Parker Bell continued to shine this week—amassing four assists in three games—but the Calgary Wranglers players led the way among Calgary Flames prospects. Most of their damage came in a massive 8–4 win over the San Diego Gulls, as the team went 1–1–2 this week.
Notably, rookie Sam Morton scored his first career AHL goal and added another helper. Meanwhile, Adam Klapka had four points and Ben Jones, Cole Schwindt, William Stromgren, and Ilya Solovyov each chipped in three points.
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 lost in a shootout and then again in overtime, beat the Gulls, then got trounced by the Coachella Valley Firebirds en route to a 1–1–2 week.
- The team continues to score by committee, with Ben Jones continuing to lead the way among the regulars. Jones added a goal and two assists this week. His 41 points is second on the team behind only Matt Coronato, who has played 22 games less.
- Adam Klapka added two goals and two assists, improving to 40 points on the year. Among players who have played a majority of the season for the Wranglers, his 0.70 points per game is second only to Coronato. Klapka got the Gordie Howe hat trick in the win over the Gulls, recording a goal, an assist, and a fight.
- Ilya Solovyov scored twice this week—nearly doubling his goal totals on the year—and added a helper. Check out this “Solo” effort:
- With the injury to Dan Vladar, Dustin Wolf has been up with the Flames since March 12. There’s a very good chance the Wranglers won’t get him back until the Flames’ season is officially over. By that time, though, the Wranglers’ season might be over too.
- William Stromgren had himself a week, scoring a goal and two assists. He’s up to 20 points on the year and slowly seems to be rounding into form.
- A big congratulations to Sam Morton, who scored the first goal of his professional career in his team’s shootout loss to the Bakersfield Condors on March 20. It was a tap-in off a nice feed by Cole Schwindt:
- Morton was also named as a top-10 finalist for the Hobey Baker Award. What a week for the 24-year-old!
- Schwindt potted three assists this week, and he’s been very impressive at the AHL level this season; impressive enough to earn a few looks with the Flames.
- Jeremie Poirier only managed a goal this week, and it was a rocket:
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’s season with the Swedish J20 is done, and he didn’t feature in any games this week in any league.
- No games this week for Joni Jurmo with KooKoo, and their season is officially over.
- Congratulations to Jurmo, though, on signing an entry-level contract with the Flames!
NCAA
- The NCAA season is just about over for all of the Flames’ prospects. Jake Boltmann at Notre Dame and Arseni Sergeev at UConn have both seen their seasons come to an end.
- The Flames must make a decision on whether to sign Boltmann by August 15 of this summer, otherwise he’s played his last game within the organization.
- Aydar Suniev played one game this week and was held without a point as UMass fell 8–1 to Boston College. UMass begins the Frozen Four tournament with a date with the University of Denver on Thursday.
OHL
- Hunter Brzustewicz added two assists this week, finishing his season with the Kitchener Rangers with 13 goals and 79 assists for 92 points. They’ll have home ice advantage in their first-round matchup with the Erie Otters, beginning March 29.
- Brzustewicz finished the season 10th in OHL scoring and second in scoring among defencemen—only bested by the Saginaw Spirit’s Zayne Parekh.
- The 19-year-old’s 92 points ranks as the 19th-highest scoring season for defencemen in the OHL, tied with Jason Gladney—who played six fewer games—from 1993–94.
QMJHL
- Three assists for Etienne Morin this week as he helped the Moncton Wildcats to a third-place finish in the QMJHL’s Eastern Conference.
- The Wildcats face off against the Chicoutimi Sagueneens, with their first-round matchup beginning on Friday.
WHL
- Parker Bell continues to make the WHL look too easy. He added four more helpers this week, bringing his season total to 64 points in 59 games.
- Unfortunately, the Tri-City Americans failed to reach the playoffs, finishing 10th in the WHL’s Western Conference.
- Now that his WHL season is done, look for Bell to join the Wranglers in the near future.
- Jaden Lipinski managed just one point—a goal—for the Vancouver Giants this week. A big congratulations, though, on being named a Second Team All-Star!
- Samuel Honzek picked up an assist this week, and he’ll get a chance to improve on a slightly disappointing season as the Giants earned a playoff berth.
- The Giants finished sixth in the Western Conference and earned a date with Dustin Wolf’s old team: the Everett Silvertips. The series begins Friday in Everett, Washington.
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)
- Matt Coronato: 41.8 (+1)
- Martin Pospisil: 39.9 (+1)
- Hunter Brzustewicz: 36.3 (+1)
- Jeremie Poirier: 29.9 (-3)
Overall regular season totals for Flames prospects
Forwards
| Player | Position | GP | G | A | P | P/GP | PIM | NHLe | Team | League |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Parker Bell | LW | 59 | 33 | 31 | 64 | 1.08 | 38 | 26.7 | Tri-City Americans | WHL |
| Lucas Ciona | LW | 53 | 4 | 2 | 6 | 0.11 | 82 | 4.4 | Calgary Wranglers | AHL |
| Matt Coronato | RW/LW | 40 | 15 | 27 | 42 | 1.05 | 19 | 41.8 | Calgary Wranglers | AHL |
| Riley Damiani | C | 62 | 11 | 13 | 24 | 0.39 | 34 | 15.5 | Calgary Wranglers/Texas Stars | AHL |
| Samuel Honzek | LW/C | 33 | 10 | 21 | 31 | 0.94 | 18 | 23.3 | Vancouver Giants | WHL |
| Ben Jones | C | 63 | 20 | 21 | 41 | 0.65 | 44 | 25.9 | Calgary Wranglers | AHL |
| Rory Kerins | C/LW | 46 | 12 | 16 | 28 | 0.61 | 8 | 24.3 | Calgary Wranglers | AHL |
| Adam Klapka | RW | 57 | 19 | 21 | 40 | 0.70 | 78 | 27.9 | Calgary Wranglers | AHL |
| Jaden Lipinski | C | 67 | 24 | 42 | 66 | 0.99 | 55 | 24.5 | 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 | 5 | 1 | 2 | 3 | 0.60 | 0 | 23.9 | Calgary Wranglers | AHL |
| Ilya Nikolayev | C | 29 | 3 | 3 | 6 | 0.21 | 8 | 8.4 | Calgary Wranglers | AHL |
| Martin Pospisil | C/W | 6 | 3 | 3 | 6 | 1.00 | 6 | 39.9 | Calgary Wranglers | AHL |
| Cole Schwindt | C/RW | 57 | 14 | 19 | 33 | 0.58 | 31 | 23.1 | Calgary Wranglers | AHL |
| William Stromgren | LW | 59 | 5 | 15 | 20 | 0.34 | 16 | 13.5 | Calgary Wranglers | AHL |
| Aydar Suniev | LW | 35 | 12 | 13 | 25 | 0.71 | 25 | 22.9 | 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 | 67 | 13 | 79 | 92 | 1.37 | 24 | 36.3 | Kitchener Rangers | OHL |
| Artyom Grushnikov | LHD | 56 | 1 | 5 | 6 | 0.11 | 38 | 4.4 | 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 | 56 | 5 | 7 | 12 | 0.21 | 25 | 8.4 | Calgary Wranglers | AHL |
| Etienne Morin | LHD | 58 | 12 | 37 | 49 | 0.84 | 31 | 19.6 | Moncton Wildcats | QMJHL |
| Jeremie Poirier | LHD | 16 | 2 | 10 | 12 | 0.75 | 18 | 29.9 | Calgary Wranglers | AHL |
| Ilya Solovyov | LHD | 45 | 5 | 8 | 13 | 0.29 | 34 | 11.6 | 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!
