While the Calgary Flames continue their slow start to the season, the Calgary Wranglers add two more wins to continue their strong start and improve to 3–0–1. Adam Klapka potted three goals and two helpers over the weekend, and teammate Connor Zary added five assists of his own. Most of the Flames’ prospects in the AHL continued to shine, but Cole Schwindt was not one of those as he cooled off slightly after starting the season with a goal in each of the Wranglers’ first two games.
Over in the NCAA, Aydar Suniev notched a couple of goals of his own in a two-game span.
So much to get into 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.
Flames prospect happenings
AHL
- The Wranglers keep winning, improving to 3–0–1 with back-to-back wins over the Abbotsford Canucks.
- Last week, we talked about Jeremie Poirier’s five points in two games. This week it’s Adam Klapka, who went off for five points in two games. He now has four goals and seven points through just four games. Check out this power play marker:
- Not forgotten is Connor Zary’s own five points in two games, bringing his total to eight in four games. Zary has yet to find the back of the net, but continues to rack up assists.
- Jeremie Poirier stayed hot, adding two assists over two games which brings his total to seven points.
- Dustin Wolf is now 3–0–0 and looking great, although he is thankful his teammates provided some run support last game. The Wranglers needed an overtime goal from…
- Martin Pospisil, who scored his second in as many games to clinch a 7–6 win over the Canucks. Take a look at his clutch goal:
- Ben Jones scored his first goal of the season and added an assist to bring his point total to a very respectable three through four games.
- We mentioned last week that Ilya Solovyov has looked exceptional since training camp but failed to register a point through the first two contests. He made up for that this weekend by scoring his first goal of the season and adding an assist. Take a look at his first period goal to get the Wranglers on the board:
- Lucas Ciona scored his first goal and only point of the season so far.
- After going scoreless through the first two games, Mathias Emilio Pettersen got on the board with two assists through two games.
- Cole Schwindt scored in each of the first two games, but he managed just one assist through the last two games.
ECHL
- The season is now underway for the Rapid City Rush, but no Flames prospects have played in the league yet.
Europe
- There is nothing new to report this week from across the pond. Topi Ronni is still in legal trouble, and Yegor Yegorov has not appeared in any games since the last issue.
NCAA
- Arseni Sergeyev continues to split the crease with Ethan Haider, looking more like the 1B to Haider’s 1A as he picked up his second loss of the season in just his third game.
- Aydar Suniev scored his first two goals of the season and is now up to three points through four games.
- Someone tell Jake Boltmann he’s not playing golf! Boltmann has yet to register a point through five games and was minus three over his last two games, bringing his plus-minus down to minus six to start the year.
QMJHL
- Etienne Morin may have been a steal in the second round of this year’s draft. He added two more assists in two games this week and now has seven points in eight games. Check out the outlet pass to spring his teammate on a breakaway:
USHL
- After storming out of the gates with eight points through seven games for the Cedar Rapids RoughRiders, Cade Littler cooled down recently. He managed just one assist over the last two games but still sits at a point-per-game with nine in nine.
WHL
- Parker Bell continued his hot start for the Tri-City Americans, scoring two goals and three points through three games. He is now up to eight points in six games.
- Over to the Vancouver Giants, Samuel Honzek has yet to play a game yet this season, and that will reportedly continue to be the case as he is expected to miss six to eight weeks due to an injury suffered during the pre-season.
- Honzek’s Giants teammate Jaden Lipinski is off to a good start though. Over the last four games, he scored his first goal of the season and added an assist, bringing his total points on the year up to five in eight games.
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)
- Connor Zary: 79.7 (+1)
- Jeremie Poirier: 69.7 (Tie / -1)
- Adam Klapka: 69.7 (Tie / +1)
- Martin Pospisil: 39.9 (+1)
- Parker Bell: 32.9 (-2)
Overall regular season totals for Flames prospects
Forwards
| Player | Position | GP | G | A | P | P/GP | PIM | NHLe | Team | League |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Parker Bell | LW | 6 | 3 | 5 | 8 | 1.33 | 4 | 32.9 | Tri-City Americans | WHL |
| Lucas Ciona | LW | 4 | 1 | 0 | 1 | 0.25 | 4 | 10.0 | Calgary Wranglers | AHL |
| Mathias Emilio Pettersen | C/LW | 4 | 0 | 2 | 2 | 0.5 | 2 | 19.9 | Calgary Wranglers | AHL |
| Samuel Honzek | LW/C | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | Vancouver Giants | WHL |
| Ben Jones | C | 4 | 1 | 2 | 3 | 0.75 | 4 | 29.9 | Calgary Wranglers | AHL |
| Rory Kerins | C/LW | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | Calgary Wranglers | AHL |
| Adam Klapka | RW | 4 | 4 | 3 | 7 | 1.75 | 8 | 69.7 | Calgary Wranglers | AHL |
| Jaden Lipinski | C | 8 | 1 | 4 | 5 | 0.63 | 10 | 15.6 | Vancouver Giants | WHL |
| Cade Littler | C | 9 | 6 | 3 | 9 | 1.00 | 10 | 22.1 | Cedar Rapids RoughRiders | USHL |
| Ilya Nikolayev | C | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | Calgary Wranglers | AHL |
| Martin Pospisil | C/W | 4 | 3 | 1 | 4 | 1.00 | 6 | 39.9 | Calgary Wranglers | AHL |
| Topi Ronni | C | 12 | 1 | 1 | 2 | 0.17 | 4 | 6.3 | Tappara | Liiga |
| Cole Schwindt | C/RW | 4 | 2 | 1 | 3 | 0.75 | 2 | 29.9 | Calgary Wranglers | AHL |
| William Stromgren | LW | 4 | 0 | 1 | 1 | 0.25 | 2 | 10.0 | Calgary Wranglers | AHL |
| Aydar Suniev | LW | 4 | 2 | 1 | 3 | 0.75 | 0 | 24.2 | UMass | NCAA |
| Connor Zary | C | 4 | 0 | 8 | 8 | 2.00 | 0 | 79.7 | Calgary Wranglers | AHL |
Defencemen
| Player | Position | GP | G | A | P | P/GP | PIM | NHLe | Team | League |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Jake Boltmann | RHD | 5 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 10 | 0 | Notre Dame | NCAA |
| Yan Kuznetsov | LHD | 4 | 0 | 1 | 1 | 0.25 | 0 | 10.0 | Calgary Wranglers | AHL |
| Etienne Morin | LHD | 8 | 4 | 3 | 7 | 0.88 | 4 | 20.5 | Moncton Wildcats | QMJHL |
| Jeremie Poirier | LHD | 4 | 1 | 6 | 7 | 1.75 | 0 | 69.7 | Calgary Wranglers | AHL |
| Ilya Solovyov | LHD | 4 | 1 | 1 | 2 | 0.5 | 2 | 19.9 | Calgary Wranglers | AHL |
Goalies
| Player | Position | GP | GAA | SV% | Team | League |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Arseni Sergeev | G | 3 | 2.37 | 0.913 | University of Connecticut | NCAA |
| Dustin Wolf | G | 3 | 3.27 | 0.910 | Calgary Wranglers | AHL |
| Yegor Yegorov | G | 7 | 2.84 | 0.905 | MHK Dynamo Moskva | MHL |
Following the prospects
Staying up to date with the development of prospects is no easy task. Follow along throughout the season for the latest happenings in the entire Flames’ development pipelines!
Photo from @AHLWranglers.
