Barn Burner: Boomer & Pinder with Rhett Warrener - Calgary Flames Top Ten Prospects (PART 1) | FN Barn Burner - August 20th, 2024

Episode Date: August 20, 2024

FlamesNation Barn Burner with Boomer, Pinder & WarrenerOn today's summer edition of Barn Burner, Pinder & Pike break down the Flames top prospects (10-6)Part 2 - August 27th, 2024TIMESTAMPS- Flames Draft Recap (3:00)- Flames Need Centres (5:00)- Pospisil & Zary Centre? (8:00)- Honourable Mentions (15:00)- 20-11 Rankings (18:30)- Ranks 10-6 (38:00 - 58:00)BARN BURNER BLONDEhttps://originbrewing.myshopify.com/products/barn-burner-473mlFLAMESNATION MERCHhttps://nationgear.ca/collections/flamesnationBARN BURNER CLIPShttps://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLj_bcGtvvo-cW2DHEDZ6dEO5ePDmlhZc9SHOUTOUT TO OUR SPONSORS!!👍🏼 Powered by @bet365. Whatever the moment, it’s Never Ordinary at bet365.Download the App today and use promo code: FNBONUS. http://www.bet365.ca/👍🏼 McLEOD LAW https://www.mcleod-law.com👍🏼 VILLAGE HONDA https://www.villagehonda.com👍🏼 OUTDOOR DENTAL https://www.outdoor.dental👍🏼 GRETA BAR https://www.gretabar.com/locations/ca👍🏼 ORIGIN BREWING https://originbrewing.ca👍🏼 BeAroused https://www.bearoused.ca/👍🏼 SPRING FINANCIAL: http://SpringFinancial.ca/barn💻 Website: https://flamesnation.ca🐦 Follow on twitter: @FlamesNation @BarnburnerFN @960boomer @PinderReport @warrener44📺 Subscribe on Youtube: @Flames_Nation💻 Follow on Facebook: https://www.facebook.comFollow us on Instagram @flamesnationdotcaFollow us on Twitter @flamesnation @barnburnerfnFollow us on Facebook @FlamesNationReach out to [e-mail] to connect with our Sales Team and discuss opportunities to partner with us! Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Hey, buddies, we are back with another summer special edition of Barnburner here on Flames Nation on YouTube on wherever you get the podcast for your ears, all those places. Welcome back. It is a Ryan off as we have Pinder and Pike for a very special show today. Pike. It is the top 10 prospects of the Calgary Flames, which actually coincides with a project that you do every year for Flames Nation. Tell us about the history of that. By the way, managing editor of Flames Nation, Ryan Pike, not just a guy named Ryan, Ryan Pike. I thought you just found me outside, wandering around, looking for the spot. I have, but you also are the managing editor of our website. This is true. So every year since 2015, we've done a top 20 list.

So what we do is we talk to our writing staff and occasionally podcast folks about who are your top 20 Flames prospects. And the way we do it is essentially just, are you called her trophy eligible if you play played in the NHL, would you be able to win the Calder? So guys that are actual NHL rookies or rookie eligible players, everyone submits a list, one to 20, and then we compile this into a master list, and then we count them down. Okay. And we have the top 20 plus honorable mentions written out on the website. So go to flame station.com to see way too much Flames prospect content.

But we figured we might as well have a nice chat about the top 10. Yeah, I wanted, we've sent Boom to do some really, really hard work on chilling out. So we don't know where he is, but he's gone. So we thought this would be a great time to do it. Also coincides every day you drop another prospect as you count from 20 to one on the website. This show we're going to do 10 to 6. And then next week we will coincide with the unveiling of the top five prospects on the website with our 5 through 1.

Before we get into the breakdown of the flame system, the system as a whole has improved vastly. And that's happened for a few reasons. One is you had the trades since last year's rankings. Obviously, to fully happen before that. But since last year's rankings came out, you've moved a Tannave, a Lindholm, a Markstrom, a Hanafin and others. So you've added a lot of bodies into the system.

You've had a lot of picks into the system. The draft nerds, quote unquote, Tim of Affection, really loved the Craig Conroy draft. Byron Bader of Hockeyprospecting.com, called it one of the best draft classes the last 10 years, the last decade or so for any team, not just the flames. His model looks at just simple statistical measures of players and saying, if you pick out of this pool, your hit rate is a lot higher than you pick over here.

The flames, a lot of picks out of this pool over here, which is where you want to be if you're going by his model. So where was the strength of the system last year? Where has it been? Where is it now? And how is the trend running? Well, I mean, this time last year, the flames were lean on defensemen. I think if you look the last few years,

the top rank prospect in 22 and 23 was Dustin Wolf. And they've always had one or two other goaltenders, usually Russians, sort of as a secondary goaltending prospects. And I think the flames goaltending depth remains pretty good. A little bit lean at the NHL or the North American level behind Wolf, but pretty good. The blue line is lean.

I think ironically enough, I wrote a column about, I think, before they started making trades going, and defense is looking a little bit lean. I think about a week or two before the trade deadline. And then I think they traded for 100 Brestevich right after that column went live. Yes, All-Star weekend that trade went through.

We were in Toronto. I remember it vividly. It was quite a time. But Brestevich was the first of many defensemen they collected over the trade season and then into the draft where they also got some great deal. Yeah. And they, you know, if you look at the reserve list, Grushnikov was not on the Flames reserve list this time last year.

He's brand new. Hunter Bustevich, as we mentioned. They got a couple of good defensemen in the draft in Zane Perreck and Henry Mews. So, I mean, right, they went from having a pretty lean system and a system, all due respect to the guys they already had, maybe a little bit lean and offensive upside. You know, the interview outside of maybe, maybe, Jerry Poyer, you could see running a power play, Moran, maybe. They have probably two or three times as many guys who have that kind of upside.

And, you know, it also means that you're going to have that kind of competitive atmosphere where you're not going to just be, when guys go pro, you're not going to be giving guys power play reps by default. It'll be guys that have to scrap for it. So I think they've maintained that. They're still a little bit lean for, you know, tried and true centers. I mean, Jaden Lipinski is probably the best center prospect they have outside the NHL. And there's not a lot of ceiling there. He, I think could be a fourth line, maybe, you know, third line center. But, you know, he's a meat and potatoes player.

and he's just really, really good at faceoffs. And he's got that size. With the size, there might be some mobility issues. But, you know, if you're looking for the flames in the next couple years, you look at the, you go to a daily faceoff and look at Steve Analyst's early draft looks for the 2025 draft. Yep. Who, they need a center.

They need a center so bad. And just to frame it out of the prospect lens into the organizational lens, I think they've got two surefire and it shell centerment in the whole organization. It's Michael Backland, who's 35. Yeah. And Nazam Khadry, who I believe will turn 34 in October. That's correct. And so it's like you need contingency plans for centermen.

Now, Kevin Rooney is he an NHL center? Well, he can be a number four in Calgary. Yeah. I don't know that he's going to make all NHL teams as a hard and fast center. And then in the system, it's like no one's a guaranteed guy to, A, make the NHL, and B, I don't see a guy playing center ice that projects to be a top half of your forward group centermen. So they have great needs there.

Now, is Zerius Center? is, you know, even interestingly posthousal a center. Is Zari a center? Zari, sure. Can Hansik still move to center? Because I know there's some belief

around the organization that he still could be a center. And then Lepinski actually is. There's lots of question marks, but in terms of surefire NHL centers, they have two guys in their mid-30s, that's it. Yep.

But so there's your shopping list moving forward, right? They also, if you're thinking, especially looking forward, if you're thinking, man, You got an NHL training camp coming up to September, and you got some guys who could be some projects. Hansik, they were going to move him to the center in Vancouver last year. He gets hurt in the last game at training camp before he's going down to Vancouver,

basically misses a big chunk of the year. You know, Connor Azari, when, you know, he was drafted out of Camloops as a center. He's one of the better, more productive centers in the Western League's last two years there. Then, you know, he had some injury issues. Then the flames, you thought at the time they had kind of a log jam in the HL level for centers. so they threw him on the wing and they got him in the NHL. He played. Still might be a center.

He played two weeks in the NHL as a center last year. It was pretty decent. So, I mean, they have some projects. But I mean, if you look at the overall depth in terms of true blue slam dunk centers, they got a lot more at every other position. Yeah, it's true. I would have, you made a good point that they've really filled out the cupboards in the defensive category, the defense column over the last year.

the center is now the glaring weakness, whereas last year you would have said center and D. So we'll see what happens moving forward. There is a great need at center. And interestingly, Pospisil is another guy. I remember we had Craig Conroy on when we were in Toronto for All Star Week. It was after the Lindholm trade, I believe the day after. And I'd asked him, like, where does this leave you at Center Ice? And he said, both Possible and Zeri tell me they want to play center.

And that's great. But it doesn't mean they'll be great, centerman. But Possible is another name to throw in there as well. all I know is if fans are looking for reasons to go to preseason games, seeing some of these guys audition in roles they might not be accustomed to at the pro level, especially at the NHL level, that can be kind of fun. Yeah, I think as is the life cycle of an organization, this is a very intriguing what's going on with the Wranglers,

what's happening at the Penticton tournament, who's set to graduate to pro. That's, I think, a large part of where fans' appetite is right now, And that's another reason why we're bringing you this show here is we bring you the top 10 flames prospects for the summer of 2024. So really quickly, you mentioned Calder eligibility. Age games played. What else are the restrictions you're facing here to make this list versus not?

So the Calder cut off this year, you got to be 26 by September 15th, which means you have to been born after September 15th, 1998. You can't have played 25 or more games in a single NHL season, and you can't have played six or more NHL games than any two seasons. Okay. And so based on that, we got four graduates from last year's list.

Tell us about the grads. I'm sure they look good with those fancy square hats. This is, this will, we'll call ourselves in the carpet and admit fault here. Martin Possible, perhaps the most impressive first year NHL player on the Flames roster last year. Maybe, yeah. Was not in last year's top 20. And in our, in our defense, he had been just absolutely, he probably had the worst injury luck of any player I had. Like he, he post-cromb?

Post-cromb. post-Ferlund and you know, Furland, you know, I believe Furland during the lockout year, you know, he was ready to graduate through the NHL. He was,

and I think there was also a situation where he basically got told, hey, NHL camp against tomorrow, just, we'll see, you know, play this game.

We'll get on the plane. He got hurt in that game. So he, you know, Ferland was one of those guys, similar DNA, heart and soul, physical player,

maybe not the highest skill player or the guy who was able to do the most he could with the tools he had, pospicil, very much that way, had horrible, injury luck the last few years. And then, thankfully, he did not have horrible injury out this

year and got out to a great start. So he got the call up in November, never looked back. And of note, he did get injured this season, came back coming out of the All-Star break, if I'm correct. And then he did get injured at World Championships, but he's skating again. We'll be ready for camp. That's the latest. Not just ready for camp. He's going to be playing the Olympic qualifiers. There you go. That's

right. Playing for Slovakia. Okay, very good. So Pospasol, graduates. Who else? The other three are Jacob Pellche, Matt Coronado, and Konrizari. Obviously, all passed first round selections of the Calgary Flames, all past the games played cap. Pellche obviously had kind of a weird year, injured in preseason. He was going to make the team.

He was basically, you know, all but penciled in for a spot. That was tough time for an injury. Geez. Yeah, like you got trucked by Marion Studenich and then blew out his shoulder, needed surgery. And then he was joined, I think, pretty much the identical injury by Kevin Rooney about 10 days later. By Truba, right? Oh, joined. Sorry.

Yeah. And then he comes back. And then he comes back and gets truck. So yeah, just a rough year for Pellche. Coronado had a rough year in other ways, but I think Coronado actually quietly had a very good year. I agree. I think people's expectations are out of whack.

When a kid makes the team out of camp, I think there's an expectation level. I don't, if he had played at Harvard and last year, just played in the HL with a different organization, people would be foaming at the mouth, a point per game player in the A is a rookie. On a per game level,

he was one of the best AHA players in the league. He was killing penalties. He was on the power play. And then, you know, he came up at the end of the year. And, you know, I know, I know he's no longer with the flames organization, but AJ Greer on, on exit day, kind of raved about how useful and helpful it was for someone like Coronado to play fourth line minutes late and sort of learn that side of the game. And I think his, his, his playing his own zone is very good. It was pretty good when he started. He's always been a smart player.

Yeah. He killed penalties and he played center in college a bit. But he's, he just, he figured it out really well. And he's a guy that I think very quietly had a great season. and someone to watch when your camp opens. And I don't think we can say enough good things about Zari. I mean, Zari, you know, he had a great first couple weeks of the season, got brought up and just clicked right away. Yeah, brought Cadry back to life, him and Possible, not back to life, but it was a rough opening month.

Codry included. It was a rough opening month for the entire team. That line, whether, and yeah, maybe I'm assigning credit wrong, but those three one put together, I thought was the spark that brought that team back into that. We still lie. this season isn't lost and they got all the way to within a point of a playoff spot in mid-February. Yeah. And, you know, I think especially we talk about the whole idea of, you know, bringing up Coronado. Coronado did everything, was asking him last year and did a lot of things that are kind of

things to do at the pro level in terms of learning parts of the game. Yeah. Zari kind of did the same kind of thing where he moved around to different positions to sort of give himself more versatility and more of a chance to make it. And then once he got up in the NHL, he was used, especially late in the year, once he's, once it sort of seemed like the playoffs weren't in the hunt for them. He was using a lot of different positions too. So I think, you know, with with Manjipani and with Dubay leaving the organization,

Conner's Ari could have a quietly big role on the club next year. I'm, I'm really excited to see, you know, does he get some penalty kill time? Does he fit in more consistently on the power play? Does he get potentially center ice minutes? If he doesn't get center ice minutes, does he slot him in, in a role? Like, you know, there's, we'll get into this in future. future discussions but you don't have a Monge-pani anymore and Manjipani fit like a glove with Backlin and Coleman.

Who's going to go to the 3M line? Yeah. Even though it's not that anymore. It could be Coronado. It could be Zari. It could be Peltjay. There's a lot of guys that could fit into, you know, the first year when you're playing in the NHL, it's can you play at this level?

And the answer for a lot of these guys is yes, especially Zari. Zari is an out of bashed yes. And then it's like, okay, once you're here, what's your calling card going to be? What's your thing? Where you're best suited. And I think Zari is in the process of carving out a niche for himself. a lot of guy you know plenty of players have made careers off of playing on michael backlin's wing for a couple years and then learning a lot so yeah imagine panney kachuk uh you know for a league

obviously didn't grow there but was a successful player joe colborne colbourne sure nice boma okay so the grads from last year posp salzary pelchic coronado uh let's take a look at picks 20 through 11 as we have uh our boy rj has drawn up a list for us as showing exactly what has already been gone over on the website, the 20 through 11. Tell me about consensus where things got crazy and maybe walk us back, maybe even with an honorable mention,

if you'd like, before we get started, if there's one guy that maybe came into 21 or geez, this guy was close to crack in the top 20. I don't know that many years, that would be interesting, but it's regarded as like a top third organization in the league now, like sort of that 9, 10, 11, 12 range is where you see. the flames ranked. So they do have great depth.

Maybe not the Star Parry Lock, but great depth. Walk us through an honorable mention and then through this list. I'll run quickly through got votes but didn't make the list. Got votes and didn't make the list from fewest votes to most votes. Goldtender Arceini Sergeyev, who kind of had an up and down here. Parker Bell, who is probably really, really reliable and good in Tri-City as an overager. Yeager Yer Gorgorov, a goaltender in Dynamo, the Junior Dynamo in Moscow. go really quietly strong year axel hertig when he came back

the big shoulder he's coming to the hitman this year it's an exciting storyline that i know you've been all over he's he's uh he's so excited to play in front of fans they don't have fans at swedish at the junior games so he's he's so jacked about coming and playing in front of fans but he's going to be someone like he's big he's got some some jam to his game and the hitman very sneakly could be a very fun team to watch this year so hertig's up there uh sam morton or Hank Horton, whatever the heck is you guys calling on the show, came in from Minnesota, a statement catto at the end of the year.

He was the, every year the, the Wranglers bring in, usually get a half dozen guys on amateur trial contracts. You know, even, you know, case and point, they brought in,

Yoni Yermot, who's who we'll talk about later. And he came in and, you know, he. Sam Martin was really good. He's an older player. Sam,

like, typically your, trial guys, you know, you have your set guys, especially heading towards the playoffs. And you get a, you get a game in.

You're like, hey, here's your game. Cool. Thanks for playing. Like, Jane Lapinski, you got a game in. Yeah. You know, uh, Atteamaran, you know, Hansik, like all of these guys only got one game in. Morton came in.

They gave him a chance to play in the top nine because some guys were hurt. Some guys knees and nights off. And Morton just made it as possible to take him out. Yeah. And who the heck knows what his ceiling is. Yeah. But for a guy who's 24 going on 25, uh, he stepped in really nicely. And the last guy who just missed the cut by a single standings point or tally.

Rory Karen's, uh, Thoughts and prayers. All over the place last year in every way a young offensive forward can be. When, uh, when, you know, when Zari and Ponspe's got called up in November, uh, Karen's got, got a regular spot in the top six in the power play. He was superb. Then when the team got a little bit more healthy and his role diminished, you know, he, he, he wasn't quite as noticeable.

So he, he's got the potential to be a difference maker. And in probably, I'd say a dozen games this year for the Wranglers, he was a difference maker. Yeah. It's just a question of, okay, when you're, not a difference maker. What do you bring to the table? Sure. That's fair. So yeah. So those are all your honorable mentions. Very diplomatic of you. You didn't name one. You every single person that got a single standings vote looking out for the little guy.

That's right. Ryan Pike. Oh, God. This was this is probably the most stressful year to do this because this was I think we had part this year. It's kind of fun. And I ran it by some some scouts and some people in the organization. And it's, it's a deeper group. It's a very deep group. Like it's not. top end heavy, but there are a lot of like, yeah, this guy might be an NHLer. Yeah, they have, I would say, we'll get into this when we get into the top five. A handful of guys I think you can say are, you know, A quality prospects. Yeah. They got so many Bs and B pluses.

Yeah. And I think that's the thing that they've done a nice job of, even in the years where they did not have a lot of early picks. Right. They're pretty good at turning your fourth, fifth, six rounders into pretty solid prospects. Totally. Okay. Let's get to the list.

Uh, these are 20 through 11 before we get, uh, we're going to, spend a lot more time to slow down and focus on 10-9, counting backwards, 8, 7, 6. I think I still remember the order of numbers. It's been a long summer of pretending to work, Pike, you'll understand. Number 20, Jan Kuanzov, the Yukon product that was a second rounder. This was never a high-ceiling projected player, and he remains not a high-ceiling player. We did see his NHL debut this year. He was perfectly adequate in a small role.

limited role he played a you know game in january against ottawa and it's perfectly fine you know he's he's one of those guys that i think his big challenge is you know we'll get into this when we get further in the list there's other guys of a similar profile to him who might have higher offensive ceilings but you know you know because that's off is meat potato is really reliable player he's a shutdown guy he's a third pair guy penalty killer at the hl level projects at the n hl level i just think he he might be the victim of some numbers games before too long, but he's been pretty solid. 19, Cole Schwint, he came in in the Matthew Kachuk deal. It was not a one for one. It was not a two for one. It was not a three for one. It was four assets for Matthew Kachuk because they got Jonathan Eberdow, McKenzie Weeger, a first rounder that is next year, whether it's

Calgary's first or Florida's first, well, it could be very interesting. And then, of course, the fourth and final piece was Cole Schwint, who has some talent, but is it fair to say he hasn't put it together consistently enough? I think his first year in the organization, I think he had, you know, it was sort of a question of where do you fit in amongst the guys the flames and the Wranglers have? Whereas I think especially in the last, I'd say,

15, 20 games for the Wranglers, you know, he was him, you know, the top two centers in the team down the stretch were him and Sam Morton, Morton being a first year pro, basically a zero-a-year pro, they were really leaning on, you know, went for, you know, key faceoffs, you know, anytime they had an ozone faceoff, key defensive zone face offs, penalty kill, power play, they really leaned on him.

I don't, he didn't have a, really showy offensive numbers. Yeah. But I would sort of like him to, uh, for what the Wranglers were trying to do, he was sort of the Lindholm in that group where, the offensive numbers weren't really a, a reflection of what he was doing well.

Because, you know, when he was doing things correctly, the puck was always moving up the ice. And it always, it ended up on strong. green stick or Pellche stick or another offensive guy stick. So he was kind of doing the so-called grunt work of making sure that, you know, they had a connector. But I think he had a much better season last year than he did a year ago. And interestingly, he's not going to come in and be asked to play a scoring role in the

NHL if he does arrive there. So that's probably a really good year for him to show the versatility and grunt work thing. If you're going to be a fourth line center in the NHL, if you're going to take Kevin to earn his job. Those are probably the types of things you're going to have through at the NHL level. Yeah. And, you know, I got a little look last year too, right. Obviously, pedigrees are different. You know, one guy's a first rounder who turned into a hell of a pro and one guy is still very young and figuring out. But, you know, Michael Backlin, when he became a pro initially, you know, his first few years in the NHL were fourth line minutes, fourth line,

you know, buried in the zones and being asked to do that kind of grunt work. And I think it's the toughest thing to be good at it at pro hockey. And I think Schwintz gradually becoming quietly very good at it. Number 18, it's our first goalie showing up as we count backwards from 20. There's a lot of Eastern European net minors. And this is one of the newest pieces that Jordan Sigelette and the goaltending department have mined through the draft. The Russian minister of gold tending Jordan Sigelot has found another one. Kiroz who played if, so the English, the anglicization of it is AKM Tula.

It's in the Tula region of Russia. The team name is the Mikhailov Academy. Okay. So the Mikhailov Academy had two teams. They have a team of older junior age players and younger junior age players. And so he started the year on AKM, the Mikhailov Academy's lower young age group team. And shockingly, in a U-20 league that got their heads caved in. They won maybe six games all year.

He was in Neff or four of them. He was the best thing on an atrociously, bad team that was kind of built to be bad. But he goes up, he goes up and plays with older, better players and his numbers just go through the roof. He had a really, really, really strong.

I think he basically played there until, he played the younger team until November. And then by the first week in November, he was basically with the older group full time. And his numbers took off. So he looks like he'll be with the older group full time this year. He might get a look or two with ACMTool as a VHL team, the Russian version of the day.

Yeah, the second division. So he's, he's a, you know, he's 18. He is tools. He's going to, he's, he's, he's, he's, he's toolsy, but he'll need some time. And the nice thing is, it's Russia. So he'll have a long runway. There's no limit on when you can sign Russian, sure, and also, if he plays well over there, he'll just get called up and play on a men's team, not a junior team anymore. Exactly. That's, it's a good place for players to develop. We've seen a lot of goalies come in the early to mid-20s to North America as

almost finished products. You think of Shasturkin, Sorokin, amongst others. Uh, they don't have to marinate in North America. Yeah, exactly. And I think that's one of the things where if you look at sort of one of the benefits of the European development model, especially, I'd say especially more in Western Europe, but Russia is doing a good job of it too. You know, case in point, William Stronger came to the Calgary Flames having played NHL or playing pro hockey.

Like, you know, Schillington had played pro hockey. Yeah. You know, all these, all these, so a lot of these Western European players, you had a chance to see them at 16, 17, 18, playing against men and sort of figure out their development. So I think Zeruban is going to, he's a project. If you can't, the first thing you're going to say after hearing the words, Russian goalie are project. Yeah.

But he's definitely, there's a lot of attributes to his game that make people optimistic about it. Hey guys, it's Pinder. The NFL season opens on the 5th of September, Thursday nighter between the Baltimore Ravens and Derek Henry potentially against the defending Super Bowl champion Kansas City Chiefs. I don't know who's going to win, but I do know numbers. The numbers last year, 70% of primetime games, the under hit. I'm going to go under 46.5. That is the line for the game. That pays 1.90 in odds. That might bet on the day. Play the under. Hey, 61% over the last five years in proud time games.

Love that. The segment brought to you by Bet365, proud partner of Barnburner, open an account with Bet365 today, and you can bet on a huge range of market. So whatever the sport, whatever the moment, it's never ordinary at Bet365. Use code FN bonus. That's FN bonus. As always a big shout out to one of our big sponsors, McLeod Law, great people. We talk about it on the show, Shane King and Peter Klein and Austin and everybody there.

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but we're at your dealership for life today in the Northwest Auto Mall. Let's see what's happening in Village Honda. Mark your calendars. August 24th is the fourth annual Accura and Honda Show and Shine. 12 till 4, everyone welcome, prizes, all kinds of family fun. We hope to see you there here at your dealership for life in the Northwest Auto Mall, Village Honda. And we're back with more Barnburner. Our next player is Grushnikov, Artem, who came over in the Kristanaev deal.

One of my critiques of the deal at the time was that a player of this archetype, doesn't have a lot of ceiling. Like if he's going to be an NHL defenseman, he's going to be a heart and soul, most likely third pairing, tough to play against, great character guy, but those guys are on waivers every year.

Yeah, or that's Paul, or the high end ones. Like, I mean, if the idea is, if you close your eyes and go like, man,

I wish this guy could be Chris Tanna. Chris Tenev, you know, Chris Tenev came out of, you know, the U.S. college system as an unsigned project. And he was a little bit younger,

you're a little bit older. And he was just an unsigned college prospect. So I think, you know, you got, I like the player, but he's, he's basically another version of Kuznetsov, where he's like, okay, I can kind of understand, like he's got the physical tools. He's got a good mentality. The, the folks in Texas, who played there in Cedar Park, love the kid. He very, you know, there's an anecdote. Like he got traded. Yeah, the, the, we reach out to a, our buddy, one of our buddies at 100 degree hockey who, 100 degree hockey covers.

the Texas stars, the HL team of the DAL Stars. And, you know, they related a story of just, you know, when he got told he got traded. He was like, last minute healthy scraps was like going to Calgary. And he asked if he could stay after the game. You know, a lot of guys, when they get traded, they go, you might see them like right before morning scaping. Like, okay, see guys. Then they're on the plane going to going to the Wranglers, going to the flames going wherever. He wanted to stay behind and thank the guys for the experience he had later.

He was. So I think a lot of people in the Stars organization, from a character standpoint, raved about the kid because he's, he's, you know, they really like what he does off the ice. They like what he did on the ice. He's, he's not a high, he's not a high event player. And yeah, with nothing happens when he's on the ice, that's kind of his role. And, you know, it's hard to get, compared to some of the other flames defensive prospects, he's less exciting. Yeah. It doesn't mean he's not good, but it's just the things he's good at could potentially have been gotten by other means. Yes. Um, and I know Byron Vader, who we have,

on to talk ahead of the draft every year. His model just says, guys with this statistical profile are incredibly bad bets to become NHLers of any impact. So he could be the outlier, no question. But it's basically not splitting aces or when you're at 16 against a face card hitting, like you're just,

it's a tough one to win because A, we look how clog the system is with his type of guy. And B, if you're only going to produce single digit points in a men's league, your chance to get into the NHL just almost never happens. So we'll see what happens. They love the character. Tough minute's blue liner.

That's what they want. Sure. 16th, Jaden Lepinski, you talked about him already, a really good season with Vancouver for the Giants, big strong sentiment. Sneaky, sneaky, sneaky, good player. In the entire Western League,

I think he was top five in faceoff percentage and face off. Like, he took a ton of face-offs, and, you know, we talk, you know, we'll talk a bit about Samuel Hansick as we go along. The thing that the folks in Vancouver really loved is, Vancouver, they, they were cursed this year. They had guys sick, guys hurt, guys, you know, for every reason, guys just weren't available to the giants.

Lipinski was one of the few guys. It was consistently available, especially at the middle. And he, he was the guy holding it together, playing in every situation, point per game, winning a ton of faceoffs, playing a lot of minutes and, you know, taking kind of a beating physically. But he was, I think, you know, folks who are, who might have been on the fence about his projectability, I still don't think, you know, I think he's not going to be a top six NHL player,

but I think if you look at his size, a lot of folks are optimistic that he could project because of basically how much growth that he showed in this game over last year. 6-4, over 200 pounds already, and a guy that is eligible to play in the American League this year. We'll see if they return him back to Vancouver or if he can steal a job for the Wranglers. He'll certainly get a chance to do that, I imagine. Yeah, I think there's just so many bodies. in the regular town. I mean, Parker Bell,

uh, if I'm, making a prediction, I wouldn't be shocked if Jaden Lipinski gets an ELC at a camp and then gets a handshake and a tap, a pat on the head and get sent back and as an overager. Okay. I think he's the kind of guy that you want to reward him for how good he's been,

but there's also, that's the contract. There's also not a lot of room at the end right now. Right. Okay. Uh, we'll keep moving. Adam Klapka.

He got some significant NHL time at 15. He's a nice project story because he's an outlier coming over into the organization at the age he did. pretty raw. I've seen him fighting a lot. I don't know that he's good at it, but he's finding ways to be impactful and is turned into a pretty nice score

at the American League level. Yeah, if we're using the big and local Venn diagram, he's not local, but he's very big. Okay. One of the biggest players in the National Oculee, lose better than you think he would for the guy of size, and he's hard to move. And, you know, he's someone who, over the last two years,

you know, by Christmas of his first year in the HAL, he seemed to have adjusted to the game. and he's been one of the more consistent players in the flame system for a year and a half. I don't know if he's going to be anything more than a good bottom six player. But I mean, if Milan Luchich made a career out of being a guy who might not have had a great skill ceiling, but just being big and willing to use his bigness in front of the net to make other teams hate him on the power play. Klapka has been that guy for the Wranglers last a little while. That's a heady comparison, Pike.

I mean, Luch had what, 30 power forward? If you can get a little bit more snarl into Klapka's game, I think, I think there's a lot there. Listen to it at 6-7 or 6-8, 6-6, 6.6. Like, he's large, whatever it is. I don't know if he's got a curved spine. Push him 235, 240. Yeah, exactly. So the size is unique.

And look, I think if it's anything like last year, we're going to get a look at a lot of these guys on this list that are in Wrangler Town or the Inn or whatever you're calling it because injuries happen. and you want to get another peak. He wasn't able to replicate the success he had at the American League and the NHL level, but he wasn't asked to be a top nine forward. He was asked to be a fourth liner. So we'll see if he can perfect that this year if he gets the chance again to come up to Calgary.

Next to our list, who do we have? Ilia Salaviov, his second NHL game was the outdoor game in Evanton. Welcome to the Bigs. Welcome to the Bigs. He's one of those guys that he sort of came up as an injury recall here and there. I believe he goes up two or three times. First little bit, he was, fine. He didn't really stand out.

But he's another one of those guys in sort of the Grushnikov, Kuznetsov mold, where big physical, defensive-minded. He really took a step a year ago playing with Nicky Simone, where you had a sort of a veteran guy that could sort of show on the ropes. He doesn't really need that anymore. And, you know, he came up after the trade deadline last season, joined the flames. It was pretty good, killed some penalties, played in the D zone, sort of he... I liked him. I had very low expectations.

he's a very late pick, Bell Russian, and where guys like Kuznetsov were more much higher draft capital to get him. Seventh rounder. He's the guy that I think Kuznetsov and Grushikov should be worried about. Are they agents, for example? Because he's big. He's already looked like he can absolutely be a 6-7 in the NHL. And, you know, he started behind them, so to speak.

Two second rounders are the guys competing against. If I'm Joel Hanley, the guy I'm worried about taking the job as a 6-7 is Salabian. Yeah, sure. Like, Solviov, he's at the age where I don't know he's getting a lot better than the HL because of just he is what he is at this point, I think. Just his skill ceiling might not be there. But he's also the kind of guy that I think he just needs NHL reps to sort of develop a bit more. Or at the very least, he needs to be exposed to that a bit more.

But he's, he's reliable. He's, you know, meat and potatoes. And, you know, he's probably, again, a seventh rounder, if you, if a seventh rounder shows up to an AHL game, you consider they a good pick. This guy's already played 10 NHL games. And I wouldn't be shocked if he doubles or triples that number the next year because, you know, he, he knows what he is. He and I think the more he plays in the NHL, especially we saw that the last six weeks of the season. By the end of it, you're like, okay, this guy's kind of figured out what he can't get away with in the NHL and really, really tidy up his game of it.

So I'm optimistic about him as a third pairing guy. 6.3, 215 already and the guy in his mid-20. So we'll see what happens with him. He will age out of this list. I believe next summer or and maybe even by games played too to be fair. He's been close in games played. Yeah.

Okay. We'll keep moving. Ida Asunia. This is always going to be famously tied to Tyler to Foley. Interestingly because he's very much a finisher like to Foley, but because of course he was used by the third rounder that was the flames that went to New Jersey, was returned to the flames in the Tofoli deal with, of course,

Igor Sharon Govich. He is coming off a freshman season at UMass where he was very good, very solid, maybe not great, but also. also not disappointing in his first year called chalky. Yeah. Our pro Wes Gilberson over his post media did a really nice story on Sunniyev about midseason. We talked to the UMass head coach, Greg Carville.

And I always remember this. Carville's whole note was essentially just, you know, he knows how to play with the puck. It's just a matter of his checking, is a play away from the puck need to sort of, you know, grow a little bit. Because when you're playing with Penticton, the Penticton vs folks are basically the Harlem Globetrotters of the BCHL.

They're a powerhouse. They win all the time. And so if you're an offensive player with Fin dictum, you don't need to know how to check. You just need to know how to finish. And so he has experience finishing and he has confidence finishing. And the best compliment I can pay him was when they were in the NCAA championship tournament playing in the regionals. They lost to the eventual league champions, Denver, in overtime in a hell of a hockey game. And Sunyev, every time there was a high leverage minute, he was out there.

Really? If you had a chance to get a goal or generate some offense, you're throwing a. and soon he had over the over the ice every second shift he's in he's one of those guys that they trusted him in all three zones by the end of it i'm really really curious to see how his game continues to grow because he's you know he's a young kid he was a true freshman and if he can put on a bit of weight and figure out the a bit more of the details away from the ice or away from the puck he there's something there and i think there's some there's some offensive ceiling there that i don't think they have and other guys uh the last two on these uh

20 through 11 lists. Speaking of offensive ceiling. Two players that were selected in this summer's entry draft, which I don't even know what we'll call the introduction more from Vegas, the sphere. Tell us quickly about Luke Misa and Jacob Bataglia, the two newest flames on this list. So Luke Misa,

they got, they traded down. They had a fourth rounder from the Canucks trade for Lynnholm. They traded down. They got a sixth rounder that they turned into Eric Jameson. And they got the fifth rounder. They turned into Luke Mesa. So Luke Beeson the fifth round is borderline criminal because he was over a point per game player, led his team in scoring, captain breakaway.

He's just a really smallish, smart, explosive, dynamic offensive player. Can he play away from the puck? That's because not really what they asked him to do in the OHL. So I think if you're quite, if the thought process is, was you going to be, he still needs to polish up that side of his game. But he's a guy that can just score. He knows how to create offense. He's a really explosive, exciting dynamic player. And especially like this year, you know, his junior team has sort of loaded up a bit.

And he'll be, you know, Brock Otten at at McKean Saki. He has a blog at the OHL prospects blog. Really recommend people check it out. He just released his, his top 25 OHL prospects. And he gave Mesa a shout out, basically noted, yeah, he's a guy that will be relied on to sort of drive the bus offensively in the O this year for his team. And he, we'll see if he can do it. but he's been doing it last couple years. And his,

his little brother is a top five pick prospect for the 25 draft. So the Flames might be able to save on name plates, depending what happens. And Bataglia. We don't like him, but boy, we can save a nickel on a name place. You're going to like him.

You got to make it easy on the equipment staff. And Bataglia, you know, one of the mid-round picks this year, he's got some snarl to him. Scored a nice rate. Score a nice rate. Plays a kind of an agitating style.

smart players can play in all three zones, you know, I believe, I think he's a right shot. They have a lot of, he's, he's one of those guys that I think the numbers say he's very exciting. And I think anyone who's sort of seen him play, especially if you saw him on one of his good nights, you know, I think that for him, the challenge was the difference between him being, you know, top 25, 30 player and for a strong versus second. Yeah, it was that it's just a little bit, a little bit more completeness to his game. But again, he's going to be going back to the O. And there's a lot of, a lot of depth there. Yeah, he plays both wings, but is a left shot. So you may see him on the right side, but a left shot player who, yeah, 6-1, nearly 200 already.

So good to see. There it is. That's way too much time spent on 20 through 11. But Pike, it's the summer. And we're excited about this system. There were many years where there were not many high-end prospects of the Cavalry-flame system, or at least not many prospects of significance. I think you aptly described it well earlier saying there are lots of Bs and B pluses,

not a ton of future superstars. We'll be getting to those in our next show. Let's get into our top 10. We've got a little more time and some pretty art for these fellows. Number 10 on the Flames Nation top prospect list, the Concord, Summer of 2024. Who is it, Jack? Who do we got?

Dun, dun dun dun, trum-da-th-thum. Ed's Jan Moran. who just signed his entry-level contract with the Calgary Flames, Moncton Wildcats defensemen, very good offensively two years ago, not quite as good offensively this year, but all indications were that his defensive game took some strides this year. So he was at World Junior Camp over the summer.

He's actually projected by a few outlets to potentially be on the World Junior team. That's a good benchmark to hit, yes. Uh, he's, uh, you know, he's got a year left of junior eligibility. He is an 05. So he is, in his 19 year old year, uh, next year, you can, you know, the 25 season, 25, 26 season, he could go back snow ranger or he could play in the A, depending how his year goes. I'm concerned he already has an NHL contract. Probably this is last year the in the queue, but, you know, he's, he's a guy that, uh, touches the game in a lot of different areas. And I think the, the, the flames when he got drafted, were very optimistic and excited.

and excited about his potential as a power play quarterback, I think he has more competition for that role that he did when he was drafted. But I also think his game has, you know, flashed itself out a bit more than it was a couple years ago. Are you concerned by the dropping points? Because to go from your 17-year-old season to your 18-year-old season and not be down a little or even, but down a lot, that's something.

He was over a point per game. If I'm correct, his draft year? Yeah. And now you see 49 points in 58 games. Is that a reflection of the talent around him, changing his role? Do you not view him as an offensive guy anymore? What do you make of that? I'd be more worried if he didn't get shots.

Like his shot, his shot, the time for him and his team were still there. The power play for the wildcats is still good. It was just, I don't think they really had the finishing ability at five on five that they might have had a year ago. Okay. You know, especially for, for him, like, he has the puck a lot. He moves the puck a lot.

He shoots the puck a lot. And just it wasn't going in for him. at nearly the same level. Well, that's a good point because, you know, we understand there are hot streaks and there are cold streaks and there are posts and outs and then there's posting ins. That's a really good way to get, you know, a layer deeper to say, okay, are we seeing failure or are we seeing less luck?

Something like a shooting percentage would be a good indicator that, okay, like he still has the ability to do those things. It just maybe got very lucky his draft year and not so much this year. What we don't want to see is another year around here, I'm guessing. Yeah, I think for him, you know, The challenge for him is especially, you know, I think he gets a confidence boost from the ELC. I think he gets a confidence boost from going to Hockey Canada's summer camp. Yeah.

Oh, yeah. Having a decent showing. And I think, you know, he's the kind of guy that I think you want him to go into his 19-year-old season with a bit of a ship on a shoulder. And be like, okay, this is my last year. I want to leave everything out on the ice and sort of show fans just what I can do. He is number 10. It's in Moran, 19-year-old season coming up, 6 foot 18-85. back to Moncton of the QMGHL and one of five of the top 10 players that are defensemen.

It's a D-heavy group all of a sudden in the top. I don't want to spoil too much. You okay with that? I think we're good for spoiling the proportions of things. If you're on the website and we get done number two and there's one guy left, I don't know we're going to wonder about what position is playing. We'll be able to have figured it out by then. Is that fair?

I think that's fair. Yeah. Let's get to another defenseman at number nine. Henry Mews comes in. He is a right-shot defenseman. for the Ottawa 67, 6 foot, 187, and a very, very sterling point total as a 17-year-old in the OHL, nearly a point per game, not huge, but a lot of tools, a guy that slid, and another guy that Craig Conroy got, who people said, you shouldn't be able to get this guy this

late. That's a very good value pick. I mean, you know, it was the kind of thing where let's call a spade a spade a spade some, you know, six foot for modern defensemen, maybe a little bit small, maybe, but you can't really, you don't want to look at those numbers and go, I don't know, 61 points plus 60. I don't know. It's any good. He was very good. He was, you know, really good for Ottawa.

The flames very quietly, I think, had, what, three of the top eight defensemen in scoring the O HL amongst defense. Yeah. Amongst blue liners. And, you know, Mews, he's, you know, he's one of those guys that, again, you know, as he progresses, you probably want to see him add a bit of size to his game. You probably want to see him, you know, work on his play away from the puck. but there's not a lot of holes in his game.

He's a guy that, you know, some, some draft prognosticators looked at and went, hmm, maybe he can go in the first round, especially early in the year. I think people went, maybe you can go the first round. And I feel like he was one of those guys that kind of slid a bit. And part of it was just a lot of guys had strong second half of the season. And he was just pretty good all year. And he might not have had that excellent run that a lot of guys who got trapped ahead of him did. But he wasn't mad for any stretch eye.

It's a hell of a get for the third round. This type of profile you don't see often in the third round. I'm talking to Byron Bader. This is one of the picks he absolutely loves for the flames. And he joins Kevin Ball as Ottawa 67's alum in the organization. And you know who the flames drafted from the 67s back in the day turned into a half decent hockey player? Sean Monaghan. Sean Monaghan.

So I mean, Tofoli, of course, was a 67 as well. You could do worse than collecting Ottawa 67s. Hey, footy fans. It's Pinder. Your next two Cavalry FC home games are coming up on August 24th and 30th. The 24th is a Saturday the welcome in Pacific for the multicultural match. Always a good clash when the lads from Victoria enter at Cofield to take on the Cavs,

two of the top clubs in the opening six years of CPL. August 30th is the next weekend. It's a Friday night clash with Valor. We've actually got the scoring record. I think they scored seven on Val. back in the first or second year. So never boring when the Cavs get to rip the ball on Valor. Let's see how she goes.

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Thank you, spring financial is the best. Apply today at springfinancial.ca. Back to the show. Okay, let's go to our first year, P& in the top 10. A guy that came over to North America last season had some highlight real plays. And I think, I think, I think, really did a great job to restore faith in him as a prospect with some NHL upside. It's William Stromgren. So let's talk about Europe.

Okay. Let's talk about Europe. So if, especially the, in Sweden and Finland especially, If you're a teenager, like you're going to get a chance to play pro games if you're if you're someone who they think has a high ceiling. But you're not going to play a lot. You're like case in point last year, Axel Hurtig played. I think he dressed for a handful of games with Rogel, but he didn't really play that much. He, you know, you sit on the bench.

So that's the mensly. Yeah. You play it. You play it, uh, you know, if you're especially if you're a young guy, you're going to have a secondary role. And so your numbers aren't going to be sexy just because of the context of your role in the organization. And the, the longer you stay in the older you get, the, the more you move up the list. And so Stronggren played in a couple different organizations as a bottom sixer,

mostly fourth line, sometimes killed penalties, didn't have great numbers because that's not really a role. You would expect a guy to have great numbers. It's an important role. As a 17, 18, year old, you're not going to have sexy numbers killing penalties. It's just unless you're Michael Backland,

you're not going to have great offensive numbers playing in that role. And so he came over to North America. And I think folks were a little bit, a little bit down on its potential because the numbers weren't there. Like, you know, case in point, you know, I love Byron's model. Byron's model relies on projecting by points. And so I think a challenge for the model is projecting Europeans because a lot of those guys don't have the points to really suggest they'll turn into anything. But in the defense of the model and what you're saying is that often in Europe, you will see them play junior and men. So there's a lot of you can borrow from different spots.

Yeah. But for Strongman, he came in and much like Adam Klapka the year before, spent probably the first three, four months, probably say two, three months until about Christmas figuring out, okay, what am I supposed to go? What am I supposed to do? What am I supposed to do with my hands? Sort of the, what am I, what is this whole HL thing anyway? And then I, once the calendar flipped over, much like Klappina the year before, it just clicked for him. And he became one of the most consistent players, one of the most noticeable players. Forty four was sort of all. over the place and every possible way he'd want him to be even when he wasn't scoring he was noticeable he was very very good down the stretch i think he had it he was better in the first round against tucson than he was against uh against the coachella valley i think you can say that for a lot of rangler's players i think they hit a bit of a wall against that team but you know stronggren if he can project that second half that last 30 40 games into a full a hl season i wouldn't be shocked if he's wearing a flaming sea at some point next year. I was going to say if he can do that at the HL level, he won't be at the HL level. They will get you out of there and put you in the

best league in the world. So Strongman comes in. He's listed a little later there than he actually is. He's 6-3-185. That's probably an old measurement, but big and skill is a nice combo. You'd love to see the offensive totals jump from that because the tools are there. Yeah. And as a thing, like when I know, you know, I'm not, I'm not going to pick on my particular colleague, but one of my, one of our colleagues, uh, you know, really thought the flames at that picture of taking Logan Stancoven, who eventually went to Dallas. Like you can't, you get, no, let's not, we're not saying that Logan Stancove is not a great prospect. He is. But I think if you're the flames and at that point, you have a lot of smallish offensive players in your system. Usually guys you took in earlier rounds, maybe there's a tendency to go, okay, if we got Pellche who's buck 70, we got Coronado who's not big.

He got Zari who's not big. You have a lot of these guys. Maybe surround them with some skilled size. And so Strangen's a guy that the scouts looked at his size, looked at the things he was. doing the music between the notes and went okay this might project yeah and so it took a while because of just the nature of european hockey and he's only he's only done for half a year but i think you know i think he i think a lot of folks in the flames guy in the department probably feel a bit validated uh big exhale second half of the year yeah and i think they probably went there he goes

that's the guy we thought we were getting and you know i've seen guys turn one good pro year into a pretty good career. If he can have a second good year, he could be figuring himself into the system pretty well. Because outside of maybe Klapka, I don't know if there's a, you know, guys that have his combination of size and, you know,

just the ability to think the game that well. Yeah, pro body, you could call it, right? If he's 6.3.185, that's a guy that, yeah, you can throw him in for some, you're not worried. There's a couple things I want to talk about there. One is the notion that, we've already got a lot of small guys.

Let's not get a small guy. That's a really good way to miss on very good small guys. Yeah. And what it is is it's a let's take this big process machine we have that, that uses a lot of information to spit out. And let's just go away from that. Yeah. If you made a lot of good bets,

but they don't pay out, it doesn't mean you stop making good bets. Yeah. And look, Stromgren versus Stan Kovin is not the conversation I'm having, because they can both be good play. and there can be different players. And you can, there's more than, you know, one good player in the second round.

But what I personally like to see is the, okay, let's continue to make the best bets we can make rather than, well, we have too many of this bet. So you're going to make a lower percentage bet? And maybe that wasn't what they're looking at, but I would, my fear is that that was the case. I think you probably just do that just unintentionally.

But I also think it's sort of a question of risk aversion because, you know, how many smallish guys, not just picking on Stankov, but how many smallish offensive players haven't made it because the size didn't translate. Like, that's the risk they, they're facing with Luke Misa, because Luke Misa, flat out, you can score.

Yeah, that's why Johnny Goddra was in the fourth round. Yeah. So, and, you know, there's always been sort of, you know, if you can look at, you know, there's a lot of very smart people, uh, throughout the hockey blogosphere who've written about, you know, the implicit and explicit size, uh,

heretics going on to the NHL. And, you know, guys who, a lot of players look like Stromegren get picked higher than players that look like Stancoven because if you know Stancovin and smallish offensive guys of his archetype boom and bust like you're either kill it in the NHL and you're looking smart or they're buried in the coast and you're going oh remember that guy got picked whereas you know the middle road the if it works kind of okay version of Stromgrin or guys like Stromgren at least it's probably the NHL low you're probably getting something out of him so i mean i can understand the thought process i agree with you though and i think

you know as we've seen the the seeds of this as we've gone through this uh i think the flanks did a nice job melding the swing for the fences but also take some quote unquote safer bets in the 24 class because they have some guys that even if they don't turn out great might still be pretty good okay uh we'll move this is a very fascinating one we've talked a lot about injuries and how the role they've played in some past prospects we haven't got to hansick we will at some point during these programs he was robbed of basically most of last year a significant portion the year before within injury i believe at world juniors we we know what happened to connor zerry with the covid situation and then some serious injuries um it's happened again to jeremy porier who had a nasty nasty slice early last

year it was don't look could have been don't look for the video don't look for the video yeah yeah that's Your discretion is advised. He sliced some wrist tendons, swiping at a puck. He lost the puck at the offensive blue line and backtracked to try to swipe it away to sort of basically dive and swipe the puck away to avoid a break away. And basically the guy he was playing against loss his footing and he basically slapped his own wrist against the guy's skate. It was gross. It could have been a lot worse than it was. And thankfully he made a full recovery.

But like just watching the video once, I'm like, I have to go. I have to get up and go look at something else, like look at puppies or something, because this is, I don't want to think about the grossness anymore. Well, and Pike, thank you for telling us not to watch it, but screw you for giving us a very vivid description of what happened. I'm just glad the guy's okay, because she, like that, that could have been nasty. Porre is entering his 22-year-old season, 6 foot 190 plus. He was touted as a very skilled offensive defenseman and could he figure out the defensive side

of the game? I don't love seeing around a half point per game at the American League level, but it was a season robbed by injury. It's his last asking, you can confirm this. I believe you had noted, it's his last season where he's waiver exempt. So you will be able to send him to the Wranglers,

but it's, it's shitter get off the pot season for Jeremy Poria. Yeah, I mean, Jeremy Poet is being playing on a team that also includes Hunter Bustevich, that also includes Grushnikov, that also includes,

you know, a bunch of promising young guys that might not have been in the system when he started. And, you know, he's a guy that, when he's on, he's very good. He quarterbacked the power play last year.

The two guys that really ran the power play when he's working well. The first unit was usually Porre. The second unit was usually Jonathan Aspero. And when they're going, they were going really nicely. And just a question for me is, what can Porier do when he's not playing on the power play? Because we mentioned the top 20 yen because Knetsov. Kuznetsov was the seventh defenseman during the playoffs.

And one of the reasons why they ran seven defensemen was because Poyer was kind of a non-entity at five-on-five. And his defensive game has always been kind of, he's getting there, but it's a work in progress. And so they essentially had Poyer there for offensive zone situations and the power play and Kuznetsov there for the penalty kill and defensive zone stuff. So they're essentially split one spot.

We put these two players together, Ryan. Is that possible? Maybe we'll call him Jeremy Kuznetsov. They just, what they need to do is put them under a trench coat and just like pretend they're one player. That's a large human. That's a large, almost, almost clapka size. But tell me you've watched ProJack Horseman, of course.

Oh, yeah. That's phenomenal. But that's, that's a whole challenge with him because especially like you, you know, he, I think folks were really bullish on his potential coming out of last season, where his first year pro,

pro hockey with the Wranglers, he really seemed to grow his game, grew his confidence in all situations. And then you have that nasty injury. And like, I don't care how mentally tough you are. I think that, wait until you've had enough distance and enough reps on your belt to feel comfortable pushing

yourself in those situations. I think you're a little bit tentative. Big year. And so I think, yeah, I think he's going to come in with a chip in his shoulder. And I think he's going to be really wanting to sort of take a big bite of the apple, so to speak, and put his claim on a spot because I think he's one of those guys that could hear footsteps with like, let's let's call a spade a spade. I mean, if you have news, and brisdevich and preck and moran and uh poorier how many offensive-minded guys who might not be great in their own zone can you have on one an hl team yeah like you you've got to win battles in there you can't be in the middle of the bottom of that group and play in the nchel yeah so i think i think

it's going to be the next year or two uh well and buying for time two years i mean he needs wavers in two years. He needs to go next year. That's what I mean. Like, so to say the next couple of years, like he might make it in another organization just based on numbers and I guess waivers, but it's an interesting spot he finds himself in. It's got to be, uh, hopefully a healthier season for him. And if it is, he's got to prove he can still be that guy that was highly touted and drafted and that we were all excited to see graduates the angel level, because as you've noted, it's much more crowded for that job description all of the sudden. Yeah, but you know, he's a the benefit for him is he has played pro hockey and he knows the organization and he

knows the coaches so i think i think he has some built-in advantages it's just a matter of him taking advantage of them uh his brother also got drafted this year yeah to smaller i forget what he went huge offensive numbers i forget where he went we'll pull it up but um yeah no he's uh would have been fun to have brothers in the same organization again yeah the the the equipment staff for for training camp they have an easier time of it they just reuse the same name bars. I mean, you got to remember numbers then, but you're really trying to save the equipment guys, a couple nickels. Oh, God, it's the toughest job. Brothers Justin Porriere, who was drafted this year by the Carolina Hurricanes round five. That sounds right. And five, eight. So a very small,

player. He might have been the smallest player taken in this year's draft class, but monster numbers, 82 points in 68 games. There's your round five, another Mesa round guy. Okay. And the Carolina also team that did a nice draft. class of swing for the fences on talent. Okay, one left in our 10 to 6 countdown. Porre checked in at 7, the left shot defenseman. And we have a very curious case at number 6, a first rounder for the Calgary Flames in this past draft.

He is 18 years old, 6-1-185. Matt V. Greeden? How am I saying the last? I say, Gredeen, thank you. That works great for me. From the Muskegon lumberjacks of the United States Hockey League. Bam. Perhaps the third best league in North America, at the very least the fourth best. He's, it's definitely up there for major junior hockey. And yeah, he's came over in North America,

played a couple of years, good numbers, scored a ton, led his league in scoring, you know, very good offensive player, defensive game needs some work. He's a polarizing player. For him to go in the first, some people are like, ooh, I love this. And other people were like, that's too soon. Where did you sort of that's not necessarily every player that gets taken where he does late in the first round a lot of them would be like that because that's where lists start to diverge a ton but where does this where do the polarizing opinions come from in this game? I think just sort of the completeness of his game like he's he has games where he can utterly dominate in games where he just sort of doesn't seem as dominant like I think the especially I'll say this a guy with a skill ceiling he has like how challenge was he you led to league and score. in a 17 year old season that's incredible and there there's some some nights like we've seen it from a lot of i think i think we see it a ton in first rounders and i think the difference between guys that are first rounders and solidify themselves as first the draft year and guys that sort of slide a bit is that can you bring it

on the third night of a back to back to back sure with travel and all the stuff so i think maybe that's sort of where some of the the criticisms of his game come in he's not a great defensive player but he's just dynamite in his own zone when he has the puck especially in the neutral and the offensive zone, he can just make things happen. And especially, you know, he's got a swagger to his game that I think, if you're the flames,

if you're anyone, you look at that and you go, okay, if he can translate that more or less to the pro level, he could be a guy that helps you a lot. Good size, scores a ton. Led his league in scoring is a 17 year old.

The only thing we don't know is where the hell he's playing this year. So let's walk through chronologically. He gets drafted as a guy, committed to go what to Michigan? Yeah, he was committed to Michigan. Which is a great program. And Michigan had not announced him yet as an incoming freshman. And so we don't know, there's been, so Grideon actually pushed back against the notion that it was.

Let's start with the notion first. The notion was, some of our colleagues reported that, you know, it was academic reasons why he would not be able to play. You won't be going to Michigan. Essentially, grades aren't good enough is what was reported. We're not saying it's true. And similar things were reported for, for, for, for, Martin Pospicil his draft year. Okay.

And so Pospicil ended up not going to college. He ended up signing and going, going elsewhere. Grideen ended up getting drafted the week after the draft, right before Devcamp, actually, by the Valde-Or Farrer. Forer's, it's, I think it's French for drillers. Oh. But, yeah, Valde-Oar drafted him first overall in the import draft. As of right now, as of this recording, he has not signed his, I think, whatever that, it's the QMJHL scholarship and development agreement.

Essentially his contract, play Major Junior. Yeah, so he is not committed to play in that league, but that specific team, in all the media he's done, he's basically said, yeah, I'm going to the queue, my agent's taking care of it. He has the option. So here's, for folks who aren't

enter the weeds with us, come with us. The CHL, so the NHL, the reason why we mentioned, like, oh, Hunter Bustavich can't play in the HL to he's 20 because Bristavich is a player drafted out of a Canadian league team. You know, the O, the, the, HL, or the, yeah, the, of the CHL major juniors. And so there's a transfer agreement to prevent the junior teams from getting all their best players just raided by the HL teams. Like every other league on Earth does, by the way, continue.

So they, they have an agreement to basically, if you're not in the, until you turn 20, unless you're in the NHL, you're in the juniors. So until Gredeen signs his deal in the queue, he is. not subject to the transfer agreement. He's eligible to play in the American League because he's not playing in the CHL. He never has played in the CHL. He's even signed a contract in the CHL so he can go play in the A. The minute he signs a QMJHL contract, he becomes a party to and the transfer agreement applies to him. So then his options would limit. There has been some reporting our pal Scott Wheeler of the athletic reported that, you know,

there was rumblings that Ramoski, who were slated to host the Royal Cup this year, we're planning or hoping or in talking to Valdevor to trade for good things rights. As of right now, that has not happened. It might happen after we record this before he published it for all we know. And that's quick. I mean, yeah, we're turning this around the night before, not to spoil anything, pull back the curtain. But it really just seems like if you look big picture,

he's trying to get himself to the team hosting the Memorial Cup, which would make a lot of sense. Yeah. And, you know, it's, you know, Valdeor is a little bit leaner in a team. They've got some good players. there's not a lot of bad teams in any of the CHL, especially the Q. Like,

if you're looking to pull up some gaudy offensive numbers, there can be worse leagues in the world of the play in. But, you know, so right now, you know, he's all, I reported the other day,

I've been told he's going to report to the flames and go to flames camp first. He's going to be at Pinticton. He's going to be practicing with the flames. You know, he's a first round. He's a first round pick. So typically, you know,

the options are you go to your junior camp, say hello, and then go, okay, see you. And then go, go to go to Calgary but for a guy who's going to be moving around a bit this year he'll just probably start going he'll start in Calgary but only for training camp and then I think though

you're kind of solidify where he's going to play so I think they're hoping that by the beginning of the CHL season they have him committed to play somewhere in the queue yeah but as of right now he his rights are owned by Valde Orr either way wherever he plays he's going to be someone that people are really excited to see play based on, you know, he was a dynamo in, the league is scoring. Yeah. So I think in, you know, 28th overall pick, good player. And I think already signed his entry level.

So there, I think there, there's reasons to be optimistic about him because I would say the things he's great at are the things that are not a lot of guys in the flame system are great at. He has Matt Coronado-esque offensive numbers at the same age in the USHL. and Coronado has turned into a pretty good pro already. And he learned against grown-ass men in college with Goudin, different skill set, different foibles to his game than Coronado had. So I think going to Junior might be a good spot for him.

But he's a fascinating player. Yeah, he's a right winger with a left shot. We've seen a few of those around here, a lot of natural right-shot right-wingers in the system, although Coronado's won. and over the last 10 years. It seems like since some fellow named Jerome was here, it's been tough to get really good,

right-shar, right-wingers. I've never, oh, you mean Jada Ginnle's dad? That's right. Yeah, if that's the same as Teage's dad. I think, or Joe, Gingal's dad? If that's all the same guy, that's who I think one of those dads is one I'm talking. He was an okay NHL player.

Right. Yeah, those are tough boots to fill, to be fair. If we're waiting for the next great, again-a-level right-winger, that's a high bar to hit. Okay, so Grideen, right winger, probably going to the queue.

Do you give him a shot at? Like here's the one thing that I know, like people are like, oh, he's going to go to Major Junior. That's great. He was in the USHL. He was the best player offensively in that league.

He was scoring. I don't think the Q's a step up from the SHL. There was more players drafted out of the first round most of the last few first rounds out of the USHL than there has been out of the Q. Now, you're telling me he's a memorial. Memorial Cup team that's hosting, okay, I get it more because now it's like you're playing on a stack squad.

You know you've got a huge tournament against the best of the best in Canadian Junior. It's not just the circuit in Quebec and the Maritimes. That makes a little more sense. So maybe that's why we're seeing this take place, that if he is going to go from the USHL to the queue, let's get into a spot where we know he's going to be facing the best junior competition in the country. And the queue just hasn't been that for a while, sadly. Yeah, I mean, and you know, it's sick. If your host Memorial Cup, you will.

It's cyclical. Yeah. Isn't it? Like, it feels like the QMJL is just steadily and like, like linearly lost ground with the O and the Duh? When was last time the Debt won the Memorial Cup? I don't care about that. I mean, it's, I'm just saying if you look at where players are drafted out of the Dup, out of the O, out of the Q. One of these things ain't like the other ones.

I'll say this. Like, uh, if for Grideen, I mean, you know, he, when he pushed back on the, the academics notion he mentioned us like you know the if you look at the CHL they play a lot of games compared to college yes big time and especially if let's just say it's Ramoski Ramoski's going to be playing hockey until the end of May yeah guaranteed yeah and so if you're thinking this guy's raw and he needs to fill out and add to his game if you're thinking damn it just get him reps get him a ton of reps especially late in the season reps against some of the best in junior hockey yeah i don't I don't hate that.

And yeah, I love that argument. It's just you'd be a lot more comfortable if it was Colonna, Calgary, Edmonton, London. Know what I mean? Yeah, yeah. But if it's the host of the Memorial Cup, okay, I'm with you. There's only one one team right now guaranteed he'd be playing until the Memorial deck.

And he's trying to, and he's not there yet, but he's trying to get there. Ramoski, we'll see. Other thing of note, if you come all the way from Kyrgyn, Russia, I'm not sure that a Bachelor of whatever from the University of Michigan is your end game. it's probably to be a pro hockey player you just got drafted in the first round so i understand the that pivot as well yeah if you're smaller you need more developmental time um if a fallback option is crucial to you the NCAA is a phenomenal route for that we're talking about a guy that was selected in the first round of the actual draft yeah it's and compared to say let's say arseini

sargiv uh playing playing in uh pen state now yeah uh he is a guy that you know he he maybe he doesn't turn into anything and he'll get it up getting a degree sure or getting close to the degree before he goes pro because seventh rounder yeah you can kind of the incentive the incentive structure is a lot different but if you're a first rounder and if you're a guy that you know you you might have only been at michigan for a year two year yeah like most first rounders like i know one and done's pretty common now yeah one and done two two years at the ordinary as i'd say you know for first rounders with with cornaudto cornado is fairly typical of first round players of you do two years you go okay see it and you turn 20 you can still get your

three year old three year ELC yeah and your full bonuses and stuff like it makes a lot of sense all right uh that is 10 through six we will save the top five for next week and pike if you want to follow along on the website flames nation you've gone day by day from 20 all the way you're going to end up at number one uh you sort of alternated the different uh writers on staff through the prospects. Tell us about how that's come together. And if someone wants more on a player, what the website's offering. If you go to flame station.com, we got full

breakdowns. The cool thing is we have all of our writers chipping in and we've consulted a lot of our scouting friends from throughout the world of hockey. We mentioned 100 degree hockey gave us some intel on Arnda Murschenikov. We talked to Brock Otten from McKean about

some of the OHS guys. We've talked to I believe Jacob Tromblay from McKean's about Etienne Morin. We've talked, we've been using a roll-a-decks, basically. I believe you guys got a great scouting report from a college beatwriter as well for one of the guys, 21st. Yeah, at UMAS, the folks at UMAS said, the Daily Collegian, Sunni-Yev, gave us a very nice bit of, uh, scattered report on Adar Sunnev.

So, yeah, we've been, you know, we were trying to, you know, beat the bricks and find, you know, pretty much anyone who's sort of seen a lot of these players. And, you know, the nice thing about having NCAA players. is you got these college papers who've been sort of washing them inside now for full years. So it was exciting that Matt and the crew with the Daily Collegian will help us out because, you know, we're

going to be hitting them up again at this time next year, I think. No question. All right. We'll see you next week. Prospects 5, 4, 3, 2, and 1. Will Dustin Wolfe's reign at the top? Continue. We'll find out next week. Thanks for joining us. And again, I can encourage you enough to go to flamesnation.com for

more information on the flames top prospects. See you, buddies.