While the countdown to Christmas is on, the Calgary Flames’ prospects still are broadly on the ice. However, if there is one thing that the Calgary Wranglers could wish for from Santa Claus it’s for some of their big-name players to be back with the team. Currently mired in a three-game losing streak, the team could really use a few of their top players back in the AHL to help them push down the stretch.
Beyond that, the Flames have one prospect bound for the World Juniors in Samuel Honzek. The Vancouver Giants forward will be playing for Slovakia and will almost certainly be playing on the team’s top line.
Only one prospect is still without a point this season, and if you are a frequent reader of this column, you know exactly who that is by now.
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 dropped their second and third straight this week, which honestly shouldn’t surprise anyone given how short-handed the team has been of late. Without Ilya Solovyov, Dustin Wolf, Connor Zary, Martin Pospisil, Nick DeSimone, Dennis Gilbert, Jordan Oesterle, Walker Duehr, Jeremie Poirier, Jakob Pelletier and more, the team has been very shorthanded. They now have Wolf and Solovyov back, which should help support the team.
- The team has been running with Ben Jones as their top centre, who had an assist this week. He was playing alongside Matt Coronato who is back with the Wranglers and had two assists as well.
- I understand the push to bring Coronato up to the NHL given his point production at the AHL level, but it is genuinely better for his all-around game to get more seasoning with the Wranglers. He needs to work on his two-way game and movement off the puck in order to become an impact NHLer down the line. I would imagine he ends the year with the Flames.
- It’s a bit concerning that even with all of the call-ups and injuries neither William Stromgren nor Lucas Ciona earned regular minutes with the Wranglers. Each only featured in one game this week. Ciona was a sixth-round pick in 2021 and will need a lot of seasoning, but it’s hard not to be concerned about the production of Stromgren who was a second-round selection. He has really not shown much of anything to this point, either in Sweden or Canada, and is looking increasingly like a very poor pick.
- Big congrats to not-a-prospect Connor Murphy for getting into his first AHL game this week!
BCHL
- Two goals and an assist for Cade Littler who is back in the BCHL. Great to see his production continuing. As always, temper your expectations until he is in the NCAA next season.
ECHL
- Wow, so empty here! It’s probably a good sign that none of the Flames prospects are playing in the ECHL.
Europe
- It’s the holidays so there is little to report this week from Europe.
- In Russia, Yegor Yegorov played two games and saw his numbers inch upwards. He still seems to be the second choice for now.
NCAA
- It’s exam and holiday time in the NCAA so no games this week.
- Jake Boltmann ends the year as the only Flames prospect without a point so far this season. Yikes!
QMJHL
- Two assists this week for Etienne Morin this week. He continues to be very impressive for Moncton. He leads all U19 defencemen in points per game this season in the QMJHL.
WHL
- A goal and two assists for Jaden Lipinski in Vancouver. His production has been very good this season.
- No points this week for Parker Bell.
- Samuel Honzek has been loaned to Team Slovakia for the World Juniors. He is expected to play on the top line when the tournament opens on Boxing Day.
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)
- Matt Coronato: 49.8 (Same)
- Martin Pospisil: 39.9 (+1)
- Rory Kerins: 35.5 (-1)
Overall regular season totals for Flames prospects
Forwards
| Player | Position | GP | G | A | P | P/GP | PIM | NHLe | Team | League |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Parker Bell | LW | 23 | 12 | 13 | 25 | 1.09 | 8 | 27.0 | Tri-City Americans | WHL |
| Lucas Ciona | LW | 21 | 1 | 1 | 2 | 0.10 | 15 | 4.0 | Calgary Wranglers | AHL |
| Matt Coronato | RW/LW | 16 | 8 | 12 | 20 | 1.25 | 4 | 49.8 | Calgary Wranglers | AHL |
| Mathias Emilio Pettersen | C/LW | 24 | 5 | 12 | 17 | 0.71 | 10 | 29.1 | Calgary Wranglers | AHL |
| Samuel Honzek | LW/C | 5 | 3 | 4 | 7 | 1.40 | 4 | 34.7 | Vancouver Giants | WHL |
| Ben Jones | C | 24 | 8 | 12 | 20 | 0.83 | 16 | 33.1 | Calgary Wranglers | AHL |
| Rory Kerins | C/LW | 18 | 9 | 7 | 16 | 0.89 | 0 | 35.5 | Calgary Wranglers | AHL |
| Adam Klapka | RW | 24 | 9 | 9 | 18 | 0.75 | 40 | 29.9 | Calgary Wranglers | AHL |
| Jaden Lipinski | C | 32 | 11 | 18 | 29 | 0.91 | 32 | 22.5 | Vancouver Giants | WHL |
| Cade Littler | C | 14 | 8 | 3 | 11 | 0.79 | 10 | 17.5 | Cedar Rapids RoughRiders | USHL |
| 9 | 3 | 6 | 9 | 1.00 | 4 | 9.2 | Penticton Vees | BCHL | ||
| Ilya Nikolayev | C | 12 | 2 | 2 | 4 | 0.33 | 2 | 13.2 | Calgary Wranglers | AHL |
| Martin Pospisil | C/W | 6 | 3 | 3 | 6 | 1.00 | 6 | 39.9 | Calgary Wranglers | AHL |
| Topi Ronni | C | 15 | 1 | 1 | 2 | 0.13 | 4 | 5.2 | Tappara | Liiga |
| 5 | 3 | 4 | 7 | 1.40 | 6 | N/A | Tappara U20 | U20 SM-sarja | ||
| Cole Schwindt | C/RW | 24 | 4 | 9 | 13 | 0.54 | 8 | 21.5 | Calgary Wranglers | AHL |
| William Stromgren | LW | 21 | 0 | 2 | 2 | 0.10 | 10 | 4.0 | Calgary Wranglers | AHL |
| Aydar Suniev | LW | 15 | 7 | 5 | 12 | 0.80 | 15 | 25.8 | 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 | 14 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 18 | 0 | Notre Dame | NCAA |
| Axel Hurtig | LHD | 11 | 2 | 3 | 5 | 0.45 | 27 | N/A | Rogle BK J20 | J20 Nationell |
| 1 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0.00 | 0 | 0 | Rogle BK | SHL | ||
| Yan Kuznetsov | LHD | 24 | 1 | 3 | 4 | 0.17 | 11 | 6.8 | Calgary Wranglers | AHL |
| Etienne Morin | LHD | 26 | 5 | 17 | 22 | 0.85 | 8 | 19.8 | Moncton Wildcats | QMJHL |
| Jeremie Poirier | LHD | 4 | 1 | 6 | 7 | 1.75 | 0 | 69.7 | Calgary Wranglers | AHL |
| Ilya Solovyov | LHD | 16 | 2 | 3 | 5 | 0.31 | 12 | 12.4 | Calgary Wranglers | AHL |
Goalies
| Player | Position | GP | GAA | SV% | Team | League |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Arseni Sergeev | G | 6 | 2.82 | 0.897 | University of Connecticut | NCAA |
| Dustin Wolf | G | 13 | 2.50 | 0.920 | Calgary Wranglers | AHL |
| Yegor Yegorov | G | 14 | 2.01 | 0.926 | 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!
