While the weather in Calgary is going to be abysmally cold this week, the Flames’ prospects continue to be hot. The three WHL prospects had massive weeks, including seven points for Jaden Lipinski.
Dustin Wolf allowed just one goal in his two games this week, and is expected to be named to the AHL’s All-Star Game.
The Wranglers also had some new faces back with the team, some who will be there for now and others who should be there for a while.
And we once again play our favourite game: how many points does Jake Boltmann have 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
- A huge week for the Calgary Wranglers on and off the ice. On the ice, they picked up a massive 1–0 shootout win and a 5–1 non-shootout win over the Henderson Silver Knights.
- Dustin Wolf was in net for both wins, allowing just one goal in two games, and saw his numbers go up substantially!
- Matt Coronato had two goals while Emilio Pettersen had three points this week. The lone shootout goal came from Cole Schwindt, who had another goal as well this week.
- Off the ice, the Wranglers loaned Yan Kuznetsov to the Flames, who featured in his first ever NHL game. They also got Kevin Rooney and Jakob Pelletier back, as well as got Oliver Kylington on a conditioning stint back with the team.
- It is likely a short stint for both Pelletier and Kylington, who should be back with the NHL side in short order.
- The bad news this week continues to be Lucas Ciona, who had no points again this week. He has been playing mostly on the fourth line and sits at a brutal -7.
- Rory Kerins also appears a bit banged up of late, featuring in just one game. He should be back.
BCHL
- A goal and an assist for Cade Littler in the BCHL. Again, as always, it’s the BCHL.
ECHL
- Wow, so empty here! It’s probably a good sign that none of the Flames prospects are playing in the ECHL.
Europe
- Some mixed news for the Flames prospects in Eurasia.
- Topi Ronni had three assists, but it was in the Finnish U20 not in Liiga.
- Axel Hurtig had a goal in the Swedish J20, but also had an assist in the third-division HockeyEttan.
- Daniil Chechelev played his first game since returning to Russia, but allowed four goals in the VHL with Ryazan.
- No games this week for Yegor Yegorov.
NCAA
- A goal this week for Aydar Suniev at UMass. Great to see him continuing to hit the scoresheet.
- Guess how many points Jake Boltmann has this season? If you guessed zero, you’d be right.
- No games this week for Arseni Sergeev at UConn.
QMJHL
- A goal and three assists for Etienne Morin in Moncton. The prospect continues to log heavy minutes and put up great numbers for the Wildcats.
- He sits seventh in the league in scoring, despite playing just 31 games this year. Among all U19 defencemen, he sits second in points, three points back of first despite playing eight less games than the player ahead of him.
WHL
- Welcome back Samuel Honzek! Fresh off of his time at the World Juniors, the Vancouver GIants prospect had a goal and an assist in his return.
- While he was away, fellow prospect Jaden Lipinski piled up the points, logging a goal and six assists this past week. Absolutely massive numbers from the 2023 fourth-rounder.
- Parker Bell continues to impress on the not-great Tri-City Americans. He notched two goals and an assist this week despite sitting -11 on the season, the worst among Flames prospects this season. Bell is also third on his team in scoring, despite playing just 29 of the team’s 37 games this year.
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: 44.6 (Same)
- Martin Pospisil: 39.9 (Same)
- Samuel Honzek 37.1 (New)
Overall regular season totals for Flames prospects
Forwards
| Player | Position | GP | G | A | P | P/GP | PIM | NHLe | Team | League |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Parker Bell | LW | 29 | 16 | 16 | 32 | 1.11 | 17 | 27.2 | Tri-City Americans | WHL |
| Lucas Ciona | LW | 29 | 1 | 1 | 2 | 0.07 | 27 | 2.8 | Calgary Wranglers | AHL |
| Matt Coronato | RW/LW | 25 | 12 | 16 | 28 | 1.12 | 4 | 44.6 | Calgary Wranglers | AHL |
| Mathias Emilio Pettersen | C/LW | 33 | 7 | 19 | 26 | 0.79 | 12 | 31.5 | Calgary Wranglers | AHL |
| Samuel Honzek | LW/C | 6 | 4 | 5 | 9 | 1.40 | 4 | 37.1 | Vancouver Giants | WHL |
| Ben Jones | C | 33 | 11 | 12 | 23 | 0.70 | 24 | 27.9 | Calgary Wranglers | AHL |
| Rory Kerins | C/LW | 25 | 9 | 11 | 20 | 0.80 | 2 | 31.9 | Calgary Wranglers | AHL |
| Adam Klapka | RW | 31 | 10 | 10 | 20 | 0.65 | 42 | 25.9 | Calgary Wranglers | AHL |
| Jaden Lipinski | C | 37 | 12 | 25 | 37 | 1.00 | 39 | 24.0 | Vancouver Giants | WHL |
| Cade Littler | C | 14 | 8 | 3 | 11 | 0.79 | 10 | 17.5 | Cedar Rapids RoughRiders | USHL |
| 13 | 4 | 7 | 11 | 0.85 | 12 | 8.7 | Penticton Vees | BCHL | ||
| Ilya Nikolayev | C | 18 | 2 | 3 | 5 | 0.28 | 6 | 11.2 | 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 |
| 7 | 4 | 6 | 10 | 1.43 | 8 | N/A | Tappara U20 | U20 SM-sarja | ||
| Cole Schwindt | C/RW | 33 | 8 | 9 | 17 | 0.52 | 10 | 20.7 | Calgary Wranglers | AHL |
| William Stromgren | LW | 30 | 1 | 3 | 4 | 0.13 | 10 | 5.2 | Calgary Wranglers | AHL |
| Aydar Suniev | LW | 18 | 8 | 6 | 14 | 0.78 | 17 | 25.1 | 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 | 18 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 18 | 0 | Notre Dame | NCAA |
| Axel Hurtig | LHD | 13 | 3 | 3 | 6 | 0.47 | 22 | N/A | Rogle BK J20 | J20 Nationell |
| 1 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0.00 | 0 | 0 | Rogle BK | SHL | ||
| 1 | 0 | 1 | 1 | 1.00 | 0 | N/A | Kristianstads IK | HockeyEttan | ||
| Yan Kuznetsov | LHD | 31 | 2 | 5 | 7 | 0.23 | 13 | 9.2 | Calgary Wranglers | AHL |
| Etienne Morin | LHD | 31 | 8 | 20 | 28 | 0.90 | 10 | 21.0 | Moncton Wildcats | QMJHL |
| Jeremie Poirier | LHD | 4 | 1 | 6 | 7 | 1.75 | 0 | 69.7 | Calgary Wranglers | AHL |
| Ilya Solovyov | LHD | 25 | 2 | 4 | 6 | 0.24 | 16 | 9.6 | 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 | 21 | 2.30 | 0.930 | Calgary Wranglers | AHL |
| Yegor Yegorov | G | 17 | 1.99 | 0.929 | MHK Dynamo Moskva | MHL |
| Daniil Chechelev | G | 1 | 3.10 | 0.889 | Ryazan-VDV | VHL |
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.
