followed that up with two more goals for a hat trick in the first game. He then followed that up the following game with an otherworldly goal from the goal line. An absolute stunner on the power play. Check it out here:

What perhaps set him apart this week was this enormous hit in the first game, which absolutely demolished the Canucks’ skater. Keep in mind that Phillips is 5’8″. Check it out here:

It is starting to get silly that Phillips has not earned a call-up to Calgary. Earlier today, GM Brad Treliving acknowledged that he has earned a call-up sometime this season. It is hard to believe that it should not be right now, given the abysmal performance and stat line of Brett Ritchie to this point. The Flames need depth scoring and Phillips brings that in spades.

It is worth noting that even though he has performed exceptionally well at the AHL level over the last couple of seasons, his game has continued to grow. Phillips has developed his shot quite substantially, and has found a way to get even more strength behind his shots than he did before. This bodes well for a better transition into the NHL.

The other area which has really taken a step forward is his ability to get into the corner. Coach Mitch Love identified this and noted that he has trained himself to get into the tougher areas of the ice. This no doubt has been a key factor in his success this season in particular.

It is only a matter of time before he gets a shot in the NHL. Whether he stays there is a different issue, but he has more than earned that look.

This and that

AHL

  • The Heat played two games this week against Abbotsford and won both. The first was a 7–3 win and the second a tighter 2–1 win. Dustin Wolf was just minutes away from earning his first professional shutout in the latter game, but alas was not to be. He demonstrated an impressive vertical in full goalie gear:
  • The team got points from up and down their lineup, but their top line led the way. Aside from Phillips, Glenn Gawdin had three assists while Jakob Pelletier had two goals and an assist. Check out this stunner from Pelletier this week:
  • They also had multi-point efforts from Walker Duehr (2 assists), Luke Philp (2 goals), and Johannes Kinnvall (2 assists). Philp had an incredible goal while shorthanded:
  • Kinnvall continues to put points on the board, and is just below the point-per-game level this season. He has taken over the role as the team’s top power play quarterback, much to the disappointment presumably of Juuso Valimaki, and has been a key piece of that unit since he joined the team. He looks to have been a great signing for the Flames to this point.
  • Not great to see Connor Zary go pointless in both games. While he does continue to develop as a rookie in the league, the Flames must be hoping he will pick it up as the season goes on. No, he is not a bust at this point, not even close.

OHL

  • Another huge week for Rory Kerins. He sits at the top of the OHL in points after putting up six more points this week, a goal and five assists. This week it was a mix of primary and secondary assists: two primary and three secondary.
  • Here is the goal from this week:
  • Jack Beck continues to be sidelined but has returned to training for the first time in three months. He still sits eighth in team scoring despite this.

USHL

  • Another humongous week for Arseni Sergeev, who recorded his league-leading sixth shutout of the season in 28 games. The record is eight in a season, which Sergeev is on track to beat, assuming things stay the same.
  • He was unable to pick up wins in both games, picking up a tough overtime loss in the second game of the weekend. I don’t think anyone expected him to be good enough to take over the crease completely in Tri-City this season, but this level of goaltending is phenomenal.
  • He also earned Goalie of the Week honours again this week in the USHL. For the record, this is the fourth time he has earned that this season (and probably could have been many more).
  • Ilya Nikolayev’s production has been overshadowed a little by Sergeev’s success. He picked up a goal and three assists this weekend and has been skating on the team’s top line.
  • The Storm broke an organizational record this week with their 11th win in a row. They are absolutely flying right now.

QMJHL

  • Welcome back! The Q is back in action this week and the Flames’ prospects started off strong.
  • In Saint John, the Sea Dogs picked up two wins with a very revitalized squad. Ryan Francis had three assists, Kuznetsov recorded two assists while Jeremie Poirier had a goal and two assists. Take a look at Poirier’s beautiful power play goal:
  • Poirier sits third in scoring among defencemen in the QMJHL at this point, and is on track to breaking the Sea Dogs’ all time scoring record, which is currently held by Thomas Chabot.
  • Kuznetsov and Poirier skated together on a pairing for the first time this season, and looked dynamic in this role. In the offensive zone, Kuznetsov regularly had one skate right on the blueline, which allowed Poirier to play effectively as a fourth forward. The pairing was reminiscent of the Flames’ Oliver Kylington, Chris Tanev pairing, however Kuznetsov was noticeably larger than everyone else on the ice in this game and was unafraid of using his body to his advantage.
  • It is worth noting that in the second game for Saint John, it was Yan Kuznetsov as one of the team’s alternate captains despite having only been in the lineup for a few weeks. He clearly has some great leadership skills that his teammates respond to. He was also +4 in that game.
  • Elsewhere, Cole Huckins picked up an assist for Acadie Bathurst, and has quietly been very effective this year. He is just shy of a point-per-game this season, which is a phenomenal place to be for his D+1 season.
  • Finally it looks like Cam Whynot has picked up a bit of a bug. He was out of the lineup this weekend for the Halifax Mooseheads, but should be back soon.

KHL

  • Uh oh! The KHL has decided to cancel the remainder of the regular season, beginning their playoffs at the end of the Olympic Break. HK Sochi sits last in their division and will not be playing.
  • However, HC Sochi is hosting the Sochi Cup this week and next, which may end up being the last KHL games this season for Dmitri Zavgorodniy. He may be back in Stockton as early as the middle of this month as there is no point having him on loan in a league that won’t be playing. He recorded three assists in ten games this season.

NCAA

  • Good news and bad news for Matthew Coronato at Harvard. He picked up two goals and an assist this week, but the team was eliminated from The Beanpot after a heartbreaking 4–3 loss to Boston University. Here’s his first goal:
  • Here’s the other goal:
  • And here is one of the assists:
  • No points this week again for Josh Nodler. He has struggled in the second part of this season.
  • However, good news for teammate Mitchell Mattson, who has appeared in nearly every game of late. He was in the lineup for both games this weekend, but did not record any points.
  • No games for Demetrios Koumontzis at ASU. He is sidelined with an injury which means no fit check.
  • However, a big week for Jake Boltmann and Notre Dame. The rookie defenceman recorded three assists this weekend, and now sits third in points among defencemen on his team. Not bad for an out-of-nowhere selection.

Swedish hockey

  • Two goals this week for Emil Heineman in the SHL. He continues to play in a sheltered role on the fourth line, but sits fourth in SHL scoring among under-21-year-old players in the league.

ECHL

  • Have a week Daniil Chechelev! The Russian netminder recorded his first professional shutout this week, stopping all forty shots en route to a 2–0 win for Kansas City. He has faced a lot of rubber this season but seems to be handling it quite well. His numbers have bounced back up to a 0.900 save percentage.
  • For his efforts, Chechelev was named the ECHL’s Goalie of the Week!
  • It’s clear the fans there love him, and he loves the spotlight!

WHL

  • Lucas Ciona has really started to heat up! The 2021 sixth-round pick had three more goals this week and has eight points in his last six games. He has pushed up from the half-point-per-game pace he started at and is pushing towards the 0.75-PPG level. Great great news for him.
  • Cole Jordan was sidelined this weekend. The team has not said whether this is anything serious, so hopefully he will be back in the lineup soon.

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 the previous week)

  1. Adam Ruzicka (AHL) 49.0 (Same)
  2. Rory Kerins (OHL): 46.1(Same)
  3. Matthew Phillips(AHL): 43.4 (Same)
  4. Jakob Pelletier (AHL): 39.9 (Same)
  5. Glenn Gawdin (AHL) 39.9 (Same)

Ahead of tonight’s Flames contest, the bookies have predicted the Flames as the slight favourite, with Betway Sports pricing the Flames at +110 and the Golden Knights at +160 to win the game in regulation, with an overtime decision being priced at +330.


Overall regular season totals for all Flames prospects

Forwards

PlayerPositionGPGAPP/GPPIMNHLeTeamLeague
Jack BeckLW/RW12116171.4637.6Ottawa 67’sOHL
Lucas CionaLW361311240.76316.6Seattle ThunderbirdsWHL
Matthew CoronatoRW21109190.9820.7Harvard CrimsonsNCAA
Walker DuehrRW2959140.41616.3Stockton HeatAHL
Mathias Emilio PettersenC/LW301890.3612.0Stockton HeatAHL
Lucas FeukC/W101120.20N/AVasterviks IKHockeyAllsvenskan
C/W1566120.722N/AVasby IKHockeyEttan
C/W50220.4N/ANybro IFHockeyEttan
Ryan FrancisRW/C4000000Stockton HeatAHL
RW/C20620261.31230.3St John Sea DogsQMJHL
Glenn GawdinC/RW351223351.04139.9Stockton HeatAHL
Emil HeinemanLW/RW34115160.41823.0Leksands IFSHL
LW/RW84150.60N/ALeksands IFChampions HL
Cole HuckinsC251112230.94121.4Acadie Bathurst TitansQMJHL
Rory KerinsC/LW422647731.71846.1Soo GreyhoundsOHL
Justin KirklandC/W35107170.54319.5Stockton HeatAHL
Demetrios KoumontzisLW2347110.518N/AArizona State Sun DevilsNCAA
Mitchell MattsonC171230.225.5Michigan State SpartansNCAA
Ilya Nikolayev C331227391.23726.1Tri-City StormUSHL
Josh NodlerC/RW2857120.4411.7Michigan State SpartansNCAA
Jakob PelletierC/LW361422361.01439.9Stockton HeatAHL
Matthew PhillipsC/RW341819371.11043.4Stockton HeatAHL
Luke PhilpC/RW351112230.71526.3Stockton HeatAHL
Martin PospisilC/W2769150.64222.3Stockton HeatAHL
Adam RuzickaC13106161.2249.0Stockton HeatAHL
William StromgrenLW371119300.816N/ARogle BK J20J20 Nationell
LW11233.00N/ARogle BKChampions HL
LW2000000Rogle BKSHL
Eetu TuulolaRW3285130.43416.3Stockton HeatAHL
Connor ZaryC254590.42014.4Stockton HeatAHL
Dmitri ZavgorodnyW/C6000020Stockton HeatAHL
W/C100330019.8HC SochiKHL

Defencemen

PlayerPositionGPGAPP/GPPIMNHLeTeamLeague
Jake BoltmannRHD28111120.42211.7Notre DameNCAA
Cole JordanLHD171450.3287.2Moose Jaw WarriorsWHL
Johannes KinnvallRHD50440.8031.9Stockton HeatAHL
Yan KuznetsovLHD12000000Stockton HeatAHL
LHD61550.8015.6St John Sea DogsQMJHL
Connor MackeyLHD36515200.65522.3Stockton HeatAHL
Jeremie PoirierLHD321026361.12023.9St. John Sea DogsQMJHL
Colton PoolmanLHD310550.2106.1Stockton HeatAHL
Ilya SolovyovLHD293360.2128.3Stockton HeatAHL
Cameron WhynotLHD28312150.53212.6Halifax MooseheadsQMJHL

Goalies

PlayerPositionGPGAASV%RecordShutoutsTeamLeague
Daniil ChechelevG193.410.9009-8-11Kansas City MavericksECHL
Tyler ParsonsG0000-0-00Stockton HeatAHL
Arseni SergeevG281.580.93423-3-16Tri-City StormUSHL
Dustin WolfG242.010.93419-2-30Stockton 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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