With the NHL Trade Deadline last Friday, expectations were that the Flames would pick up some additional prospects in deals for Noah Hanifin and Jacob Markstrom. That did not come to fruition, and the only new face on this week’s roundup is Riley Damiani—acquired from the Dallas Stars in exchange for Mathias Emilio Pettersen on Thursday.
Adam Klapka scored three times and added a helper this week, which is a big jump in production from his usual standards. Staying with the Calgary Wranglers, Jeremie Poirier picked up three points after returning to the lineup for the first time in over four months.
There’s so much to discuss, 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 went 0–3–0 this week while scoring just five goals over that span. It was a week of change, though, as they welcomed another new face in Riley Damiani. Damiani played two games for the Wranglers, collecting a minus-one rating.
- Ben Jones picked up a pair of assists this week. This is a positive sign, given how dry the scoring was.
- Klapka was by far the Wranglers’ best skater this week, scoring three of the team’s five goals and collecting points on four of them. He opened the scoring in Monday’s tilt with a finish on a nice feed from Cole Schwindt:
- This assist was Schwindt’s only point this week. He’s been up and down between the Flames and Wranglers three times since the end of January.
- William Stromgren picked up a goal and three points, and he’s looked much better lately.
- Dustin Wolf played in two of the Wranglers’ games, stopping 50 of 56 shots he faced. He was called up to the Flames yesterday on an emergency basis due to an injury to Markstrom.
- Jeremie Poirier was the only Wranglers defenceman to collect any points, and he had three of them (all assists).
BCHL
- Cade Littler is done for the season after suffering an upper body injury. All the best in your recovery, Cade!
ECHL
- Wow, so empty here! It’s probably a good sign that none of the Flames prospects are playing in the ECHL.
Europe
- Axel Hurtig played a pair of games in the J20 but did not register any points.
- Another week of one game and no points for Joni Jurmo in Finland.
- Yegor Yegorov and Daniil Chechelev once again saw no action this week.
- Topi Ronni had a goal and three points in the Finnish U20. After news broke that he was found guilty of criminal charges yesterday, Tappara terminated Ronni’s contract in the Liiga.
NCAA
- Aydar Suniev had a quiet week for UMass this week, playing in two games but recording no points.
- Arseni Sergeev suited up for one game for UConn, stopping 25 shots en route to a 5–1 victory.
- Two games and no points this week for Jake Boltmann. The pair of losses saw Notre Dame eliminated from the B1G Hockey Tournament.
OHL
- Uncharacteristically, Hunter Brzustewicz has just one point—an assist—this week for the Ontario Hockey League’s Kitchener Rangers.
- Brzustewicz is still top-10 in the OHL in scoring and remains just two points behind Zayne Parekh for the most points as a defenceman in the OHL this season.
QMJHL
- It was a big week for Etienne Morin and the Moncton Wildcats, who went 2–1–0 this week.
- Morin pitched in a pair of goals and three points, including this beauty:
WHL
- The Vancouver Giants went 1–2–0 this week, dropping a pair of games to the Prince George Cougars.
- Jaden Lipinski chipped three goals and an assist, with two of those goals coming in a 5–1 win against the Tri-City Americans last night.
- Samuel Honzek had zero points but he missed the second game of the Prince George series as well as last night’s game against the Americans due to a mandatory exam:
- Over with the Americans, Parker Bell scored three goals this week and reached the 30-goal mark for the first time in his WHL career. Congratulations, Parker! He was not in the lineup against the Giants last night. Here’s a look at his 30th:
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):
- Connor Zary: 66.6 (Same)
- Jeremie Poirier: 44.2 (Same)
- Matt Coronato: 41.8 (Same)
- Martin Pospisil: 39.9 (Same)
- Hunter Brzustewicz: 36.3 (Same)
Overall regular season totals for Flames prospects
Forwards
| Player | Position | GP | G | A | P | P/GP | PIM | NHLe | Team | League |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Parker Bell | LW | 54 | 30 | 26 | 56 | 1.04 | 34 | 25.8 | Tri-City Americans | WHL |
| Lucas Ciona | LW | 47 | 4 | 1 | 5 | 0.11 | 57 | 4.4 | Calgary Wranglers | AHL |
| Matt Coronato | RW/LW | 40 | 15 | 27 | 42 | 1.05 | 19 | 41.8 | Calgary Wranglers | AHL |
| Riley Damiani | C | 55 | 10 | 13 | 23 | 0.42 | 34 | 16.7 | Calgary Wranglers/Texas Stars | AHL |
| Samuel Honzek | LW/C | 28 | 9 | 18 | 27 | 0.96 | 12 | 23.8 | Vancouver Giants | WHL |
| Ben Jones | C | 56 | 19 | 19 | 38 | 0.68 | 40 | 25.9 | Calgary Wranglers | AHL |
| Rory Kerins | C/LW | 44 | 12 | 16 | 28 | 0.64 | 8 | 25.5 | Calgary Wranglers | AHL |
| Adam Klapka | RW | 50 | 16 | 19 | 35 | 0.70 | 65 | 27.9 | Calgary Wranglers | AHL |
| Jaden Lipinski | C | 62 | 20 | 39 | 59 | 0.95 | 55 | 23.5 | 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 | 27 | 3 | 3 | 6 | 0.22 | 8 | 8.8 | Calgary Wranglers | AHL |
| Martin Pospisil | C/W | 6 | 3 | 3 | 6 | 1.00 | 6 | 39.9 | Calgary Wranglers | AHL |
| Cole Schwindt | C/RW | 50 | 14 | 15 | 29 | 0.58 | 27 | 23.1 | Calgary Wranglers | AHL |
| William Stromgren | LW | 52 | 4 | 13 | 17 | 0.33 | 14 | 13.2 | Calgary Wranglers | AHL |
| Aydar Suniev | LW | 33 | 12 | 13 | 25 | 0.76 | 23 | 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 | 30 | 0 | 2 | 2 | 0.07 | 22 | 2.3 | Notre Dame | NCAA |
| Hunter Brzustewicz | RHD | 62 | 12 | 73 | 85 | 1.37 | 22 | 36.3 | Kitchener Rangers | OHL |
| Artyom Grushnikov | LHD | 50 | 1 | 4 | 5 | 0.10 | 34 | 4.0 | Calgary Wranglers/Texas Stars | AHL |
| Axel Hurtig | LHD | 25 | 3 | 7 | 10 | 0.40 | 35 | N/A | Rogle BK J20 | J20 Nationell |
| 7 | 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 | 46 | 1 | 4 | 5 | 0.11 | 14 | 4.1 | KooKoo/Ilves | Liiga |
| Yan Kuznetsov | LHD | 52 | 5 | 7 | 12 | 0.23 | 21 | 9.2 | Calgary Wranglers | AHL |
| Etienne Morin | LHD | 52 | 11 | 33 | 44 | 0.85 | 29 | 19.8 | Moncton Wildcats | QMJHL |
| Jeremie Poirier | LHD | 9 | 1 | 9 | 10 | 1.11 | 4 | 44.2 | 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 | 14 | 2.65 | 0.915 | University of Connecticut | NCAA |
| Dustin Wolf | G | 35 | 2.43 | 0.923 | 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!
