It’s not a great time to be a fan of the Calgary Flames in the NHL, but there is a lot to be cheerful about with the team’s prospects. Not only have the Calgary Wranglers put up four wins in a row, they have done so by getting scoring from up and down the lineup. Without Jakob Pelletier or Jeremie Poirier, the team has gotten consistent scoring from Connor Zary, Martin Pospisil, Adam Klapka, and more, as well as had quality goaltending from both Dustin Wolf and Oscar Dansk.
Outside the AHL, Aydar Suniev continues to light the lamp in the NCAA. Parker Bell keeps putting up points for the not-great Tri City Americans in the WHL. On top of that, Arseni Sergeev continues to look excellent for UConn.
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 won twice this weekend, picking up a pair of 2–1 wins over the Colorado Rockies.
- Both Dustin Wolf and Oscar Dansk picked up wins for the team. Wolf continues to be outstanding, take a look at this stop he made:
- Congratulations to Connor Zary for picking up two more points this week, including his 100th AHL point of his career. His play has earned him a re-call with the Flames. Take a look at this goal Zary scored this week:
- The Wranglers were without Ilya Solovyov, who was called up to Calgary to serve in the stead of the suspended Rasmus Andersson. He was quite fine in his limited role, and has since been returned to the AHL.
- Two assists this week for Martin Pospisil, who has found new life this season. He has had very rough injury luck over the last few seasons and to see him hit the scoresheet is very welcome news.
- The team remains without Jeremie Poirier for the next while, after suffering a brutal laceration. He will be recovering for a while still.
- Still no games for Ilya Nikolayev or Rory Kerins in the AHL. Hopefully with Zary in Calgary, one of them will finally get into a game this season for the team.
- Wolf picked up some new equipment this week. Take a look here:
ECHL
- No prospects in the ECHL right now. Daniil Chechelev is still missing.
Europe
- Two more games for Yegor Yegorov, who saw his numbers shoot right up. He has two shutouts and owns a 0.917 save percentage through eight games. he is currently playing as the 1B option for Dynamo, but has the better numbers so far.
- Topi Ronni is still in legal trouble.
NCAA
- No points for Jake Boltmann, who wasn’t even in the lineup for Notre Dame this weekend.
- A goal this week for forward Ayda Suniev, and what a goal it was. Take a look at it here:
- Unfortunately, he also got absolutely turned around by Lane Hutson in a game this weekend. Take a look here:
- Arseni Sergeev played a game this weekend and saw his numbers trend in the right direction. He’s now up to a 0.927 save percentage and owns a 2–2–0 record right now.
QMJHL
- Two assists this week for Etienne Morin in Moncton. The Wildcats are now sitting 10th in the CHL Rankings, the only team with Flames’ prospects inside the top 10.
- Morin also picked up a nasty hit against Quebec at the weekend. His status is still unclear.
USHL
- One more goal this week for Cade Littler in the USHL. He remains on the team’s top line.
WHL
- Another big week for Parker Bell in Tri-City. The forward picked up two more goals this week to bring his total to 10 points in nine games this season. He sits third on the team in scoring despite missing four games so far this season.
- Tri City sits fifth in the WHL’s US Division. It’s still early in the season, but the team owns a brutal -17 goal differential through 13 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 preseason.
- Another goal and an assist for Jaden Lipinski in Vancouver. He sits sixth in team scoring this season and is the only NHL prospect currently in the lineup while Honzek is out.
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)
- Jeremie Poirier: 69.7 (+1)
- Connor Zary: 66.6 (-1)
- Adam Klapka: 46.6 (-1)
- Martin Pospisil: 39.9 (Same)
- Parker Bell: 27.5 (Same)
Overall regular season totals for Flames prospects
Forwards
| Player | Position | GP | G | A | P | P/GP | PIM | NHLe | Team | League |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Parker Bell | LW | 9 | 5 | 5 | 10 | 1.22 | 4 | 27.5 | Tri-City Americans | WHL |
| Lucas Ciona | LW | 6 | 1 | 0 | 1 | 0.17 | 4 | 6.8 | Calgary Wranglers | AHL |
| Mathias Emilio Pettersen | C/LW | 6 | 0 | 2 | 2 | 0.33 | 2 | 13.2 | Calgary Wranglers | AHL |
| Samuel Honzek | LW/C | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | Vancouver Giants | WHL |
| Ben Jones | C | 6 | 1 | 3 | 4 | 0.67 | 6 | 26.7 | Calgary Wranglers | AHL |
| Rory Kerins | C/LW | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | Calgary Wranglers | AHL |
| Adam Klapka | RW | 6 | 4 | 3 | 7 | 1.17 | 13 | 46.6 | Calgary Wranglers | AHL |
| Jaden Lipinski | C | 11 | 2 | 5 | 7 | 0.64 | 12 | 15.8 | Vancouver Giants | WHL |
| Cade Littler | C | 11 | 7 | 3 | 10 | 0.91 | 10 | 20.1 | Cedar Rapids RoughRiders | USHL |
| Ilya Nikolayev | C | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | Calgary Wranglers | AHL |
| Martin Pospisil | C/W | 6 | 3 | 3 | 6 | 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 | 6 | 2 | 1 | 3 | 0.50 | 2 | 19.9 | Calgary Wranglers | AHL |
| William Stromgren | LW | 6 | 0 | 1 | 1 | 0.17 | 4 | 5.5 | Calgary Wranglers | AHL |
| Aydar Suniev | LW | 6 | 3 | 1 | 4 | 0.67 | 0 | 21.6 | UMass | NCAA |
| Connor Zary | C | 6 | 1 | 9 | 10 | 1.67 | 2 | 66.6 | 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 |
| Axel Hurtig | LHD | 2 | 1 | 0 | 1 | 0.5 | 0 | N/A | Rogle BK J20 | J20 Nationell |
| Yan Kuznetsov | LHD | 6 | 0 | 1 | 1 | 0.17 | 0 | 10.0 | Calgary Wranglers | AHL |
| Etienne Morin | LHD | 11 | 4 | 5 | 9 | 0.82 | 6 | 19.1 | 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 | 4 | 2.00 | 0.927 | University of Connecticut | NCAA |
| Dustin Wolf | G | 4 | 2.71 | 0.921 | Calgary Wranglers | AHL |
| Yegor Yegorov | G | 8 | 2.41 | 0.917 | 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.
