Calgary Flames prospects did not have an overly productive week. Jaden Lipinski and Cade Littler were the exceptions, each scoring a goal and adding two assists.
Hunter Brzustewicz—a third-round pick in 2023 who was a big piece in the trade that sent Elias Lindholm to the Vancouver Canucks—added another pair of assists.
Etienne Morin is normally a fairly disciplined player, but his actions this week earned him a one-game suspension. See below for more details.
Lastly, Jake Boltmann did another thing this week! It wasn’t on the ice, but it’s still worth checking out.
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 Calgary Wranglers went 1–2–0 this week, dropping a pair of games to the San Diego Gulls. They lost 5–0 on Friday, and 7–4 the following night, before beating the Manitoba Moose 4–2 yesterday.
- The Wranglers had to rely on Oscar Dansk and Connor Murphy between the pipes, as Dustin Wolf was recalled by the Flames on February 9.
- Matt Coronato scored two goals and two assists this week. Check out his power play goal from Saturday’s game:
- Mathias Emilio Pettersen picked up the primary assist on that goal.
- Adam Klapka added a pair of assists in the first period of Saturday’s game, and he now has 26 points through 39 games.
- Ilya Nikolayev potted his third goal of the season. Watch as he sneaks it through the five-hole of Gulls’ goaltender Tomas Suchanek:
- Cole Schwindt was reassigned to the Wranglers yesterday, after having been recalled by the Flames on February 4. He scored the Wranglers’ second goal in yesterday’s game.
- Ben Jones picked up a pair of assists against the Moose last night after being held without a point against the Gulls.
BCHL
- Cade Littler scored a goal and added two helpers for the Penticton Vees in an 8–0 win over the Prince George Spruce Kings on Saturday. He’s been very productive in the BCHL and is now up to 19 points in 20 games.
ECHL
- Wow, so empty here! It’s probably a good sign that none of the Flames prospects are playing in the ECHL.
Europe
- It was a quiet week overseas for Flames’ prospects, as none of Axel Hurtig, Topi Ronni, Yegor Yegorov, or Daniil Chechelev played in any games.
- Joni Jurmo laced up in two games for KooKoo in the Liiga this week. While he did not record any points, he averaged over 19 minutes time on ice and recorded three shots on goal while having a plus-minus of +4.
NCAA
- Aydar Suniev picked up another goal over two games for UMass, and he’s up to 19 points now.
- Arseni Sergeev was the Flames’ only goaltending prospect to see the ice this week. He made 29 saves in a losing effort, as UConn fell 2–0 to Suniev and UMass.
- As I said at the onset, Jake Boltmann did something off the ice this week. He appeared on the Golden Ticket Podcast, discussing hockey and life in general. It’s worth a listen on Apple Podcasts or Spotify.
OHL
- The addition of Hunter Brzustewicz means the Flames finally have something to talk about in the OHL—but can we just call him Hunter? Brzustewicz added two assists in two games for the Kitchener Rangers this week. He now has 71 points in just 51 games, which is good for second in the OHL among defencemen, and seventh among all players.
- Brzustewicz is outscoring the likes of Easton Cowan—who played for Canada at the 2024 World Junior Championship, and Quentin Musty and Calum Ritchie—both of whom were first-round picks in the 2023 NHL draft (just to name a few).
QMJHL
- Etienne Morin was held without any points through three contests this week. Let’s hope he’s at 100%—Flames prospects have had terrible injury luck this season—and he can get back to the Morin we were treated to earlier in the season.
- Something notable is the seven penalty minutes Morin picked up this week. In the Moncton Wildcats’ 8–6 loss Saturday night, Morin was assessed a two-minute minor penalty for tripping in the first period before receiving a five-minute major for kicking early in the second period. He also received a match penalty and a one-game suspension for the kick, meaning he’ll miss tonight’s game. Take a look at the kick and judge for yourself if the punishment fits the crime:
WHL
- Parker Bell padded his stats with a pair of assists this week. He’s still hovering just under a point-per-game. His plus-minus of -13 is a bit concerning, but let’s not forget that the Tri-City Americans are fourth-last (19th) in the WHL and have been outscored 215–154 (-61).
- The Vancouver Giants aren’t faring much better than the Americans, as they sit 14th in the WHL. They are a team on the rise though, having won seven of their last 10 games.
- Samuel Honzek has been a big part of the Giants’ offence and his goal and assist this week helped them to a pair of wins, extending their current win-streak to four games. Take a look at his rebound goal:
- Jaden Lipinski added a goal and two assists over the two wins.
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: 43.4 (Same)
- Martin Pospisil: 39.9 (Same)
- Hunter Brzustewicz: 36.8 (Same)
Overall regular season totals for Flames prospects
Forwards
| Player | Position | GP | G | A | P | P/GP | PIM | NHLe | Team | League |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Parker Bell | LW | 43 | 21 | 21 | 42 | 0.98 | 27 | 24.3 | Tri-City Americans | WHL |
| Lucas Ciona | LW | 39 | 2 | 1 | 3 | 0.08 | 48 | 3.2 | Calgary Wranglers | AHL |
| Matt Coronato | RW/LW | 33 | 14 | 22 | 36 | 1.09 | 17 | 43.4 | Calgary Wranglers | AHL |
| Samuel Honzek | LW/C | 18 | 8 | 13 | 21 | 1.17 | 6 | 29.0 | Vancouver Giants | WHL |
| Ben Jones | C | 45 | 14 | 16 | 30 | 0.67 | 30 | 26.7 | Calgary Wranglers | AHL |
| Rory Kerins | C/LW | 36 | 11 | 13 | 24 | 0.67 | 6 | 26.7 | Calgary Wranglers | AHL |
| Adam Klapka | RW | 39 | 11 | 15 | 26 | 0.67 | 50 | 26.7 | Calgary Wranglers | AHL |
| Jaden Lipinski | C | 50 | 15 | 30 | 45 | 0.90 | 51 | 22.3 | Vancouver Giants | WHL |
| Cade Littler | C | 14 | 8 | 3 | 11 | 0.79 | 10 | 17.5 | Cedar Rapids RoughRiders | USHL |
| 20 | 8 | 11 | 19 | 0.95 | 12 | 10.1 | Penticton Vees | BCHL | ||
| Ilya Nikolayev | C | 23 | 3 | 3 | 6 | 0.26 | 8 | 10.4 | Calgary Wranglers | AHL |
| Mathias Emilio Pettersen | C/LW | 45 | 7 | 21 | 28 | 0.62 | 25 | 24.7 | Calgary Wranglers | AHL |
| Martin Pospisil | C/W | 6 | 3 | 3 | 6 | 1.00 | 6 | 39.9 | Calgary Wranglers | AHL |
| Topi Ronni | C | 22 | 1 | 1 | 2 | 0.09 | 6 | 3.3 | Tappara | Liiga |
| 13 | 8 | 14 | 22 | 1.69 | 38 | N/A | Tappara U20 | U20 SM-sarja | ||
| Cole Schwindt | C/RW | 41 | 9 | 12 | 21 | 0.51 | 10 | 20.3 | Calgary Wranglers | AHL |
| William Stromgren | LW | 41 | 1 | 8 | 9 | 0.22 | 12 | 8.8 | Calgary Wranglers | AHL |
| Aydar Suniev | LW | 25 | 9 | 10 | 19 | 0.76 | 21 | 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 | 24 | 0 | 1 | 1 | 0.04 | 20 | 1.3 | Notre Dame | NCAA |
| Hunter Brzustewicz | RHD | 51 | 8 | 63 | 71 | 1.39 | 18 | 36.8 | Kitchener Rangers | OHL |
| Axel Hurtig | LHD | 18 | 3 | 5 | 8 | 0.44 | 29 | N/A | Rogle BK J20 | J20 Nationell |
| 4 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0.00 | 0 | 0 | Rogle BK | SHL | ||
| 4 | 0 | 1 | 1 | 0.25 | 0 | N/A | Kristianstads IK | HockeyEttan | ||
| Joni Jurmo | LHD | 39 | 1 | 4 | 5 | 0.13 | 6 | 4.8 | KooKoo/Ilves | Liiga |
| Yan Kuznetsov | LHD | 41 | 5 | 6 | 11 | 0.27 | 19 | 10.8 | Calgary Wranglers | AHL |
| Etienne Morin | LHD | 41 | 9 | 27 | 36 | 0.88 | 23 | 20.5 | Moncton Wildcats | QMJHL |
| Jeremie Poirier | LHD | 4 | 1 | 6 | 7 | 1.75 | 0 | 69.7 | Calgary Wranglers | AHL |
| Ilya Solovyov | LHD | 37 | 3 | 7 | 10 | 0.27 | 30 | 10.8 | Calgary Wranglers | AHL |
Goalies
| Player | Position | GP | GAA | SV% | Team | League |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Arseni Sergeev | G | 11 | 2.45 | 0.921 | University of Connecticut | NCAA |
| Dustin Wolf | G | 28 | 2.27 | 0.927 | Calgary Wranglers | AHL |
| Yegor Yegorov | G | 20 | 1.94 | 0.932 | MHK Dynamo Moskva | MHL |
| Daniil Chechelev | G | 4 | 2.52 | 0.926 | Ryazan-VDV | VHL |
| 1 | 3.10 | 0.880 | Vityaz Moscow Region | KHL |
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!
