With their final pick of the 2024 NHL Draft, the Calgary Flames picked Eric Jamieson to round out their newest prospects. Jamieson is a 2005-born Everett Silvertips defender. The Win Column interviewed Jamieson after he was selected to get his thoughts on the whole experience, and here is his complete player profile to see who he is and how he got to where he is today.
Who is Eric Jamieson?
| Position | Handedness | Height | Weight | TOI |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| LD | Left | 6’3″ | 203 lbs | 21:34 |
Growing up in Calgary, the 6’3″ Jamieson first found his game with the Calgary Northstar Sabres U15 and the CNHA Canucks U15 during the 2018–19 season before heading out to the Edge School prep for the following three seasons.
This led to a selection in the ninth round of the 2020 WHL Draft, 195th overall by Everett.
Jamieson’s on-ice production
Making the full-time move to the WHL during the 2021–22 season, Jamieson appeared in 12 games. Making the jump to his draft year in 2022–23 he earned a full-time roster spot with the Silvertips where he saw both his role and production jump.
Unfortunately getting passed over in the 2023 NHL Draft gave him some extra fuel coming into the 2023–24 season where he emerged as a top WHL defender and penalty kill specialist.
| Year | Draft Relative | League | Team | GP | G | A | P | Playoff GP | Playoff G | Playoff A | Playoff P |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2022–23 | D + 0 | WHL | Everett Silvertips | 65 | 3 | 10 | 13 | 5 | 0 | 0 | 0 |
| 2023–24 | D+1 | WHL | Everett Silvertips | 66 | 10 | 22 | 32 | 9 | 0 | 1 | 1 |
Playing for the WHL’s fourth-placed Silvertips, Jamieson had a breakout year and emerged as a capable physical defensively-minded defender.
This prominence for his physicality and defensive game mixed in with greater production led to the Calgary Flames selecting him in the sixth round at 177th overall.
Jamieson’s strengths
The Calgary Flames definitely have a WHL type in this player: “tall, physical edge, and some senses.”
Physicality
There is no doubt about it, physicality is the shining aspect of Jamieson’s game.
Be it in the defensive zone where the Calgary product proves to be an intensely physical slot presence, with strong box outs, stick tie-ups, and board play (further helped by his frame). It is obvious too that with the larger frame, Jamieson does not lack physical power and muscle mass.
This is best articulated by his 1.68 hits per game for this past season, while his muscle mass can also be displayed through his quality hit absorption too, being on the recieving end of 1.14 hits against per game.
This power is best shown by his stick tie-ups, where he can, (and will) manhandle smaller-stature opponents, displaying a good awareness of body leverage while severely decreasing the quality of chances against.
This strength of muscle mass is shown in defensive transition where he can (inconsistently) establish good gaps that have ideal body positioning that keeps opposing players to the outside isolating them by sheer force, which also demonstrates decent risk assessment and spatial awareness while doing so.
He does struggle with angles of attack in defensive transition and sometimes being too aggressive.
Defensive instincts
Jamieson shows a good ability to exert defensive pressure and some decent defensive instincts. This defensive pressure mainly revolves around quality positioning, defensive play reading, and play disruption.
His aptitude in his own zone is largely because of his positional responsibility combined with a good-quality defensive motor. Jamieson is relentless on his man, and closes gaps in D-zone coverage quite quickly, hinting at okay spatial recognition and defensive play reading.
When at the front of the slot Jamieson also shows decent defensive play anticipation and body positioning as he rarely is not boxing out opponents, lifting sticks, or tying them up. These habits that players develop stick with them and this bodes well for his transition to pro hockey in the future.
There are further elements of grit displayed by Jamieson too with his willingness to block shots, showing a good awareness of opponent shooting lanes, and a team-first mentality.
All of these factors contribute to Jamieson serving as an asset on the penalty kill, contributing 2:13 per game on the PK this past 2023–24 season.
Jamieson’s areas of improvement
As is usual with later-round picks, there are more aspects of their game that they need to work on. For Jamieson, this revolves around offensive upside and mobility.
Offensive upside, puck skills, and skating
Offensive instincts, offensive vision, play creation, and puck skills are simply not there with the Silvertips defender.
In offensive transition, this is most obvious as he does not scan, or employ any sort of option identification or play anticipation. This shows a lack of vision for the 6’03 defender. This also results in throwing pucks to areas of high danger, often resulting in turnovers or chances against.
This lack of transitional playmaking is only made worse by his lack of puck skills, particularly around handling and passing. Although the Canadian defender has shown flashes of good puck protection mechanics, and positioning they overall need to be more consistent in his game.
He struggles to receive clean passes and struggles to give them, reducing his ability as a puck mover and facilitator. This fact is best articulated by his per-game passing accuracy sitting at only 82%.
In short, he is a bit of a transitional and breakout liability, which explains why he only starts 25% of his shifts in the neutral zone.
In zone, Jamieson doesn’t particularly detract or add to plays. He shows an ability for capable but non-creative playmaking and play support. Often just shooting the puck at the net or pinching and pushing the puck downwards (often into pressure).
This lack of offensive upside contributes to his lack of offensive production and justifies his 0:49 of PP time per game.
His skating is the third category that needs improvement as he does struggle with the pace of play, and this is particularly noticeable in defensive transition as opposing forwards can often cut to the inside lane and beat him out cleanly.
His defensive-oriented skating generally needs improvements in all areas (e.g. edgework, backwards crossovers, pivots, and power).
Despite these limitations, if Jamieson can overcome some or all of them he could see some NHL time. Either way, he is on track to play professional hockey.
Jamieson’s next steps
As a late-round pick, expectations are not super high for the Calgary-born defender, which results in significantly less pressure on him as well. He’s got a lot of development left and a lot of time to do it.
Jamieson is expected to return to the WHL next season and work on the consistency of his game. Ideally, the left-shot defender has another breakout season through the refinement of the previously mentioned puck skills, skating and offensive aptitude.
It is a wait-and-see game with the 6’3″ defensive defenceman.
Projection with the Flames
Jamieson is quite a raw prospect still and requires a lot of development. If he can improve his flaws there is a likelihood that he will become a capable third pairing shutdown defender at the NHL level, but expect him to likely make an impact with the AHL’s Wranglers.
NHL ETA: 5+ years.
