The Calgary Flames had an excellent week on the ice in Calgary, going 4–0–0 on this recent homestand. Outside of the NHL, the team’s future looks very bright, with the team’s two first-round picks leading the way. Zayne Parekh had a monster week in Saginaw, with six points to his name. Matvei Gridin added five for Shawinigan in the QMJHL, including a beautiful goal.
Multiple prospects had two goal, two assist weeks, including Henry Mews. All of the team’s OHL prospects had big weeks again, and the Wrangler’s top players continued to show their stuff as the top team in the AHL’s Pacific Division.
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 Wranglers had a rare week where they lost more than they won. They picked up a win over San Jose but dropped both games in Tucson to the Roadrunners.
- The team’s top line was again good, with two assists for Rory Kerins and a goal and an assist from Jakob Pelletier.
- Fun fact: Former Flame Glenn Gawdin currently sits third in AHL scoring, just one point ahead of Kerins.
- The team’s blueline also kicked in, with Ilya Solovyov and Jeremie Poirier each notching a goal and an assist, and Yan Kuznetsov added two assists himself.
- The blueline has not been responsible for much in the way of scoring this season, but it’s great to see them heating up.
- The one blueliner who has not found the back of the net much is Hunter Brzustewicz, who again went pointless. He was scratched in the last game against Tucson but should be back in the lineup next game.
- Stick taps to Lucas Ciona for adding a rare goal this week.
- A bad week for Waltteri Ignatjew. He’s dropped down to a 0.872 save percentage. That’s good for 66th of the 79 goalies who have played a game this season. There are only five goalies who have played at least five games that are worse than him this season. Not good.
- Not a prospect, Devin Cooley is still the best goalie in the AHL.
- The Wranglers sent Ilya Nikolayev down to the ECHL this week for two games but then recalled him. He had no points in his short stint. Joni Jurmo remains in the ECHL.
Europe/Asia
- No games this week for Yegor Yegorov or (barely a prospect) Daniil Chechelev.
- One game this week for Kirill Zarubin in the MHL. He’s up to a 0.923 save percentage.
NCAA
- Aydar Suniev continues to shine at UMass. Another goal and two assists this week as he sits second in scoring on the team. Suniev is 11th in the entire NCAA in scoring this season—just massive for the 2023 third-round pick.
- Another goal this week for Trevor Hoskin at Niagara University. He sits third on the team in scoring.
- Fun fact: former prospect Jake Boltmann transferred to Northeastern this season for his fifth NCAA year and has three points in nine games. This is already his third most productive season of his career in the league.
OHL
- Jacob Battaglia had another big week, adding two goals and two more assists. He’s up to 35 points on the year, good for seventh in the league in scoring. The Kingston Frontenacs lead the Eastern Conference this season.
- Luke MIsa also added a goal and an assist this week for the Brampton Steelheads. He’s up to 27 on the year.
- On the blue line, Zayne Parekh and Henry Mews sit third and fourth, respectively, in scoring by defencemen. Parekh had a monster six-point week, while Mews had four himself.
- They both sit behind Sam Dickinson and Luca Marrelli in points this year. Both were drafted this season.
QMJHL
- Another massive week for Matvei Gridin, who had two goals and three assists for the Shawinigan Cataraques. He’s up to 22nd in the league in scoring and third on his team despite playing two fewer games than his teammates. Gridin has been making it look easy this year.
- Etienne Morin also had a huge week, adding a goal and three assists for the Moncton Wildcats. He sits fourth in the QMJHL among defencemen.
WHL
- Three assists this week for Hunter Laing in Prince George. The forward has been a sneaky good player for the Cougars this season.
- Jaden Lipinski added three assists as well in Vancouver. After being sent back to junior from the AHL, he has been nearly a point-per-game player for the Giants.
- Two goals this week for Eric Jamieson in Everett. Great to see him heating up from the blue line.
- Andrew Basha remains week to week with an injury he suffered a couple weeks back.
- No points this week for Axel Hurtig in Calgary. The Hitmen made a massive trade this week and look like early favourites for a Memorial Cup berth.
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)
- Zayne Parekh: 38.4(+3)
- Jakob Pelletier: 37.9 (-1)
- Jacob Battaglia: 37.1 (+1)
- Aydar Suniev: 36.7 (-2)
Overall regular season totals for Flames prospects
Forwards
| Player | Pos | GP | G | A | P | P/GP | PIM | NHLe | Team | League |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Jacob Battaglia | RW/LW | 25 | 16 | 19 | 35 | 1.4 | 18 | 37.1 | Kingston Frontenacs | OHL |
| Andrew Basha | LW | 17 | 7 | 13 | 20 | 1.18 | 22 | 27.0 | Medicine Hat Tigers | WHL |
| Luke Misa | C | 22 | 12 | 15 | 27 | 1.23 | 8 | 32.6 | Brampton Steelheads | OHL |
| Matvei Gridin | RW | 22 | 11 | 16 | 27 | 1.23 | 11 | 28.6 | Shawinigan Cataractes | QMJHL |
| Rory Kerins | C/LW | 19 | 13 | 6 | 19 | 1.00 | 4 | 39.9 | Calgary Wranglers | AHL |
| Jakob Pelletier | LW/C | 19 | 3 | 15 | 18 | 0.95 | 4 | 37.9 | Calgary Wranglers | AHL |
| Trevor Hoskin | C/RW | 15 | 5 | 8 | 13 | 0.87 | 6 | 31.3 | Niagara Univ. | NCAA |
| Hunter Laing | C | 22 | 7 | 8 | 15 | 0.68 | 16 | 16.8 | Prince George Cougars | WHL |
| Aydar Suniev | LW | 14 | 9 | 7 | 16 | 1.14 | 10 | 36.7 | UMass | NCAA |
| William Stromgren | LW | 19 | 2 | 10 | 12 | 0.63 | 4 | 25.1 | Calgary Wranglers | AHL |
| Jaden Lipinski | C | 2 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | Calgary Wranglers | AHL |
| 13 | 1 | 11 | 12 | 0.96 | 6 | 22.9 | Vancouver Giants | WHL | ||
| Lucas Ciona | LW | 15 | 2 | 5 | 7 | 0.47 | 30 | 18.7 | Calgary Wranglers | AHL |
| Ilya Nikolayev | C | 9 | 0 | 4 | 4 | 0.44 | 2 | 17.5 | Calgary Wranglers | AHL |
| 2 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | Rapid City Rush | ECHL | ||
| Cade Littler | C | 11 | 2 | 1 | 3 | 0.27 | 2 | 9.7 | Univ. of North Dakota | NCAA |
| Samuel Honzek | C/LW | 9 | 1 | 3 | 4 | 0.44 | 4 | 17.5 | Calgary Wranglers | AHL |
| Parker Bell | LW | 14 | 1 | 0 | 1 | 0.07 | 2 | 3.2 | Calgary Wranglers | AHL |
Defencemen
| Player | Pos | GP | G | A | P | P/GP | PIM | NHLe | Team | League |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Etienne Morin | LHD | 22 | 6 | 18 | 24 | 1.09 | 12 | 25.4 | Moncton Wildcats | QMJHL |
| Henry Mews | RHD | 22 | 7 | 20 | 27 | 1.23 | 18 | 32.6 | Ottawa 67’s | OHL |
| Zayne Parekh | RHD | 20 | 8 | 21 | 29 | 1.45 | 32 | 38.4 | Saginaw Spirit | OHL |
| Ilya Solovyov | LHD | 15 | 4 | 6 | 10 | 0.67 | 4 | 26.7 | Calgary Wranglers | AHL |
| Eric Jamieson | LHD | 23 | 6 | 4 | 10 | 0.43 | 21 | 10.6 | Everett Silvertips | WHL |
| Yan Kuznetsov | LHD | 19 | 1 | 6 | 7 | 0.37 | 6 | 12.1 | Calgary Wranglers | AHL |
| Jeremie Poirier | LHD | 19 | 1 | 7 | 8 | 0.42 | 14 | 16.7 | Calgary Wranglers | AHL |
| Axel Hurtig | LHD | 22 | 0 | 4 | 4 | 0.19 | 9 | 4.7 | Calgary Hitmen | WHL |
| Joni Jurmo | LHD | 8 | 2 | 4 | 6 | 0.75 | 0 | N/A | Rapid City Rush | ECHL |
| Hunter Brzustewicz | RHD | 18 | 0 | 2 | 2 | 0.11 | 2 | 4.4 | Calgary Wranglers | AHL |
| Artyom Grushnikov | LHD | 18 | 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 |
| 8 | 3.07 | .891 | MHK Tambov | NMHL | ||
| Arseni Sergeyev | G | 9 | 2.34 | .906 | Penn State Univ. | NCAA |
| Kirill Zarubin | G | 8 | 2.66 | .923 | AKM Tula | MHL |
| Waltteri Ignatjew | G | 6 | 3.97 | .872 | 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!
