In the past week, the Calgary Flames’ OHL prospects were the big story, with three players putting up big numbers for their junior clubs.
Continuing his absolute tear to start the year, 2024 second-rounder Jacob Battaglia scored three goals and five points in three games en route to two Kingston Frontenacs wins.
Luke Misa has hit his stride, continuing a strong performance last week with another four points in three games.
And finally, defenceman Henry Mews put up four assists in two games for the Ottawa 67s, now second on the team in points and first in assists.
Let’s dive in on the full pipeline of Flames prospects!
Welcome to The Win Column’s 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 Calgary Wranglers played four games this week, two against the Bakersfield Condors and two against the Hendersen Silver Knights, and went 1–1–0 against each team.
- Sam Honzek suited up for his first AHL games of the season, playing all four this past week. He scored his first professional goal!
- Jakob Pelletier led the charge this week with four points in four games for the Wranglers. Will he get an NHL callup soon?
- Rory Kerins kept up his strong play with three points in four games. He’s at 14 points in 14 AHL games this year, very impressive for a player who was in the ECHL last season.
- Scoring from the blueline appears to be coming after a very slow start for the Wranglers’ defence corps. Each of Ilya Solovyov, Yan Kuznetsov, and Jeremie Poirier had three points this past week.
- Kuznetsov was the most impressive, with an absolutely monster game against the Silver Knights. He basically scored a goal completely on his own, finally, tipped in by Sam Morton.
- Training camp standout Hunter Brzustewicz had zero points in four games this week.
- Devin Cooley remains one of the best goalies not in the NHL, as Waltteri Ignatjew had a rough outing in an 8–3 loss to Henderson.
Europe/Asia
- None of the Flames’ notable goalies overseas played games last week.
- Kirill Zarubin is having an okay year with the MHL’s AKM Tula, sporting a 3.30 GAA and .909 SV%.
- Daniil Chechelev is struggling in the VHL, currently at 5.30 GAA and .825 SV% in three games for Yunison-Moskva.
NCAA
- Trevor Hoskin added just one point this week, a slower week for him after popping off the past few weeks. He’s still at a very solid 12 points in 11 games for Niagara in the NCAA.
- Aydar Suniev and UMass played just two games this week, but Suniev didn’t put up any points. He’s now at 10 points in 10 games.
- The most interesting NCAA and UMass news is that Pierre McGuire—yes, that Pierre McGuire—is joining the UMass sports network to call select games for them this season. Interesting!
- Cade Littler was the highest-scoring NCAA player in the Flames’ pipeline last week, with two goals in two games for UND.
OHL
- Luke Misa is now at 19 points in 17 games after a dreadful start to the year. He’s playing very well lately and looking a lot more like the player we saw at development camp this summer.
- Jacob Battaglia is up to 28 points in 19 games, good for sixth overall in OHL scoring. His 14 goals is also sixth in the league.
- Henry Mews is up to 18 points in 16 games, which ranks fifth in OHL scoring among defencemen. His 16 assists rank second in the league.
- Zayne Parekh had a very quiet week with zero points in two games. He’s still got 15 points in 15 games, the ninth most among OHL defencemen.
QMJHL
- Matvei Gridin had two assists in three games, now up to 17 points in 16 games. He’s still only 44th in QJMHL scoring but has started to look a lot more dominant in the past few weeks. He’s a player to keep an eye on.
- Over in Moncton with the Wildcats, Etienne Morin was quiet again this week, with just one assist through two games. At 19 points in 17 games, Morin is fifth overall in QMJHL scoring among defencemen.
WHL
- Medicine Hat Tigers forward Andrew Basha was a bit quiet this week, with just one goal in two games. He’s still at a very good 20 points in 17 games.
- Defenceman Axel Hurtig had two points in four games; a nice offensive showing for the hulking blueliner.
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):
- Rory Kerins: 39.9 (Same)
- Jakob Pelletier: 39.9 (+1)
- Jacob Battaglia: 38.9 (+1)
- Aydar Suniev: 32.2 (-2)
- Henry Mews: 29.9 (New)
Overall regular season totals for Flames prospects
Forwards
| Player | Pos | GP | G | A | P | P/GP | PIM | NHLe | Team | League |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Jacob Battaglia | RW/LW | 19 | 14 | 14 | 28 | 1.47 | 12 | 38.9 | Kingston Frontenacs | OHL |
| Andrew Basha | LW | 17 | 7 | 13 | 20 | 1.18 | 22 | 29.2 | Medicine Hat Tigers | WHL |
| Luke Misa | C | 17 | 8 | 11 | 19 | 1.12 | 2 | 29.7 | Brampton Steelheads | OHL |
| Matvei Gridin | RW | 16 | 7 | 10 | 17 | 1.06 | 11 | 42.2 | Shawinigan Cataractes | QMJHL |
| Rory Kerins | C/LW | 14 | 10 | 4 | 14 | 1 | 4 | 39.9 | Calgary Wranglers | AHL |
| Jakob Pelletier | LW/C | 14 | 2 | 12 | 14 | 1 | 4 | 39.9 | Calgary Wranglers | AHL |
| Trevor Hoskin | C/RW | 11 | 4 | 8 | 12 | 1.09 | 2 | N/A | Niagara Univ. | NCAA |
| Hunter Laing | C | 18 | 6 | 5 | 11 | 0.61 | 7 | 15.1 | Prince George Cougars | WHL |
| Aydar Suniev | LW | 10 | 6 | 4 | 10 | 1 | 4 | 32.2 | UMass | NCAA |
| William Stromgren | LW | 14 | 2 | 5 | 7 | 0.5 | 4 | 19.9 | Calgary Wranglers | AHL |
| Jaden Lipinski | C | 2 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | Calgary Wranglers | AHL |
| 8 | 1 | 6 | 7 | 0.88 | 6 | 21.7 | Vancouver Giants | WHL | ||
| Lucas Ciona | LW | 10 | 1 | 3 | 4 | 0.4 | 18 | 15.9 | Calgary Wranglers | AHL |
| Ilya Nikolayev | C | 9 | 0 | 4 | 4 | 0.44 | 2 | 17.5 | Calgary Wranglers | AHL |
| Cade Littler | C | 7 | 2 | 1 | 3 | 0.43 | 2 | 15.5 | Univ. of North Dakota | NCAA |
| Samuel Honzek | C/LW | 4 | 1 | 0 | 1 | 0.25 | 4 | 10 | Calgary Wranglers | AHL |
| Parker Bell | LW | 12 | 1 | 0 | 1 | 0.08 | 2 | 3.2 | Calgary Wranglers | AHL |
Defencemen
| Player | Pos | GP | G | A | P | P/GP | PIM | NHLe | Team | League |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Etienne Morin | LHD | 17 | 4 | 15 | 19 | 1.12 | 8 | 26.1 | Moncton Wildcats | QMJHL |
| Henry Mews | RHD | 16 | 2 | 16 | 18 | 1.13 | 16 | 29.9 | Ottawa 67’s | OHL |
| Zayne Parekh | RHD | 15 | 4 | 11 | 15 | 1 | 26 | 26.5 | Saginaw Spirit | OHL |
| Ilya Solovyov | LHD | 10 | 3 | 4 | 7 | 0.7 | 4 | 27.9 | Calgary Wranglers | AHL |
| Eric Jamieson | LHD | 18 | 3 | 4 | 7 | 0.39 | 21 | 9.7 | Everett Silvertips | WHL |
| Yan Kuznetsov | LHD | 14 | 1 | 4 | 5 | 0.36 | 4 | 11.6 | Calgary Wranglers | AHL |
| Jeremie Poirier | LHD | 14 | 0 | 5 | 5 | 0.36 | 10 | 14.3 | Calgary Wranglers | AHL |
| Axel Hurtig | LHD | 18 | 0 | 5 | 5 | 0.28 | 7 | 6.9 | Calgary Hitmen | WHL |
| Joni Jurmo | LHD | 3 | 1 | 1 | 2 | 0.67 | 0 | N/A | Rapid City Rush | ECHL |
| Hunter Brzustewicz | RHD | 14 | 0 | 2 | 2 | 0.14 | 2 | 5.6 | Calgary Wranglers | AHL |
| Artyom Grushnikov | LHD | 13 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 2 | 0 | Calgary Wranglers | AHL |
Goalies
| Player | Pos | GP | GAA | SV% | Team | League |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Yegor Yegorov | G | 4 | 3.38 | .870 | HK Tambov | VHL |
| 6 | 2.32 | .911 | MHK Tambov | NMHL | ||
| Arseni Sergeyev | G | 7 | 1.71 | .929 | Penn State Univ. | NCAA |
| Kirill Zarubin | G | 6 | 3.3 | .909 | AKM Tula | MHL |
| Waltteri Ignatjew | G | 4 | 3.41 | .889 | Calgary Wranglers | AHL |
| Daniil Chechelev | G | 3 | 5.3 | .825 | Yunison-Moskva | VHL |
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!
Photo from CalgaryWranglers.com
