As the Calgary Flames continue to flounder at the bottom of the NHL standings, the team made good on their promise of giving young prospects chances, and that list now includes call-ups for Ilya Solovyov, Connor Zary, and Martin Pospisil, on top of Matt Coronato making the opening roster. Both Zary and Pospisil have earned their first career NHL goals, in consecutive games to boot. While this has been exciting for Flames fans to see, the organization’s prospects outside of the NHL have mostly slowed down, production-wise. Adam Klapka is one of those, as he has been held off the scoresheet over the last four games. Of players who already had games under their belt this season, only Jaden Lipinski and Etienne Morin managed to buck that trend.
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
- Top defensive prospect Jeremie Poirier continues to heal after he suffered a skate laceration injury on October 21.
- After managing just one goal and two points through 10 NHL games, Matt Coronato was sent to the Wranglers where he scored his first AHL goal in his first game. Check it out:
- Rory Kerins’ season is finally underway. He joined the Wranglers and recorded two assists over two games.
- Adam Klapka has been held pointless since his amazing performance put him in the spotlight two weeks ago, and now sits at seven points in eight games.
- The Flames’ most highly-anticipated prospect, Dustin Wolf, continues his dominance of the AHL. He now boasts a 5–0–1 record, 2.34 GAA, and 0.924 save percent through six games. Take a look at this great save he made on a breakaway:
- In a corresponding move to Coronato being sent to the AHL, Martin Pospisil received a call-up to the NHL. After recording three goals and six points in six games for the Wranglers, Pospisil scored the first of his team’s six goals against the Seattle Kraken in his NHL debut. You know what they say, go to the front of the net and you’ll be rewarded:
ECHL
- The Flames still have yet to see any prospects suit up in the ECHL.
Europe
- Topi Ronni returned to team activities, but has yet to see game action since his return.
- Yegor Yegorov suited up for another game, where he allowed three goals on 29 shots. The loss brought his record down to 3–3–1 with a 2.48 GAA and 0.914 save percentage.
- Defenceman Axel Hurtig played another two games and scored another goal. He now has two goals through four games.
NCAA
- Jake Boltmann continues to sit.
- Aydar Suniev added one game to his stats but was held without a point.
- Arseni Sergeev played just one game, which was a loss. He’s down to 2–3–0 on the year with a 2.40 GAA and 0.916 save percentage.
QMJHL
- Etienne Morin played one game but scored a goal and added two assists, bringing his point totals to 12 through 12 games. Watch Morin go end-to-end for this goal:
USHL
- Cade Littler added another goal through two appearances. He’s now at eight goals in 13 games this season.
WHL
- Parker Bell picked up another two points (both assists) this week, and is up to 12 points in 11 games.
- Unfortunately, Samuel Honzek is still out of the lineup with an injury.
- The Vancouver Giants are 6–8–1 in Honzek’s absence and they surely are eagerly anticipating his return.
- As mentioned at the onset of this issue, Jaden Lipinski is trending upward. He added a goal and three points over the last three games for the Giants, despite the team scoring just five combined goals in regulation and overtime.
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 (Same)
- Connor Zary: 66.6 (Same)
- Rory Kerins: 39.9 (New)(Tie)
- Martin Pospisil: 39.9 (Same)(Tie)
- Adam Klapka: 34.9 (-2)
Overall regular season totals for Flames prospects
Forwards
| Player | Position | GP | G | A | P | P/GP | PIM | NHLe | Team | League |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Parker Bell | LW | 11 | 5 | 7 | 12 | 1.09 | 4 | 27.0 | Tri-City Americans | WHL |
| Lucas Ciona | LW | 8 | 1 | 0 | 1 | 0.13 | 11 | 5.0 | Calgary Wranglers | AHL |
| Matt Coronato | RW/LW | 2 | 1 | 0 | 1 | 0.50 | 0 | 19.9 | Calgary Wranglers | AHL |
| Mathias Emilio Pettersen | C/LW | 8 | 0 | 2 | 2 | 0.25 | 2 | 10.0 | Calgary Wranglers | AHL |
| Samuel Honzek | LW/C | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | Vancouver Giants | WHL |
| Ben Jones | C | 8 | 1 | 4 | 5 | 0.63 | 6 | 24.9 | Calgary Wranglers | AHL |
| Rory Kerins | C/LW | 2 | 0 | 2 | 2 | 1.00 | 0 | 39.9 | Calgary Wranglers | AHL |
| Adam Klapka | RW | 8 | 4 | 3 | 7 | 0.88 | 13 | 34.9 | Calgary Wranglers | AHL |
| Jaden Lipinski | C | 14 | 3 | 7 | 10 | 0.71 | 16 | 17.7 | Vancouver Giants | WHL |
| Cade Littler | C | 13 | 8 | 3 | 11 | 0.85 | 10 | 18.7 | 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 | 8 | 2 | 1 | 3 | 0.38 | 4 | 14.9 | Calgary Wranglers | AHL |
| William Stromgren | LW | 8 | 0 | 1 | 1 | 0.13 | 4 | 5.0 | Calgary Wranglers | AHL |
| Aydar Suniev | LW | 7 | 3 | 1 | 4 | 0.57 | 0 | 18.4 | 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 | 4 | 2 | 0 | 2 | 0.50 | 0 | N/A | Rogle BK J20 | J20 Nationell |
| Yan Kuznetsov | LHD | 8 | 0 | 1 | 1 | 0.13 | 2 | 5.2 | Calgary Wranglers | AHL |
| Etienne Morin | LHD | 12 | 5 | 7 | 12 | 1.00 | 6 | 23.3 | Moncton Wildcats | QMJHL |
| Jeremie Poirier | LHD | 4 | 1 | 6 | 7 | 1.75 | 0 | 69.7 | Calgary Wranglers | AHL |
| Ilya Solovyov | LHD | 6 | 1 | 1 | 2 | 0.33 | 2 | 13.2 | Calgary Wranglers | AHL |
Goalies
| Player | Position | GP | GAA | SV% | Team | League |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Arseni Sergeev | G | 5 | 2.40 | 0.916 | University of Connecticut | NCAA |
| Dustin Wolf | G | 6 | 2.34 | 0.924 | Calgary Wranglers | AHL |
| Yegor Yegorov | G | 9 | 2.48 | 0.914 | 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.
