The 2024–25 hockey season is underway for some of the Calgary Flames prospects. The CHL and Russian leagues have kicked off, but a good chunk of prospects still have yet to hit the ice. This is due to the fact that the Flames have a lot of prospects in the AHL with the Calgary Wranglers. The Wranglers’ season is set to begin on October 11.
But that won’t stop us from checking in on the OHL, QMJHL, WHL, and Russia. The Flames’ 2024 second-round pick, Jacob Battaglia, in particular, stood out this week for all the right reasons. On the other hand, Yegor Yegorov stood out for all the wrong reasons.
There’s already lots 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
- As I mentioned earlier, the Wranglers’ season begins October 11. They’ll host the Abbotsford Canucks at 7:00 pm MDT.
- The Wranglers will welcome some new faces this year as players come across seas and age out of juniors. Others have either moved onto new teams or will be up with the Flames.
- Connor Zary and Martin Pospisil are all but locked in on the Flames’ season-opening roster. Both started with the Wranglers last year but were called up mid-season and never looked back.
- Many expect Dustin Wolf will be with the Flames, but that’s not guaranteed. Daniel Vladar will be with the Flames, and free agent signing Devin Cooley has been turning heads in the preseason. At the very least, Cooley is making the choice tough for the Flames.
- Adam Klapka and William Stromgren could also push for a look with the Flames this year, much like Zary and Pospisil last year.
- Samuel Honzek, Jaden Lipinski, Hunter Brzustewicz, Joni Jurmo, and Waltteri Ignatjew are the new full-time additions to the Wranglers this season.
Europe
- Defenceman Nikita Okhotyuk already has 10 games under his belt in the KHL this year. He has one assist to his name and eight penalties in minutes so far.
- In goal, Kirill Zarubin has played four games in the MHL with AKM Tula. They have not gone well. Zarubin is 1–3–0 with a 3.84 goals against average and a .886 save percentage.
- Yegor Yegorov has fared even worse through his two VHL outings for HK Tambov. He hasn’t recorded a win or loss, but his 4.45 GAA and .824 SV% are rough.
NCAA
- The NCAA’s 2024–25 season hasn’t begun yet, with puck drop set for next weekend.
- The Flames have forwards Trevor Hoskin at Niagara University, Cade Littler at U. of North Dakota, and Aydar Suniev at UMass.
- In goal, it’s just Arseni Sergeyev at Penn State U.
OHL
- The Flames have a lot more representation in the OHL than they did at this time last year. In fact, they didn’t have any representation in the OHL until Brzustewicz arrived.
- Let’s start with 18-year-old winger Jacob Battaglia. He’s played three games for the Kingston Frontenacs and already has three goals and seven points, leading the team in both categories. That’s superb production from the 2024 second-rounder. Here’s one of his goals:
- Centre Luke Misa—skating for the Brampton Steelhead—has a goal and three points through two games.
- On defence, Henry Mews has an assist through two games for the Ottawa 67’s.
- The Flames’ prize jewel of the 2024 draft—Zayne Parekh—was recently returned to the Saginaw Spirit. After leading all OHL defencemen in scoring last season, Parekh is scoreless through one game. Fear not; the points will come.
QMJHL
- The Flames’ other 2024 first-rounder—Matvei Gridin—kicked off his QMJHL career after a rather eventful summer. He’s played two games, scored a nice goal, and added an assist. Check out the goal:
- Etienne Morin also has a pair of games in for the Moncton Wildcats and a goal to his name. Hopefully, he can get back to the level of production we grew accustomed to at the beginning of last season.
WHL
- Onto the WHL, Andrew Basha is already showing off the offence that convinced the Flames to draft him in the second round this year. He’s got a goal and two points through two games for the Medicine Hat Tigers. Bigger and better than his stat line is the fact that Basha signed his entry-level contract with the Flames this past weekend.
- Hunter Laing—a 2024 sixth-round pick—has a goal through two games for the Prince George Cougars.
- Defenceman Axel Hurtig is now in North America with the Calgary Hitmen. He’s been held off the scoresheet through his first two games.
- Also on defence is another 2024 draft pick in Eric Jamieson. The sixth-rounder has an assist through two games for the Everett Silvertips.
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 five (bracketed numbers denote movement from the previous week):
- Jacob Battaglia: 61.7 (New)
- Luke Misa: 39.7 (New)
- Andrew Basha: 24.8 (New)
- Matvei Gridin: 23.3 (New)
- Henry Mews: 13.2 (New)
Overall regular season totals for Flames prospects
Forwards
| Player | Position | GP | G | A | P | P/GP | PIM | NHLe | Team | League |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Andrew Basha | LW | 2 | 1 | 1 | 2 | 1.00 | 2 | 24.8 | Medicine Hat Tigers | WHL |
| Jacob Battaglia | RW/LW | 3 | 3 | 4 | 7 | 2.33 | 4 | 61.7 | Kingston Frontenacs | OHL |
| Parker Bell | LW | Calgary Wranglers | AHL | |||||||
| Lucas Ciona | LW | Calgary Wranglers | AHL | |||||||
| Matvei Gridin | RW | 2 | 1 | 1 | 2 | 1.00 | 0 | 23.3 | Shawinigan Cataractes | QMJHL |
| Samuel Honzek | LW/C | Calgary Wranglers | AHL | |||||||
| Trevor Hoskin | C/RW | Niagara University | NCAA | |||||||
| Rory Kerins | C/LW | Calgary Wranglers | AHL | |||||||
| Adam Klapka | RW | Calgary Wranglers | AHL | |||||||
| Hunter Laing | C | 2 | 1 | 0 | 1 | 0.50 | 2 | 12.4 | Prince George Cougars | WHL |
| Jaden Lipinski | C | Calgary Wranglers | AHL | |||||||
| Cade Littler | C | U. of North Dakota | NCAA | |||||||
| Luke Misa | C | 2 | 1 | 2 | 3 | 1.50 | 0 | 39.7 | Brampton Steelheads | OHL |
| Ilya Nikolayev | C | Calgary Wranglers | AHL | |||||||
| Cole Schwindt | C/RW | Calgary Wranglers | AHL | |||||||
| William Stromgren | LW | Calgary Wranglers | AHL | |||||||
| Aydar Suniev | LW | UMass | NCAA |
Defencemen
| Player | Position | GP | G | A | P | P/GP | PIM | NHLe | Team | League |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Hunter Brzustewicz | RHD | Calgary Wranglers | AHL | |||||||
| Artyom Grushnikov | LHD | Calgary Wranglers | AHL | |||||||
| Axel Hurtig | LHD | 2 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0.00 | 0 | 0.0 | Calgary Hitmen | WHL |
| Eric Jamieson | LHD | 2 | 0 | 1 | 1 | 0.50 | 2 | 12.4 | Everett Silvertips | WHL |
| Joni Jurmo | LHD | Calgary Wranglers | AHL | |||||||
| Yan Kuznetsov | LHD | Calgary Wranglers | AHL | |||||||
| Henry Mews | RHD | 2 | 0 | 1 | 1 | 0.50 | 2 | 13.2 | Ottawa 67’s | OHL |
| Etienne Morin | LHD | 2 | 1 | 0 | 1 | 0.50 | 2 | 11.6 | Moncton Wildcats | QMJHL |
| Nikita Okhotyuk | LHD | 10 | 0 | 1 | 1 | 0.10 | 8 | 6.6 | CSKA Moskva | KHL |
| Zayne Parekh | RHD | 1 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0.00 | 0 | 0.0 | Saginaw Spirit | OHL |
| Jeremie Poirier | LHD | Calgary Wranglers | AHL | |||||||
| Ilya Solovyov | LHD | Calgary Wranglers | AHL |
Goalies
| Player | Position | GP | GAA | SV% | Team | League |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Daniil Chechelev | G | Yunison-Moskva | VHL | |||
| Waltteri Ignatjew | G | Calgary Wranglers | AHL | |||
| Areseni Sergeyev | G | Penn State U. | NCAA | |||
| Dustin Wolf | G | Calgary Wranglers | AHL | |||
| Yegor Yegorov | G | 2 | 4.45 | .824 | HK Tambov | VHL |
| Kirill Zarubin | G | 4 | 3.84 | .886 | AKM Tula | MHL |
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!
