The Calgary Flames’ prospects just keep rolling. Nearly every forward prospect who suited up this week tallied, and the ones who didn’t added value in other ways on the ice. Arseni Sergeev made the save of the year this week to keep the score level for UConn, and Cade Littler added five more points to his season total. The Wranglers, led by Matthew Phillips, picked up six points out of six and are now the top team in the AHL. There is a good chance that they could be going on a long playoff run again this season So much to talk about this week, let’s dive into 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.
Prospect of the Week: Jeremie Poirier – Calgary Wranglers
One thing about Jeremie Poirier is that you can never doubt just how gifted he is. The defenceman added a goal and an assist this week in regulation and scored in the shootout to help the Wranglers secure three wins. Take a look at both goals here:
Poirier has always been so good offensively. Drafted in the third round of the 2020 draft, he was very much an Oliver Kylington-type prospect, really gifted offensively but his defensive game very much was a work in progress. Poirier was described as having the best hands in his draft class, and was compared strongly to Thomas Chabot of the Ottawa Senators.
Today that continues to be the case. Poirier’s offensive game is exceptional. He is the top U21 defenceman in the AHL right now in points, and sits 12th overall in points. His 27 points on the year put him sixth on the team, ahead of Cole Schwindt, Walker Duehr, Radim Zohorna and more.
Defensively, Poirier has struggled. He has been scratched to watch from the press box due to his defensive game, but has been getting much better of late. He is still a rookie, but is still a year or two away from being really NHL-ready. He is clearly the Flames’ top defensive prospect, and I’d argue he has a much higher ceiling than anyone else in the organization at his position. I still believe that at his best, Poirier tops out as a top pairing offensive defenceman who can quarterback the team’s power play, but at his worst he is still an NHL defenceman. That’s a really good sign for a team with basically no defensive prospects currently.
If Poirier can continue to develop and particularly develop his two-way game, the Flames have one heck of a player in him.
Flames prospect happenings
AHL
- The Wranglers went three-for-three this week, beating the San Jose Barracuda once in regulation and once in a shootout then added a win over Abbotsford to jump to first in the entire AHL.
- Ben Jones had four points for the Wranglers—a goal and three assists. He has been a major success story for the team, as has quietly been one of the team’s best players.
- Matthew Phillips had three points and Walker Duehr had four this week. Phillips also added a shootout goal in the team’s second game over the Barracuda.
- The only Wranglers forwards who played this week and did not record a point was Connor Zary. He did however add a shootout goal.
- Huge congratulations to Daniil Chechelev who picked up his first AHL win this week. The 2020 fourth-round pick has spent most of the season in the ECHL, but with Oscar Dansk injured, he was called upon and delivered in a big way for the team.
- Dustin Wolf also won both of his games, and was named the team’s first star in the game against Abbotsford. He continues to be among the best goalies in the league.
BCHL
- A big week for Cade Littler who put up five points this week for the Wenatchee Wild. Again, it is the BCHL so do not put too much stock in this performance, but being over a point-per-game is never a bad thing.
ECHL
- Both Rory Kerins and Ilya Nikolayev are out with injuries currently.
- No points this week for Lucas Feuk. It’s hard to see him staying in North America beyond this season.
Europe
- A big goal this week for Topi Ronni in Finland. He’s been mostly playing in a depth role for Tappara, but has done quite well of late. He also added a boatload of points in Finnish Junior, but that’s to be expected.
- No points this week for William Stromgren. He’s found a nice home on the team’s second line.
NCAA
- What a week for Matthew Coronato. The forward had two goals and an assist for Harvard in two games. The two goals came in the Beanpot final, but they were unable to beat Northeastern. He was far and away the best player on the ice. Take a look at his goals here:
- Coronato is a clutch player, who always seems to come up big when the chips are down. If only there was an NHL team who could use a player like him…
- There is a good chance he signs with the Flames after this season, as he is clearly too good for the NCAA.
- A rare assist for Jake Boltmann this week, who improves to five points on the season.
- It’s so frustrating to think of the players the Flames could have taken with that third-round selection instead of spending it on Boltmann, who was an unknown commodity from the USHS/USHL. Taken with the picks following Boltmann: Alex Laferriere at Harvard who is playing in their top-six and has over a point-per-game so far this season, Jopi Jurmo, a big Finnish defenceman in the Finnish Liiga, and Wyatt Kaiser, a Hobey Baker-nominated defenceman currently just under a half-point-per-game in the NCAA. Any of these three would have been a substantially better pick than the Notre Dame blueliner.
- Both Demetrios Koumontzis and Josh Nodler are injured currently, and did not play.
- Arseni Sergeev was in the net for an overtime loss, but made what was probably the save of the year in the NCAA. Take a look here:
- Sergeev has been splitting the net this season as a rookie, and probably needs a season or two more in the NCAA still before he makes the jump to the pro-level. The initial signs look really good though.
OHL
- Another big week for Jack Beck. Last week’s Standout Performer had three assists for the Ottawa 67’s. He leads the team in points-per-game, and sits sixth on the team in scoring despite missing nearly half the season so far.
- Beck is a shoo-in for an entry-level contract (ELC) this season.
QMJHL
- Three goals for Cole Huckins this week as he inches ever closer to the point-per-game mark. The 2021 third-round pick has been very good for the Sherbrooke Phoenix, but off-ice concerns from last year still loom large on whether the Flames offer him an ELC.
- No points this week for Cam Whynot in Halifax. He’s been a steady second pair guy for the Mooseheads, but has not really turned any heads this season.
- Half-point-per-game defencemen are dime-a-dozen in the Q. There are 12 defencemen sitting between 0.50 and 0.60 PPG this season, and not one of them has been drafted. There’s really not much of a point to sign Whynot unless the Flames see a lot more from him going into the tail end of the season.
WHL
- Two goals and two assists for Lucas Ciona in Seattle. The Thunderbirds also posted a very nice photo of him and Dylan Guenther from their childhood. Check it out:
- Parker Bell is still out injured. Prayers for a speedy recovery after a very nasty hit the other week.
- Cole Jordan will be out for the rest of the 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 the previous week)
- Matthew Phillips: 49.8 (Same)
- Jakob Pelletier: 43.4 (Same)
- Connor Zary: 36.3 (Same)
- Ben Jones: 34.7 (+1)
- Lucas Ciona: 33.2 (-1)
Overall regular season totals for Flames prospects
Forwards
| Player | Position | GP | G | A | P | P/GP | PIM | NHLe | Team | League |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Jack Beck | LW/RW | 28 | 6 | 2 | 31 | 1.11 | 12 | 29.4 | Ottawa 67’s | OHL |
| Parker Bell | LW | 40 | 21 | 30 | 51 | 1.28 | 49 | 31.7 | Tri-City Americans | WHL |
| Lucas Ciona | LW | 45 | 23 | 38 | 59 | 1.34 | 62 | 33.2 | Seattle Thunderbirds | WHL |
| Matthew Coronato | RW | 25 | 18 | 12 | 30 | 1.20 | 12 | 27.6 | Harvard Crimsons | NCAA |
| Walker Duehr | RW | 38 | 15 | 10 | 25 | 0.62 | 24 | 24.7 | Calgary Wranglers | AHL |
| Mathias Emilio Pettersen | C/LW | 39 | 12 | 19 | 31 | 0.82 | 16 | 32.7 | Calgary Wranglers | AHL |
| Lucas Feuk | C/W | 34 | 2 | 8 | 10 | 0.29 | 14 | N/A | Rapid City Rush | ECHL |
| Cole Huckins | C | 50 | 23 | 23 | 46 | 0.92 | 61 | 21.4 | Sherbrooke Phoenix | QMJHL |
| Ben Jones | C | 46 | 11 | 29 | 40 | 0.87 | 31 | 34.7 | Calgary Wranglers | AHL |
| Rory Kerins | C/LW | 31 | 15 | 16 | 31 | 1.00 | 6 | N/A | Rapid City Rush | ECHL |
| 6 | 1 | 1 | 2 | 0.33 | 0 | 13.2 | Calgary Wranglers | AHL | ||
| Adam Klapka | RW | 36 | 5 | 7 | 12 | 0.31 | 53 | 12.4 | Calgary Wranglers | AHL |
| Demetrios Koumontzis | LW/D | 29 | 6 | 7 | 13 | 0.45 | 27 | 11.8 | Arizona State Sun Devils | NCAA |
| Cade Littler | C | 40 | 21 | 26 | 47 | 1.18 | 22 | 12.6 | Wenatchee Wild | BCHL |
| Ilya Nikolayev | C | 32 | 10 | 16 | 26 | 0.81 | 27 | N/A | Rapid City Rush | ECHL |
| 5 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 2 | 0 | Calgary Wranglers | AHL | ||
| Josh Nodler | C/RW | 25 | 2 | 3 | 5 | 0.20 | 6 | 6.4 | UMass | NCAA |
| Jakob Pelletier | C/LW | 33 | 16 | 20 | 36 | 1.09 | 22 | 43.4 | Calgary Wranglers | AHL |
| Matthew Phillips | C/RW | 41 | 25 | 26 | 51 | 1.25 | 8 | 49.8 | Calgary Wranglers | AHL |
| Martin Pospisil | C/W | 20 | 4 | 6 | 10 | 0.50 | 24 | 19.9 | Calgary Wranglers | AHL |
| Topi Ronni | C | 21 | 2 | 2 | 4 | 0.15 | 2 | 8.2 | Tappara | Liiga |
| 5 | 2 | 7 | 9 | 1.80 | 4 | N/A | Tappara U20 | U20 SM-sarja | ||
| Cole Schwindt | C/RW | 44 | 10 | 15 | 25 | 0.57 | 17 | 22.7 | Calgary Wranglers | AHL |
| William Stromgren | LW | 1 | 3 | 0 | 3 | 3.00 | 0 | N/A | Rogle BK J20/Brynas IF J20 | J20 Nationell |
| LW | 34 | 6 | 4 | 10 | 0.21 | 8 | 10.7 | Brynas IF | SHL | |
| Connor Zary | C | 47 | 14 | 28 | 42 | 0.91 | 47 | 36.3 | Stockton Heat | AHL |
Defencemen
| Player | Position | GP | G | A | P | P/GP | PIM | NHLe | Team | League |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Jake Boltmann | RHD | 32 | 1 | 4 | 5 | 0.16 | 46 | 4.4 | Notre Dame | NCAA |
| Cole Jordan | LHD | 17 | 2 | 5 | 7 | 0.41 | 15 | 10.2 | Moose Jaw Warriors | WHL |
| Yan Kuznetsov | LHD | 39 | 2 | 9 | 11 | 0.29 | 16 | 11.6 | Calgary Wranglers | AHL |
| Jeremie Poirier | LHD | 44 | 5 | 23 | 28 | 0.63 | 22 | 25.1 | Calgary Wranglers | AHL |
| Ilya Solovyov | LHD | 43 | 0 | 9 | 9 | 0.21 | 20 | 8.4 | Calgary Wranglers | AHL |
| Cameron Whynot | LHD | 45 | 3 | 21 | 24 | 0.53 | 16 | 12.3 | Halifax Mooseheads | QMJHL |
Goalies
| Player | Position | GP | GAA | SV% | Team | League |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Daniil Chechelev | G | 33 | 3.46 | 0.896 | Kansas City Mavericks | ECHL |
| G | 1 | 3.69 | 0.879 | Calgary Wranglers | AHL | |
| Arseni Sergeev | G | 16 | 2.59 | 0.916 | University of Connecticut | NCAA |
| Dustin Wolf | G | 36 | 2.15 | 0.930 | Calgary Wranglers | AHL |
Want to know more?
Still want to know more about the Flames’ prospects? Check out our interviews with a number of prospects down below:
Which prospects are you most excited about? Let us know below in the comments or on social media.
