It was another solid week for Calgary Flames prospects. Leading the way was Parker Bell for the Western Hockey League’s Tri-City Americans, who scored four goals this week. His efforts included a hat trick performance in a game where his team was dusted 9–4 at the hands of the Moose Jaw Warriors.
For the American Hockey League’s Calgary Wranglers, Cole Schwindt potted three goals, while rookie sensation Matt Coronato racked up four points.
Our favourite new prospect—Hunter Brzustewicz—had a pair of assists to hit 80 points on the season for the Ontario Hockey League’s Kitchener Rangers.
Did Jake Boltmann score this week? Now that he’s on the board with a couple assists, let’s manifest his first goal of the year!
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 went 1–1–0 this week, splitting a pair of games against the Manitoba Moose on the road.
- The Wranglers are continuing to trudge through a season where they’re without their top players. Connor Zary and Martin Pospisil left early and haven’t looked back; Jeremie Poirier has missed most of the season with an injury; Dustin Wolf, Matt Coronato, and Cole Schwindt have been shuffled between the Wranglers and Flames often throughout the year.
- Poirier returned to practice with the Wranglers on Monday, which is a good sign:
- Rory Kerins added a pair of assists, bringing his total points up to 27.
- Wolf made a statement in his most recent assignment to the Wranglers, stopping 68 of 75 shots on goal. He was booked for robbery on this one:
- Ben Jones—after starting the year as one of the Wranglers’ most consistent scoring threats—has cooled off quite a bit. He was held off the scoresheet this week, but his 15 goals are still tied for the team lead with Coronato.
- Coronato scored a goal and added three helpers this week. He’s the Wranglers’ leader in points by a wide margin now, despite playing in 12 fewer games than number two (Jones). Take a look at this beautiful dish:
- Speaking of Schwindt, he torched the Moose for three goals this week. Check out the incredible hand-eye coordination on this one:
BCHL
- No points for Cade Littler this week in the BCHL. Despite his lack of massive production, he’s probably too good for the BCHL. He needs to play against tougher competition and will do so in the NCAA next year.
ECHL
- Wow, so empty here! It’s probably a good sign that none of the Flames prospects are playing in the ECHL.
- Lucas Ciona continues to struggle in the AHL, though, resulting in no game action this week. Sending him to the ECHL to get more ice time might help build his confidence.
Europe
- Topi Ronni had just one assist over two games this week. This is a big step down for a player who was flirting with two points per game coming into this week.
- Yegor Yegorov played in one forgettable game in Russia this week. He was lit up for three goals on 15 shots before being replaced less than halfway through the game.
- Axel Hurtig was quiet this week as he was held off the scoresheet through two games.
- No points for Joni Jurmo this week, either. A big concern is a downward trend in ice time. He started the week at just over 13 minutes TOI and ended the week at under five and a half minutes.
- No games for Daniil Chechelev in the VHL this week after an awful showing last week.
NCAA
- Jake Boltmann did not score this week and is still in search of his first goal of the season.
- One assist for Aydar Suniev at UMass; he’s up to 22 points in 29 games. Here’s a look at the assist:
- A rough outing for Arseni Sergeev at UConn this week, as he was torched by Macklin Celebrini and Boston University for six goals. His GAA and save percentage both took big hits in this one.
OHL
- Hunter Brzustewicz had two assists this week and hit 80 points on the season. He’s one point back of tying Zayne Parekh for most points this season by a defenceman in the OHL.
QMJHL
- Three games and just one point for Morin this week. It seems every time I write about him lately, he has an off week. He patrols the blue line well, though:
WHL
- Who else but Parker Bell with another big week for the Americans? He scored four times, including a hat trick over two games. Check out the shorty he scored to make the hats rain down:
- His 27 goals are good for first on the team by a margin of two.
- Samuel Honzek had one assist this week for the Vancouver Giants. He was held without a point in a game where his team won 7–1. While that’s not what we want to see, keep in mind that he missed two months of the season due to an injury.
- Jaden Lipinski was on the board for two assists this week and brought his point totals up to 49 on the 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: 43.0 (Same)
- Martin Pospisil: 39.9 (Same)
- Hunter Brzustewicz: 37.1 (Same)
Overall regular season totals for Flames prospects
Forwards
| Player | Position | GP | G | A | P | P/GP | PIM | NHLe | Team | League |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Parker Bell | LW | 49 | 27 | 25 | 52 | 1.06 | 34 | 26.2 | Tri-City Americans | WHL |
| Lucas Ciona | LW | 41 | 2 | 1 | 3 | 0.07 | 48 | 2.8 | Calgary Wranglers | AHL |
| Matt Coronato | RW/LW | 38 | 15 | 26 | 41 | 1.08 | 19 | 43.0 | Calgary Wranglers | AHL |
| Samuel Honzek | LW/C | 24 | 8 | 17 | 25 | 1.04 | 10 | 25.8 | Vancouver Giants | WHL |
| Ben Jones | C | 50 | 15 | 16 | 31 | 0.62 | 34 | 24.7 | Calgary Wranglers | AHL |
| Rory Kerins | C/LW | 41 | 12 | 15 | 27 | 0.66 | 6 | 26.3 | Calgary Wranglers | AHL |
| Adam Klapka | RW | 44 | 11 | 15 | 26 | 0.59 | 52 | 23.5 | Calgary Wranglers | AHL |
| Jaden Lipinski | C | 56 | 16 | 33 | 49 | 0.88 | 55 | 21.8 | Vancouver Giants | WHL |
| Cade Littler | C | 14 | 8 | 3 | 11 | 0.79 | 10 | 17.5 | Cedar Rapids RoughRiders | USHL |
| 24 | 9 | 12 | 21 | 0.88 | 14 | 9.4 | Penticton Vees | BCHL | ||
| Ilya Nikolayev | C | 26 | 3 | 3 | 6 | 0.23 | 8 | 9.2 | Calgary Wranglers | AHL |
| Mathias Emilio Pettersen | C/LW | 50 | 7 | 22 | 29 | 0.58 | 31 | 23.1 | 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 |
| 17 | 9 | 20 | 29 | 1.71 | 40 | N/A | Tappara U20 | U20 SM-sarja | ||
| Cole Schwindt | C/RW | 44 | 13 | 12 | 25 | 0.57 | 27 | 22.7 | Calgary Wranglers | AHL |
| William Stromgren | LW | 46 | 2 | 10 | 12 | 0.26 | 12 | 10.4 | Calgary Wranglers | AHL |
| Aydar Suniev | LW | 29 | 11 | 11 | 22 | 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 | 28 | 0 | 2 | 2 | 0.07 | 20 | 2.3 | Notre Dame | NCAA |
| Hunter Brzustewicz | RHD | 57 | 11 | 69 | 80 | 1.40 | 18 | 37.1 | Kitchener Rangers | OHL |
| Axel Hurtig | LHD | 22 | 3 | 6 | 9 | 0.41 | 31 | 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 | 44 | 1 | 4 | 5 | 0.11 | 14 | 4.1 | KooKoo/Ilves | Liiga |
| Yan Kuznetsov | LHD | 46 | 5 | 6 | 11 | 0.24 | 21 | 9.6 | Calgary Wranglers | AHL |
| Etienne Morin | LHD | 47 | 9 | 32 | 41 | 0.87 | 27 | 20.3 | Moncton Wildcats | QMJHL |
| Jeremie Poirier | LHD | 4 | 1 | 6 | 7 | 1.75 | 0 | 69.7 | Calgary Wranglers | AHL |
| Ilya Solovyov | LHD | 38 | 3 | 7 | 10 | 0.26 | 30 | 10.4 | Calgary Wranglers | AHL |
Goalies
| Player | Position | GP | GAA | SV% | Team | League |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Arseni Sergeev | G | 12 | 2.76 | 0.911 | University of Connecticut | NCAA |
| Dustin Wolf | G | 32 | 2.30 | 0.927 | Calgary Wranglers | AHL |
| Yegor Yegorov | G | 25 | 2.46 | 0.917 | MHK Dynamo Moskva | MHL |
| Daniil Chechelev | G | 5 | 3.10 | 0.908 | 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!
