Calgary Flames Prospect Roundup: Wolf picks up another shutout, Phillips and Zohorna called up to the Flames

The Calgary Flames became younger this week, adding Matthew Phillips and Radim Zohorna to their lineup. In their stead, the Wranglers called up Rory Kerins and Ilya Nikolayev, and one of them picked up a nifty assist. Lucas Ciona continues to be hot for Seattle, while Emilio Pettersen added two more points in what has … The post Calgary Flames Prospect Roundup: Wolf picks up another shutout, Phillips and Zohorna called up to the Flames appeared first on The Win Column.

Calgary Flames Prospect Roundup: Wolf picks up another shutout, Phillips and Zohorna called up to the Flames

The Calgary Flames became younger this week, adding Matthew Phillips and Radim Zohorna to their lineup. In their stead, the Wranglers called up Rory Kerins and Ilya Nikolayev, and one of them picked up a nifty assist. Lucas Ciona continues to be hot for Seattle, while Emilio Pettersen added two more points in what has been the best season of his professional career so far. There’s tons to get into this week, 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.


Standout Performer: Dustin Wolf – Calgary Wranglers (AHL)

Dustin from Tustin continues to be among the best goalies in the entire AHL this season. He recorded his third shutout of the season this week in a 3–0 win over the San Diego Gulls, but dropped his second game of the week by a 4–1 score. Here’s Wolf talking about what the shoutout and the win meant to the team:

The Flames’ goalie prospect has played in 18 games this season, good for second in the league, and sits seventh in save percentage with a 0.919 so far this season. His three shutouts are the most in the league currently, and his GAA of 2.35 puts him fifth among all goalies in the league.

The AHL is a mixed bag of young players trying to break into the NHL and older players trying to show they can still be NHLers. Wolf’s company includes a mixed bag of both, including goalies who, in their prime, were among the best on their teams and some of the better ones in the league. To be putting up better numbers than Louis Domingue, Yaroslav Askarov, and more is a huge testament to him as a goalie.

It is getting close to the point where the Flames will want to see what they have in him at the next level. And while the pipeline ahead of his is blocked by Jacob Markstrom and Dan Vladar, you have to think that if either of them picks up a knock, Wolf will be able to jump right in to the NHL without a doubt. He is the Flames’ best prospect in their system and deserves that look already.

Flames prospect happenings

AHL

  • The Wranglers had a good week this week, picking up two wins over the Gulls, but dropping a 4–1 decision to the Manitoba Moose.
  • After weeks and weeks of refusing to call-up a forward, the Flames did not call-up just one, but instead brought Matthew Phillips and Radim Zohorna (not technically a prospect but not quite a regular NHLer) up to this big club. This is huge particularly for Phillips who, when called up, was among the best players in the entire league.
  • Without Zohorna and Phillips, the Wranglers then called up Rory Kerins and Ilya Nikolayev from Rapid City. Kerins got an assist this week while Nikolayev has yet to feature in the lineup.
  • On the ice, it was the Cole Schwindt show! The forward prospect had three goals this week including this one of a give-and-go with Jakob Pelletier:
  • Pelletier had two assists this week while Connor Zary had a goal and an assist. Both are likely in the next phase of the call-up conversation.
  • Adam Klapka had been injured for a number of weeks, but finally returned to the lineup this week. He had a big fight, but did not hit the scoresheet.

BCHL

  • Another two assists for Cale Littler in the BCHL. He’s still above a point-per-game.

ECHL

  • The Flames called up both Nikolayev and Kerins this week, leaving Feuk as the sole forward prospect in the ECHL. He did not have any points.
  • Daniil Chechelev had two games this week, and saw his numbers get even better. The 21-year-old leads the league in games played and wins, and sits ninth in save percentage.

OHL

  • Jack Beck remains injured.

QMJHL

  • A goal and an assist for Cole Huckins in Sherbrooke. He’s been quietly just around the point-per-gram mark this season. After a tire fire of a season last year, it’s great to see this level of consistency.
  • He has been playing in the top-six, bouncing between the top and second line and playing on both the left and right wing.
  • Another assist this week for Cam Whynot. Neat!

WHL

  • Two more assists this week for Parker Bell, who is a point-per-game player this season. You love to see it from the 2022 fifth-round selection.
  • Lucas Ciona had two goals and an asist this week to continue his hot streak. He has dropped off a little since his insanely hot start, and now sits 27th in the league in points-per-game. However his plus-minus of +25 leads the entire league right now.
  • Cole Jordan will be out for the rest of the season.

NCAA

  • A goal and an assist this week for Demetrios Koumontzis of Arizona State. He’s a bottom-six forward for his team as a fifth year, so there is little chance he earns a contract at this point, but hey two points aren’t a bad thing.
  • Jake Boltmann picked up his second point of the season (not a typo), recording an assist for Notre Dame. The top-four blueliner probably needs a few more of those this season.
  • No games for Matt Coronato and Harvard this week.

Europe

  • Huge congratulations to Topi Ronni for earning a call for Team Finland at the World Juniors this year. He will join William Stromgren as the two Flames prospects at the tournament.
  • Stromgren picked up an assist in the SHL this week.

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 5 (bracketed numbers denote movement from the previous week)

  1. Matthew Phillips: 59.8 (Same)
  2. Jakob Pelletier: 43.4 (Same)
  3. Connor Zary: 39.9 (Same)(Tie)
  4. Ben Jones 39.9 (Same)(Tie)
  5. Jack Beck: 34.4 (Same)

Overall regular season totals for Flames prospects

Forwards

PlayerPositionGPGAPP/GPPIMNHLeTeamLeague
Jack BeckLW/RW10211131.30434.4Ottawa 67’sOHL
Parker BellLW251016261.042825.8Tri-City AmericansWHL
Lucas CionaLW251020301.202631.2Seattle ThunderbirdsWHL
Matthew CoronatoRW1169151.36631.3Harvard CrimsonsNCAA
Walker DuehrRW2286140.641025.5Calgary WranglersAHL
Mathias Emilio PettersenC/LW1759140.82832.7Calgary WranglersAHL
Lucas FeukC/W120330.258N/ARapid City RushECHL
Cole HuckinsC291113240.833719.3Sherbrooke PhoenixQMJHL
Ben JonesC21516211.001539.9Calgary WranglersAHL
Rory KerinsC/LW16810181.130N/ARapid City RushECHL
51120.40015.9Calgary WranglersAHL
Adam KlapkaRW121340.331013.2Calgary WranglersAHL
Demetrios KoumontzisLW185380.4410N/AArizona State Sun DevilsNCAA
Cade LittlerC251216281.081811.5Wenatchee WildBCHL
Ilya Nikolayev C19410140.7423N/ARapid City RushECHL
Josh NodlerC/RW161340.2568.1UMassNCAA
Jakob PelletierC/LW23916251.09443.4Calgary WranglersAHL
Matthew PhillipsC/RW201515301.50659.8Calgary WranglersAHL
Martin PospisilC/W162350.311912.4Calgary WranglersAHL
Topi RonniC101120.2028.9
TapparaLiiga
21452.502N/ATappara U20U20 SM-sarja
Cole SchwindtC/RW2188160.76630.3Calgary WranglersAHL
William StromgrenLW13033.000N/ARogle BK J20/Brynas IF J20J20 Nationell
LW262350.1968.1Brynas IFSHL
Connor ZaryC23914231.003339.9Stockton HeatAHL

Defencemen

PlayerPositionGPGAPP/GPPIMNHLeTeamLeague
Jake BoltmannRHD181120.11273.0Notre DameNCAA
Cole JordanLHD172570.411510.2Moose Jaw WarriorsWHL
Yan KuznetsovLHD201560.30612.0Calgary WranglersAHL
Jeremie PoirierLHD23313160.701427.9Calgary WranglersAHL
Ilya SolovyovLHD190550.24129.6Calgary WranglersAHL
Cameron WhynotLHD26210120.461010.7Halifax MooseheadsQMJHL

Goalies

PlayerPositionGPGAASV%TeamLeague
Daniil ChechelevG162.860.917Kansas City MavericksECHL
Arseni SergeevG102.570.919University of ConnecticutNCAA
Dustin WolfG182.350.919Calgary WranglersAHL

Want to know more?

Still want to know more about the Flames prospects? Check out our interviews with a number of prospects down below:

Yan Kuznetsov

Ilya Solovyov

Dustin Wolf

Jeremie Poirier

Ryan Francis

Matthew Phillips

Demetrios Koumontzis

Jake Boltmann

Which prospects are you most excited about? Let us know below in the comments or on social media.


Photo from @CalgaryWranglers on Twitter.

The post Calgary Flames Prospect Roundup: Wolf picks up another shutout, Phillips and Zohorna called up to the Flames appeared first on The Win Column.