The holidays brought cold weather for some, but cold performances for most of the Calgary Flames prospects. Only Dustin Wolf, Yan Kuznetsov, and Yegor Yegorov improved on their numbers over the last couple weeks, and the Calgary Wranglers—home to most of the Flames’ top prospects—have won just three of their last seven games.
Samuel Honzek has been playing in the World Junior Championships for Slovakia. In yesterday’s quarterfinal matchup, Finland eliminated Slovakia from the tournament with a 4–3 overtime win.
The Flames still have one prospect who has yet to record a point this season.
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
- Matt Coronato continued his dominance of the AHL, adding six points in the last seven games. Unfortunately, four of those points came in a 5–0 win over the Abbotsford Canucks and Coronato was held to just two points over the other six games. Take a look at this nice wrap-around goal:
- Emilio Pettersen scored a goal and six points through seven games. Unlike Coronato, his production was spread over five games. It’s exciting to see the former sixth-round pick producing so well in the AHL this year.
- Ben Jones added three points, but is now well under a point per game with 23 in 31 games. Jones is now on pace to fall just shy of last season’s 54 points, and this would mark the first season in his professional career that he did not improve on his previous season. Check out this solo effort anyway:
- Rory Kerins added four assists in his last six games and continues to be one of the Wranglers’ best offensive options.
- Cole Schwindt scored three times in the last seven games, nearly doubling his goal totals on the year. He’s up to seven goals and 16 points in 31 games. While these aren’t eye-popping numbers, he’s looked fine in the AHL. Here’s a clip of him finding open ice in a high-danger area, then quickly one-timing a pass to extend the Wranglers’ lead:
- A big congratulations to William Stromgren, who scored his first career AHL goal.
- Kuznetsov scored his third goal of the season and added two assists. That’s three points in his last seven games after scoring just four in his first 24. Take a look at this shot through traffic:
- Dustin Wolf played in six of seven games and improved his save percentage slightly—up to 0.924—while maintaining a 2.50 goals against average.
BCHL
- No points in the last two games for Cade Littler, showing why we need to temper expectations for him. He has looked good in both the USHL and BCHL this year though.
ECHL
- Wow, so empty here! It’s probably a good sign that none of the Flames prospects are playing in the ECHL.
Europe
- Topi Ronni played in four games over the last couple weeks, but you wouldn’t know it by looking at his stats. He had no points, and not even a penalty.
- Yegor Yegorov backstopped his team to one win in two games. His efforts helped improve his GAA to 2.00 and his save percentage to 0.928. He certainly hasn’t looked out of place in the MHL.
NCAA
- As school picks up again after the holidays, so too does their hockey. Aydar Suniev was right back at it, adding an assist through two games.
- The Jake Boltmann experience was in full effect again, as he enters 2024 with zero in the points column.
QMJHL
- Another three games, another two goals for Etienne Morin. He now leads all U19 defencemen in total points this season in the QMJHL. Check out this silky release:
WHL
- Parker Bell added another three points in three games for the Tri-City Americans. He’s fourth in points on the team, but second in points per game.
- The Vancouver Giants have struggled without Honzek lately, and are currently mired in a three-game losing streak. Jaden Lipinski had just one point over those three losses. Despite some disappointment for their captain, the team will be happy to have Honzek back now that Slovakia has been eliminated from the WJC.
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: 45.0 (Same)
- Martin Pospisil: 39.9 (Same)
- Samuel Honzek 34.7 (New)
Overall regular season totals for Flames prospects
Forwards
| Player | Position | GP | G | A | P | P/GP | PIM | NHLe | Team | League |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Parker Bell | LW | 26 | 13 | 15 | 28 | 1.08 | 10 | 26.7 | Tri-City Americans | WHL |
| Lucas Ciona | LW | 27 | 1 | 1 | 2 | 0.07 | 27 | 2.8 | Calgary Wranglers | AHL |
| Matt Coronato | RW/LW | 23 | 10 | 16 | 26 | 1.13 | 4 | 45.0 | Calgary Wranglers | AHL |
| Mathias Emilio Pettersen | C/LW | 31 | 6 | 17 | 23 | 0.74 | 10 | 23.8 | Calgary Wranglers | AHL |
| Samuel Honzek | LW/C | 5 | 3 | 4 | 7 | 1.40 | 4 | 34.7 | Vancouver Giants | WHL |
| Ben Jones | C | 31 | 11 | 12 | 23 | 0.74 | 18 | 29.5 | Calgary Wranglers | AHL |
| Rory Kerins | C/LW | 24 | 9 | 11 | 20 | 0.83 | 2 | 33.1 | Calgary Wranglers | AHL |
| Adam Klapka | RW | 29 | 10 | 10 | 20 | 0.69 | 40 | 27.5 | Calgary Wranglers | AHL |
| Jaden Lipinski | C | 35 | 11 | 19 | 30 | 0.86 | 39 | 21.3 | Vancouver Giants | WHL |
| Cade Littler | C | 14 | 8 | 3 | 11 | 0.79 | 10 | 17.5 | Cedar Rapids RoughRiders | USHL |
| 11 | 3 | 6 | 9 | 0.82 | 8 | 8.7 | Penticton Vees | BCHL | ||
| Ilya Nikolayev | C | 17 | 2 | 3 | 5 | 0.29 | 6 | 11.6 | Calgary Wranglers | AHL |
| Martin Pospisil | C/W | 6 | 3 | 3 | 6 | 1.00 | 6 | 39.9 | Calgary Wranglers | AHL |
| Topi Ronni | C | 19 | 1 | 1 | 2 | 0.11 | 4 | 4.1 | Tappara | Liiga |
| 5 | 3 | 4 | 7 | 1.40 | 6 | N/A | Tappara U20 | U20 SM-sarja | ||
| Cole Schwindt | C/RW | 31 | 7 | 9 | 16 | 0.52 | 8 | 20.7 | Calgary Wranglers | AHL |
| William Stromgren | LW | 28 | 1 | 2 | 3 | 0.11 | 10 | 3.5 | Calgary Wranglers | AHL |
| Aydar Suniev | LW | 17 | 7 | 6 | 13 | 0.76 | 15 | 24.5 | 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 | 16 | 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 | 31 | 2 | 5 | 7 | 0.23 | 13 | 9.2 | Calgary Wranglers | AHL |
| Etienne Morin | LHD | 29 | 7 | 17 | 24 | 0.83 | 10 | 19.3 | Moncton Wildcats | QMJHL |
| Jeremie Poirier | LHD | 4 | 1 | 6 | 7 | 1.75 | 0 | 69.7 | Calgary Wranglers | AHL |
| Ilya Solovyov | LHD | 23 | 2 | 4 | 6 | 0.26 | 14 | 10.4 | 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 | 19 | 2.50 | 0.924 | Calgary Wranglers | AHL |
| Yegor Yegorov | G | 16 | 2.00 | 0.928 | 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.
