What a week for Calgary Flames prospects. Some prospects are getting ready for the playoffs, others are right in the midst of them, and some like Jake Boltmann are already done for the season, and potentially forever.
Of the ones still playing, it was the team’s youngest prospects who had the biggest weeks. Hunter Brzustewicz is pushing for modern OHL history this week while fourth-round pick Jaden Lipinski put up six points for the Vancouver Giants. More points for Etienne Morin and more as the CHL prospects get set to start the postseason.
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 won one, lost one, then won another this week, going 2–1–0 in three games.
- The team continues to get scoring by committee as opposed to having one or two guys who put up points. Because of the number of call-ups with the Flames, the Wranglers have had to rely on mostly depth guys to play big minutes.
- A goal this week for Adam Klapka and an assist for Jeremie Poirier were the big standouts this week.
- Shoutout to new guy Sam Morton for getting his first AHL point this week. The Flames signed the barely-a-prospect this week out of the NCAA following a very strong season with Minnesota State Mankato.
- Interestingly, no points this week for William Stromgren, but he did score a very nifty shootout goal.
- The Wranglers are without Dustin Wolf—who’s been good-to-great in his appearances with the Flames—and have relied on Oscar Dansk in net for much of the time.
- They also have Jakob Pelletier back now, who was sent down from the Flames this week.
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
- One assist this week for Axel Hurtig, but it was in the Swedish J20. He did not feature in any SHL games this week sadly.
- No points this week for Joni Jurmo. The Flames will have to decide on whether he’s worth keeping as a new prospect in the system.
NCAA
- The NCAA season is just about over for all of the Flames’ prospects.
- Jake Boltmann and Notre Dame are done after losing in their playoffs. Like Jurmo, the Flames need to make a decision on him this summer or they will lose his rights. There’s a very low chance that they sign him.
- Arseni Sergeev and UConn are out of their playoffs after losing a heartbreaker to the top-seeded Boston College in the quarterfinals. Their season is now over, but Sergeev will likely be back next year.
- Aydar Suniev and UMass are through to the next round of the playoffs after beating Providence in the quarterfinals. They play at the weekend against Boston College at TD Gardens, which will be a very tough test.
OHL
- A goal and six helpers for Hunter Brzustewicz in Kitchener this week. He hit the 90-point mark this week, and will likely finish just under 100 points on the year.
- It’s worth contextualizing this massive point total. Brzustewicz sits 18th in OHL scoring among defencemen all-time. Only one defenceman has more points than he does so far since 2000 and that was Ryan Ellis who had 101 in 2010–11.
- The Flames’ prospect is tied with expected first-round pick Zayne Parekh with 90 points on the year, but Parekh has played a couple fewer games.
QMJHL
- Another multi-point week for Etienne Morin, who had a goal and an assist for Moncton.
- He likely plays one more year in the QMJHL before turning pro.
WHL
- What a week for the Flames’ WHL prospects. Let’s start off with Parker Bell who recorded a hat-trick and added an assist for the Tri-City Americans. Take a look at all of his goals here:
- Bell is already signed to an entry-level contract and should be heading to the Wranglers once his WHL season is done.
- Jaden Lipinski had an even bigger week, potting three goals and adding three helpers this week. He’s now at a point-per-game pace while playing on the Vancouver Giants’ top line. He even got a shorthanded goal this week. Take a look here:
- The one player not shining in the WHL right now to the degree expected is Samuel Honzek, who had just a goal and two helpers while playing on the Giants’ second line. He’s hovering right under the point-per-game mark, but for a standout first-round pick, the expectations are much higher.
- Honzek likely also turns pro after this season, but it’s not with as much fanfare as with Lipinski and Bell.
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 | 56 | 33 | 27 | 60 | 1.07 | 34 | 25.8 | Tri-City Americans | WHL |
| Lucas Ciona | LW | 49 | 4 | 1 | 5 | 0.10 | 64 | 4.4 | Calgary Wranglers | AHL |
| Matt Coronato | RW/LW | 40 | 15 | 27 | 42 | 1.05 | 19 | 41.8 | Calgary Wranglers | AHL |
| Riley Damiani | C | 57 | 10 | 13 | 23 | 0.40 | 34 | 16.7 | Calgary Wranglers/Texas Stars | AHL |
| Samuel Honzek | LW/C | 31 | 10 | 20 | 30 | 0.97 | 14 | 23.8 | Vancouver Giants | WHL |
| Ben Jones | C | 58 | 19 | 19 | 38 | 0.66 | 40 | 25.9 | Calgary Wranglers | AHL |
| Rory Kerins | C/LW | 46 | 12 | 16 | 28 | 0.61 | 8 | 25.5 | Calgary Wranglers | AHL |
| Adam Klapka | RW | 52 | 17 | 19 | 36 | 0.69 | 69 | 27.9 | Calgary Wranglers | AHL |
| Jaden Lipinski | C | 65 | 23 | 42 | 65 | 1.00 | 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 | ||
| Sam Morton | C | 1 | 0 | 1 | 1 | 1.00 | 0 | 39.9 | Calgary Wranglers | AHL |
| Ilya Nikolayev | C | 29 | 3 | 3 | 6 | 0.21 | 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 | 52 | 14 | 16 | 30 | 0.58 | 27 | 23.1 | Calgary Wranglers | AHL |
| William Stromgren | LW | 54 | 4 | 13 | 17 | 0.31 | 14 | 13.2 | Calgary Wranglers | AHL |
| Aydar Suniev | LW | 34 | 12 | 13 | 25 | 0.74 | 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 | 65 | 13 | 77 | 90 | 1.38 | 22 | 36.3 | Kitchener Rangers | OHL |
| Artyom Grushnikov | LHD | 51 | 1 | 4 | 5 | 0.10 | 34 | 4.0 | Calgary Wranglers/Texas Stars | AHL |
| Axel Hurtig | LHD | 27 | 3 | 8 | 11 | 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 | 53 | 5 | 7 | 12 | 0.23 | 21 | 9.2 | Calgary Wranglers | AHL |
| Etienne Morin | LHD | 55 | 12 | 34 | 46 | 0.84 | 29 | 19.8 | Moncton Wildcats | QMJHL |
| Jeremie Poirier | LHD | 11 | 1 | 10 | 11 | 1.00 | 4 | 39.9 | Calgary Wranglers | AHL |
| Ilya Solovyov | LHD | 40 | 3 | 7 | 10 | 0.25 | 30 | 10.4 | Calgary Wranglers | AHL |
Goalies
| Player | Position | GP | GAA | SV% | Team | League |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Arseni Sergeev | G | 16 | 2.70 | 0.913 | 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!
