Prospects

Calgary Flames Prospect Roundup: Lipinski racks up nine points for Vancouver Giants

Photo of James William James WilliamJanuary 7, 2025
6 minutes read

It’s been a while since we went a week without me highlighting exception performances from Luke Misa and Henry Mews. Now that that’s out of the way, let’s move on to this week’s Giantest performer: Jaden Lipinski. It took him a while to get going offensively, but he kicked off 2025 the right way with nine points in four games!

Lipinski’s monster week stole the spotlight from Matvei Gridin, whose six points would have otherwise been the highlight.

Misa, Jacob Battaglia, and Zayne Parekh each collected three points in the OHL. It was a good week all around for this trio of 2024 draft picks!

There’s lots to discuss this week, so let’s dive right into it!

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 kicked off the new year with a win and went 2–1–0 this week. They outscored their opponents 11–9 along the way.
  • Adam Klapka has looked really good so far in the AHL. He picked up another four points (1–3) to improve to 10 goals and 18 points in 20 games.
  • Rory Kerins scored another two goals this week and holds on to his team lead in both goals (21) and points (34). Watch him bury this nice feed from William Stromgren right on the doorstep:
  • Another goal and three points for Stromgren this week, who continues to climb the Wranglers’ scoring leaderboard. His 25 points is good for fourth on the team. Check out his speed through the neutral zone, beating two opponents before sniping this one:
  • On defence, Jeremie Poirier recorded four assists this week to improve his point totals to 17 in 34 games. Nice to see him finding the scoresheet more lately!
  • Artyom Grushnikov picked up another helper, too. The shutdown defender is up to three points on the year. Not bad at all!
  • The watch is on for Joni Jurmo, who has yet to record a point through nine AHL games.

Europe

  • Nikita Okhotyuk and CSKA Moscow dropped a pair of games this week, 6–3 and 4–1. Okhotyuk dished out four hits and blocked four shots while seeing his ice time dip to around 15 minutes in both games. Notably, he still totaled over five and a half minutes on ice shorthanded.
  • Netminder Yegor Yegorov picked up his second win of the season and is up to 2–5–0. His stats saw small increases, as he now sports a 3.03 goals against average and a 0.919 save percentage.
  • Nothing to report on Daniil Chechelev or Kirill Zarubin this week as neither suited up.

NCAA

  • UMass was 1–1–0 in the Desert Hockey Classic, losing 4–2 to Cornell on Friday before bulldozing Robert Morris 8–0. Aydar Suniev scored two goals and five points to improve to 12 goals and 24 points on the year.
  • Niagara University was undefeated this week. They were 2–0–0, with Trevor Hoskin contributing a goal on five shots. He’s up to six goals and 16 points through 20 games. Here’s a look at his nice wrap-around goal:
  • Cade Littler picked up an assist and a plus-two rating as the University of North Dakota took down Manitoba 5–0 in an exhibition game.
  • Goaltender Arseni Sergeyev saw action for Penn State University this week. With the team playing twice against Notre Dame in three nights, Sergeyev was relied on to mind the twine in the second game. He posted a sparking 34-save shutout. He’s up to a 5–4–1 record now with a 2.16 GAA and a 0.922 save percentage.

OHL

  • Jacob Battaglia saw a bit of a return to his early-season form with three points in two games, helping the Kingston Frontenacs to a 2–0–0 week. He now has 47 points in 36 games on the year. Watch as he quickly gets to the point and hammers this one-timer home:
  • Brampton Steelheads centre Luke Misa posted three assists en route to a 1–1–1 week. Misa eclipsed 50 points on the year, as he is up to 52 in 33 games. He is currently tied for ninth in OHL scoring.
  • Henry Mews had three games to collect two points to hit the 50-point mark on the year, but he came just short with one point. It was a tough week for the Ottawa 67’s. They went 0–2–1 while being outscored 17–6.
  • On a more positive note, Mews was named the OHL’s Defenceman of the Month for December. Great way to cap off a good year! Check out this short highlight reel of his exceptional month:
  • It’s night and day when comparing Mews’ week to Zayne Parekh’s, though. The latter scored a goal and three points in two games, helping the Saginaw Spirit to a 2–0–0 week. They outscored their opponents 10–2, including a 5–2 win over Mews’ 67’s.

QMJHL

  • The Moncton Wildcats had an incredible 3–0–0 week, outscoring the opposition 13–2. Defenceman Etienne Morin was integral to their success with his two goals and five points. He’s up to 10 goals and 38 points now and has been exceptionally productive after a slow start to the season. This shot was tipped in, but it’s a nice, quick shot from the point that I wanted to highlight:
  • Matvei Gridin helped the Shawinigan Cataractes to a 2–1–1 week, scoring three times and adding three helpers for six points. He’s been very productive in the Q, now sitting at 21 goals and 45 points in 35 games. He made no mistake on this snipe:

WHL

  • Axel Hurtig and Team Sweden finished fourth at the World Junior Championship, losing a historic 14-round shootout at the hands of Czechia. Hurtig finished the tournament with one assist and a plus-two rating in seven games.
  • Vancouver Giants forward Jaden Lipinski rocked to the tune of two goals and seven helpers this week. This vaulted his point totals up to a modest 26 in 28 games, just shy of the point-per-game mark. A couple of three-point performances helped the Giants to a 3–1–0 week.
  • Andrew Basha remains out of the lineup for the Medicine Hat Tigers. There are rumours he may be done for the year, but I have yet to see anything confirmed. Hoping it’s nothing too serious, both for Basha, the human, and Basha, the hockey player.

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):

  1. Aydar Suniev: 40.6 (+1)
  2. Rory Kerins: 39.9 (-1)
  3. Luke Misa: 38.1 (Same)
  4. Jakob Pelletier: 37.9 (Same)
  5. Adam Klapka: 35.9 (New)

Overall regular season totals for Flames prospects

Forwards

PlayerPositionGPGAPP/GPPIMNHLeTeamLeague
Andrew BashaLW23920291.263031.2Medicine Hat TigersWHL
Jacob BattagliaRW/LW362225471.312034.7Kingston FrontenacsOHL
Parker BellLW263140.1526.0Calgary WranglersAHL
Lucas CionaLW3039120.404015.9Calgary WranglersAHL
Matvei GridinRW352124451.291930.0Shawinigan CataractesQMJHL
Samuel HonzekC/LW2459140.581023.1Calgary WranglersAHL
Trevor HoskinC/RW20610160.806N/ANiagara UniversityNCAA
Rory KerinsC/LW342113341.001039.9Calgary WranglersAHL
Adam KlapkaRW/LW20108180.903735.9Calgary WranglersAHL
Hunter LaingC351011210.602614.9Prince George CougarsWHL
Jaden LipinskiC20000.0000.0Calgary WranglersAHL
28620260.932223.0Vancouver GiantsWHL
Cade LittlerC172240.24218.6U. of North DakotaNCAA
Luke MisaC362131521.44238.1Brampton SteelheadsOHL
Jakob PelletierLW/C20316190.95437.9Calgary WranglersAHL
William StromgrenLW33916250.76830.3Calgary WranglersAHL
Aydar SunievLW191212241.261040.6UMassNCAA

Defencemen

PlayerPositionGPGAPP/GPPIMNHLeTeamLeague
Hunter BrzustewiczRHD33111120.36214.3Calgary WranglersAHL
Artyom GrushnikovLHD271230.1184.4Calgary WranglersAHL
Axel HurtigLHD282570.25116.2Calgary HitmenWHL
Eric JamiesonLHD37716230.623115.4Everett SilvertipsWHL
Joni JurmoLHD90000.0040.0Calgary WranglersAHL
92570.782N/ARapid City RushECHL
Yan KuznetsovLHD3429110.321212.8Calgary WranglersAHL
Henry MewsRHD371138491.323835.0Ottawa 67’sOHL
Etienne MorinLHD341028381.122026.1Moncton WildcatsQMJHL
Nikita OkhotyukLHD402570.182611.9CSKA MoskvaKHL
Zayne ParekhRHD321231431.344735.5Saginaw SpiritOHL
Jeremie PoirierLHD34215170.502619.9Calgary WranglersAHL
Ilya SolovyovLHD30413170.571022.7Calgary WranglersAHL

Goalies

PlayerPositionGPGAASV%TeamLeague
Daniil ChechelevG35.300.825Yunison-MoskvaVHL
Waltteri IgnatjewG103.690.877Calgary WranglersAHL
Arseni SergeyevG112.160.922Penn State U.NCAA
Yegor YegorovG43.380.870HK TambovVHL
83.070.891MHK TambovNMHL
73.030.919MHK Krylia Sovetov MoskvaMHL
Kirill ZarubinG112.370.928AKM TulaMHL

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 of James William James WilliamJanuary 7, 2025
6 minutes read
Photo of James William

James William

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