Barn Burner: Boomer & Pinder with Rhett Warrener - Calgary Flames Top Ten Prospects (PART 2) | FN Barn Burner - August 27th, 2024

Episode Date: August 27, 2024

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Hello, friends. Welcome back. It is another summer edition of Barnburner, part two of our Calgary Flames' top prospect show with our managing editor of Flamesnation.ca. Ryan Pike. He's wearing the hat. He's reping the gear. And he's ready to spit some logic about prospects. Pike, thanks for doing this with us. Part one aired last week. Hot tip, secret life hack, pull the curtain back. We're recording this once. So this will be a little, we're still doing the top prospects. But this is part two, and we're airing it to coincide with the release of the top five on the website. We mentioned a lot of names. We actually did a little bit on prospects 20 through 11 last week and then longer looks at 10 through 6. I'm putting you on the spot. Do you happen to have last year's top five prospects for the Calgary Flames?

I know you do some. You know I do. You know I do. It's just a matter of how quickly you can open. Should we go through top five, five to one? Just, yeah. And we don't need blurbs. Just like remind us the name.

So we can compare and contrast to this. Here is the top five from 2023. Okay. Defender at Chamaran was at five. Okay. And this year is already dropped to 10, you could say. You could say. Which is a reflection of A of the system and B,

that less than sexy point totally put up this year. Okay. Number four. Number four, Samuel Hansick. Okay. Which does feel low for a guy that was just drafted in the first round, but he had good company at the top. He had good company with the top.

Number three was Jacob Peltje, who aged out and gamesed out, excuse me. He games out. Yeah, he graduated. He graduated. Number two was Matt Coronado, who also, who also aged out slash gamesed out. And then number one last year for the second year in a row was Dustin Wolf. Dustin Wolf was a, I love Dustin Wolf's trajectory because it's just weird and wacky and fun. Yeah.

So Dustin Wolf, as you might remember my friend, he was drafted in the Vancouver draft in 2019. He was the fourth and last player drafted. I was sitting in the bleachers. And at that point, people are packing up and getting the hell out of there and run their hotels and trying to get the hell out of Dodge before, before too long. And, you know, try not to get sucked into the Roxy again for another night. So the fourth and last pretty much everyone's out of the building at that point, but Wolf gets selected. There's a little, whoo, from his family.

They were there. And they were there. And the friends there. So he got drafted. He last, in 2019, he was 14th in our ranking in 2020 after being named the Western Hawk League's top goaltender that year. He was up to fifth. Yeah.

Uh, 2021. He was fourth. And then 22 and 23, he was first back to back. And if we want to recap, it was. year, like draft year, goal of the year in the Western League, goal of the year in the Western League, goalie the year in the American League is a rookie, which is really, really unheralded stuff, uncommon. And then goalie of the year in the American League and H.O. MVP,

which is where left them at number one last year for the 2023 rankings. Our exercise today will be to see if by the end of the show, it is a Dustin Wolf hat trick or a three-peat, if you will, but we won't start there. we'll start at number five. Number five. Oh, but did you actually get to the Roxy for the draft in 2019? No, we did.

Yeah. I forgot what I did that. I've been once or twice. Yeah. It's always a story when you go to the Roxy. No, we were, we were good that weekend. We had too much work to do. Fair enough.

Yeah, so number five is actually someone, we're familiar with the Calgary Kid, Andrew Basha, from the medicine hat taggers. This was a fun one because he was a guy that was going in a lot of mock drafts heading into the draft in Vegas this summer. late in the first, sometimes early in the second. And as a guy from Calgary with the flames holding that second first rounder that the Vancouver Canucks gave them in the Elias Lindholm deal, there was a lot of maybe Bash as a fit for the Calgary Flames with that pick that I

believed ended up being 28th in the draft for the Canucks strong regular season finish. It wasn't to be in the first round, but day two it was meant to be as Bashar was scooped up by Craig Conroy and, you know, bashes of a familiar character played his minor hockey in Glenlake. His dad owns a couple particularly famous establishments for our staff being blocks away and serving alcohol. So it was a feel good story on many levels for people in this studio and this construction burdened part of town.

Yeah, a lot of guys. So everyone was aware that Cade Lindstrom was a damn fine hockey player. Yes. So early draft your projections were Kate Lindstrom's going to go high. And a lot of times if you're the other guy on a team with a star like Kate Lindstrom, it can be great for it. It can be terrible for you depending on how you approach it. Now the team approaches it.

And so I personally saw a bunch of that snack games early year. And you go, Lindstrom, high end player, great, great everything, you know, hard, to really poke holes in this game. But the guy I came away really impressed with this Bashia because Basia did not take a shift off. Basha may not have the skill ceiling of Cade Lindstrom, nor the size. Which is fair given where Lindstrom went in the draft. Exactly. But I mean, Basha is a pain in the backside.

He has plays with pace. He plays with skill. He's the kind of guy that, you know, the first couple shifts of a game, he'll finish his checks and wear on you. And by the end of the game, you're like, oh, God, this guy is still coming at me. And he can also follow up with some skill. And so he's the kind of guy that I think he has a, lot of good pieces to his game because, you know, he's not a guy that relies on size.

He's not a guy that relies on prodigious skill. He's not a guy that relies on any one thing. He has a package of attributes that really make him a pretty complete junior player. And we'll see how he goes. But yeah, he was, he was one of those guys. I think the flames got him at 41. He was a guy that prognosticators were like, late first, early second could be good. Any, any, him and Matt McGrathine were sort of the two guys that I think a lot of,

a lot of folks sort of saw as one could go at 28, one can go at 41, neither really be terribly surprising based on the quality of the players and the quality of the draft class and the flames happened to get Grideen earlier and Basha later. But Bachel is one of those guys that, you know, looking at social media, especially folks who follow the Western League, as soon as he got picked, all the people were like, oh, God, that makes a lot, that's a really good pick. It makes a lot of sense.

Local ties give you a nice, the warm and fuzzies, but it's also just a hell of a player. And so in the large and local Venn diagram, he is not large, but he is local. Okay, good. But he plays large. Like he's one of those guys where, you know, we, you know, there's the, the big criticism of the Flames prospect pool.

And I think they've done a pretty decent job trying to address that is their big players weren't particularly skilled and their skill players weren't particularly big. And you could also have a caveat to that is a lot of big players don't play mean or don't use their size as effectively if they could. you know, Basha was not given a lot of size by nature, but geez, he plays like he does. And that's something that I think will really help him as he moves forward. Madison has to be a fun team to watch because not only do you have Lindstrom who may be returned, I would think that would make sense, although God, I mean, what Columbus, who knows,

Basha. And then of course, Gavin McKenna, who isn't draft eligible until 2026, but is thought of as being the consensus won at this juncture for the 2026 draft, which is two summers from now, and put up nearly 100 points as a 16-year-old in the Western League. I would be Hitmanhockey.com getting those medicine hat tickets for this season. It won't be boring. And now there's a flames tie-in.

Yeah, and I mean, you know, I'd say take as many opportunities as you can to watch Gavin McKenna the next couple years. But also, yeah, I'm a big fan of the Bashar pick. He's the type of player that every team, wants more of in the organization. If you have one, you want three of them. And he's, I think he's going to be a player that the, the Flames fans, once they get to see him live and in person,

really start rooting for even more than they probably already do. That's fair. It sounded like his, the role he was given his first two years in the Western League, you know, not a full season is 16, full season is 17 in terms of the more of like a grinding, checking, bottom six profile. And this year, the Lindstrom injury amongst him just developing and being another year older in the league, he really got to showcase his offensive prowess.

I think that would, I think you've kind of alluded to it, but it would make you feel warm and fuzzy based on the notion that he could be a very effective checker if there isn't substantial offense in the NHL level. Yeah, he's the kind of guy that I think he's got some versatility to him. I think because, you know, we've seen, you know, there's small guys that really rely on speed and dynamism and, you know, their ability to avoid checks because they're small and they can't withstand the physical game. He can do that. He can withstand the physical game. But he's still got some dynamism to his game. He's able to check. He's able to play physical and he's able to really make effective plays in all three zones. And, you know, for planes fans, he wears 34 because his favorite player was Mika Kippersaw. And so, yeah, like he's, I think, I think if, you know, for, for. from a hockey standpoint, he takes a lot of the boxes that the flames really needed. If he was a center, it's the only way you could have an even better fit. Or just two inches tall or as silly as that sounds. But those, you know, if you want to, but then you're not kidding him at 41.

You're just not. Like if he's a center and he's 6.1, this is, you know, picking the teens probably. Is that fair? Yeah, maybe. But he's, you know, you can't argue with the caliber of the player. And he's, he had a really good draft year. He was in the shadow of Lindstrom, but didn't really resign himself to being in the the shadow. Right. Never mind McKenna. He was, he was noticeable in every way. I think a guy in his

issue would want to be noticeable. And as a result, I mean, he's, he landed himself in a pretty good spot. By the way, free plug for In the Dome boys with Andrew Basha. The show dropped on August 8th. If you haven't checked in yet, uh, check the latest episode of In the Dome, the Flames podcast also in the nation's network. Is the Calgaryan checked in? How good is that? Yeah, it's pretty good. They, uh, they, Jack, why didn't we get bashing? the hell. Didn't they also get Sutter's kid?

They did, yes. I mean, Bash is no disrespect back to Sutter. We're excited about the new toys always, especially on a prospect show. But what was interesting about the Brett Sutter show is the fellas actually asked them a ton of questions about a lot of those H.L. Ranglers who are transitioning to the NHL level.

So I take it all back. We'd love to have Brett too. You guys got to step your game up. You're leaving. You're leaving all this stuff in the table, and the boys are making a... Jack, could you post a job posting for producer, please? We need someone to book the show. Also, hand yourself a pink slug.

I'm kidding. Bumer hates guests. You know that. If three insiders a week, we're good. Okay, so pick... Not pick. He was pick number 41. He is prospect number five on our Flames Nation,

top Flames prospects as we welcome you to part two. Bashia 511 175. Not small, small, but certainly not. big, big and I think safe to say a little below average in size. That doesn't curse him. He's not a stay-at-home defenseman. And yeah, you'll get a chance to see him a ton at the dome this year based on him playing in the same division as the Calgary-Hittman.

That will be fun. Yeah. And are we moving on to four? Let's go to number four. Who do we have here? Another European checking in. The only euro in the top five? And coincidentally, another player that fans might be able to see at the dome this year.

I think they will if he stays healthy no matter where he plays, but yeah, maybe potentially a lot. Samuel Hansick. Okay. So last year's first rounder, not the 2024 draft, the 2023 first overall selection. In the teens, the draft was in Nashville. Bumer and I had to rent a car and drive through the night to get to Louisville, Kentucky, only to nearly miss our flight and then have it be delayed by two hours and nearly got trapped

in Kentucky for the Canada Day long weekend. These in-person drafts are fun. It broke Bumer. go to one. And meanwhile, I just, I just stayed in Nashville the whole time. Yes. I had a great time of the draft. You don't have children.

Anyway, Hansik, Samuel Hansik. So we were joking off there. Is there any more iconic duo than Calgary Flames first rounders and poorly time injuries? No. So Samuel Hansik, Flames got him last year at 16, the first draft pick that Craig Conry made as general manager, big, you know, guy who's projectable, if you're, if you're trying to figure out, If you want some skill size, if you're, you know, if you listen to guys like me whining about the lack of skilled size, you go, Jesus, Pike, we just got Sam Hansick. He's big and he's skilled and he scored a ton. The big knock on Hansick is he's just got horrible luck. He's got, I don't know. He's the same kind of thing. Never bring him to the casino. Don't go bet on the ponies with him. At the world jingers, he got a skate lasse, he got cut on the leg, pretty nasty cut. And basically after his, I think first or second game in the world jingers was gone because he had to get it down. with so two seasons ago two seasons ago so that took him out of a big chunk of his draft year then he came back and had a good finish off the season last year he was playing in flames camp played pretty well and suffered i believe it was an abdominal injury i forget the exact nature of the injury and to be honest i don't really want to be poking around people's medical histories outside of i was just told by by someone i think some from the vancouver giant said midsection abdominal injury like some whatever it was it was not fun for him and something you couldn't play through so he missed a big chunk of the season he came back and he came back and

He played a few weeks. He went to the world juniors. He played the world juniors. He came back. And then he got bashed in the face. I forget the exact nature of his facial injury is either jaw or nose or something. But either way, he had to wear a bubble. And, you know, he was a little bit tender in the facial area for the remainder of the season.

And then he came and finished off the season with the Wrangler. So he is the big, but he's the big, I think the big challenge for him is, geez, he just needs a year where he's healthy because he needs to get some reps in. They were talking about potentially moving him to center last year because, you He was big and he wanted to play center. They wanted to try him out because if you look at his attributes, his size, his ability to think the game, his ability to move and play in all three zones, center seems like a good spot for him. They didn't get a chance to use him at all because he missed the entirety of the first two or three months of the Western League season. And you don't only want to try a guy out of a new position midway through the year. So we'll see what happens with that.

But he's just a guy that I think if he can just whatever he was doing to get hurt and have. have those fluky injuries. Do you the opposite, like. The voodoo doll needs to get tossed out. It's, we've, we've had enough here. Yeah, he's,

and he's, he's, he's one of those guys that he's been training, uh, this off season with Martin Pospisil, uh, and I think, Martin Pospisle last year was second or third in fitness testing.

So he's picking the right guys. And especially if you're looking for guys that can have raised their stock in a year. I don't think anyone's done better than Pospasal, but we'll see what they end up doing. I'll give him another guy to look up to you, because you, you mentioned Pops, wow, geez. Martin Pospassal wasn't even on our top 20 prospects a year ago.

And he was one of the most impactful flames this year in terms of his arrival and his just ability to change the temperature in a hockey game. He also had to overcome a lot of injury issues. Very similar to also what Connor Zerry went through was Hansick's season. The year after his draft, a serious injury to the point where it was like,

yeah, that's just a lot of bad luck. and I didn't think a guy could get this injured. And now maybe he's not really that much of a prospect anymore. Zeri turned it around. There's another guy. Hopefully he can glean some inspiration from. Yeah. And I mean, you know, you injuries happen.

And I think the big challenge is just hope they don't happen during waiver exempt years. Because, you know, we saw, you know, with the, we saw, we talked about Jacob Pellchay, at the beginning of the last week's show. But he, he had some bad injury luck. Yuselamacki. You still Valamaki. You still Valamaki in his three, it is three year entry level dealing this year and a half. And so the free development leaders to really become what you're going to become, you know,

are the years you become what you're going to become are your two 18, 19 years and then you're usually your three years of entry level. Usually. That's a five year window where you got to get better and prove what you are. And the organization allows you that time because other teams can't pluck you yet. Yeah. But so Valamaki, I think is the worst case scenario because he had some gnarly injuries at the worst possible time and then by the time you guys feedback under him you know wasn't a job it wasn't a job

anymore so if you're hon sick you go okay if if this if you were going to get your voodoo doll poke by whoever hates you you might just do it right now get it over and hopefully you know he's he's he's 20 this year he is eligible to go back to the western league as an overager slash an import he's what the kids call a two spotter most of the time teams don't carry two spotters because you get two import spots you don't like using one on a guy's all also one of your three, one of your three 20 year olds. So he, based on the opportunities that he probably will have challenges getting in junior because of his, his status as a two spotter, he'll be given every opportunity to play with the Wranglers this year. And, you know, he was one of the got, he got some time with the Wranglers in the playoffs a little bit last year.

I think he played one or two games. He played one or two games at the end of the regular season. They're still high on them. And I think, you know, Craig, Craig Conroyd sort of has remarked both about Peltjade. I think he also related a bit about Hansik. You take a look at the last year and you just sort of go, okay, dump it out. And that's what the flames did with Connor Zari. Zari's first year of his entry level contract.

He broke his ankle in a pre, not even a preseason game, a prospect camp game at the saddle dome against the oilers. He blocked a shot at the wrong, just the wrong way, you know, tried to turn into it, caught in the wrong way. he missed the first chunk of the season and his year was kind of all over the place. Yeah. And so Hansik was like that last year and you don't hold against the kid. You just go, okay, take what you can learn from the year, dump out the rest of it and let's start you fresh. And it's his first year of his injury level.

And I think that's their philosophy. They're going to basically treat it like they're starting fresh. We'll be 20. It's a 20 year old season. He is a large human, 6-4 over 180. Is he a center is the question? It could have been a year where we're, we got closer to figuring that out.

But maybe not unlike Conner's area, we'll have to take some time and see. Maybe he's a center at one level, but not at the other, I'd love to see him get him reps there, but if you're trying to make the jump from junior to the HL, and now they're going to try to change your position, and you've missed a lot of hockey the last two years,

probably your safest bet is as a winger with the Wranglers. I would think so. I mean, at least that way, especially you have the ability to shelter a bit. You have the ability to sort of try them in different positions. the nice thing for the you know the nice thing looking at the Wrangler's depth chart you know they have a lot of interesting players in different positions like you know you have like let's put this right you have strong grin who you probably have some confidence in maybe you can eat some of the hard minutes for you know depending on what happens and you're going to potentially maybe Dryden Hunt maybe Martin Furk maybe Walker Dore depending what happens maybe Clapka Clark Bishop like they have a lot of veteran guys that good A. Go to H. He'd pick on Clark Bishop and Justin Kirkland as guys that might be ideally situated to really help him out and sort of keep showing the ropes because, you know, they've been there. They've done that. They've, they're used to that role. And I think I'm pretty bullish on Hansik, but, you know, he's, he's a guy that kind of needs to have a big year to get his feet under him. Yeah, fair enough. Needs a big year. Let's hope for Flames fans' sake, he does. And to your point, there should be a lot of dome time. There is a chance to go back to June.

but I do think when you're 6-4 and almost 200 pounds, it's probably time to try yourself against 200. It might be a little exaggerating, but go play against men, right? So we'll see what the, and to be fair, like Craig Conroy is not going to put him on one team or the other right now. You're going to have to earn a job in the American League.

And that's what you want him to do. You hope he has a great offseason. He comes in, you're like, yeah, he's ready to play with men. Yeah, and I think the fact that he had that opportunity at the end of the year with the Wranglers, will give him a bit of confidence. I think the fact that, you know, again, you know, you want to learn from guys that have done it.

I don't think there's a player in the organization that's had a more tumultuous, devetable metal path than Martin Pospisil and succeed it. Yeah. And so having someone who's from the same part of the world, who's gone through the same experiences, they both played World Junior, they both played in a lot of the same tournaments,

a lot of the same leagues, no lot of the same people. And having someone like that who can sort of, you know, have your back and say, hey, this is what worked for me, I would argue the mental side of it. Like just the idea of, you know, again,

I always going to bring up West Coburtson's pieces because he does such a good job with these kind of profiles. He wrote a piece last year, I think right after Han, right after his possible came up in November, December, talking about how Pospital long's retired. He was, you know, he had the concussion issues. He had the shoulder issues. And I think he was like, okay, I might be done.

And then he stuck it out. And now he's in the NHL and he's in the HR contract. Yeah. So I think if you were, you know, especially if you're Hans, And you're thinking, oh, God, it's the world against me. How the hell am I going to break through here? Having someone who's gone through probably the worst version of that and been able to come

on the other side. It can't be like, hey, it does get better. You can't get the other side of this. Don't worry, we got this, man. And also somebody who top three in fitness testing who can help get you man strong. Yeah. I think there's a lot of reasons to be optimistic at Hans. I understand, you know, I missed a year and a half.

I think there's a reason to be. somewhat skeptical, but the attributes that the player has haven't gone away. Very good. Yeah. And those attributes like strong work on the walls, you can work the net front. Um, like he, he's a guy that, you know, there's, there's a lot of ceiling there. I think a lot of people in the organization believe. Yeah. Otherwise, it wouldn't take him that high. But I think it's also a pretty safe floor. If you understand what I'm saying. Like, I think he, at worst, he could be a very effective third liner. Does that feel fair? I think so. And I think,

you know, it's, again, just the idea that I think his size gives him, the size and his smarts give him a decent floor. Because he's not going to get less big. But I think just figuring out ways to you. Not until he's like 80 pike. At some point, at some point everyone starts shrinking. But yeah, like Hansik, you know, there's reasons why the scouting staff, the Western League staff, the pretty much all their scouts were really, really excited about the player,

not just because of the human, not just because of the size. but you know what he's been able to do and you know especially import coming over to north america first year first year there's a lot of stuff thrown at you and he managed to adjust to a lot of it so as always a big shout out to one of our big sponsors mcloud law great people we talk about it on the show Shane king and peter klein and awesome and everybody there what it is is there calgary people taking care of calgary people you're not getting when you when you reach out to mccloud law they're not sending you to toronto or vancouver someplace they don't know who you are these are calgary folks, they're proud of those Calgary routes. They are here every single day. It's a big part of

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I didn't see you there. I was just enjoying a Barnburner blonde here on this beautiful summer day. We wait all year for summer. It is nice to finally have it here. And what better drink to enjoy and quench that thirst than a Barnburner blonde from origin. Brewing. They have a Calgary location now. I don't know if you knew that. They had the tap room and the brewery in Strathmore still there, still pumping out all the great delicious goodness that goes hand in hand with Origin Brewing. But now also a Calgary location. You can grab a

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All right. That's your number four prospect. Our number four prospect of Flamesation.com. Samuel Hansick. Let's get to number three. The only American, no, it's not true. Only American skater in the top 10. One of two Americans in the top five.

Almost caught myself there. I mean, there's going to be a huge surprise. I'm sure. We led the show off talking about Dustin Wolf back to back. But it's Hunter Bristavich who almost immediately went from who is this guy to common flames fans to like, oh my God, look what this guy's doing. He's one of us. He's our prospect, said Flames fans.

He came over in the last Lindholm deal. And I remember where we were when that deal broke. It was like, you guys just wandering through Toronto? It was our parent company had a big dinner. and we were meeting a bunch of the other people that do shows, some of the front office and... We have other people who do shows? Bigwigs in Toronto.

And of course, we're sitting there in Sarah Valley's a table away. And we start to hear the Elias Linholm to Vancouver is almost done. It involves Kuzmenko. It's going to be Kuzmenko and Picks. It's Kuzmenko and picks and some players. And one of the players was Hunter Brestevich, who, A, we had to figure out how a man could have so many vowels in one last name, but once we got over that, what's going on here?

Because he's scoring points like a forward. And he at 92 points, the second highest scoring defenseman in the OHL last season. And the only other defensemen who scored more points in the OHL was a guy that flames drafted at sixth overall, ninth overall, ninth overall. Yeah. He'll be on this show as well. We'll get there. We'll get there.

Yeah. I think Bristevich, he is a guy. I think the Vancouver got him third round. And they liked him. As a prospect, he was an American guy and didn't get a lot of attention. He played them in the U.S. national development system. Instead of going to college, made the jump to the O HL. And, you know, he's been playing a very big role in Kitchener,

good player, power play quarterback, offensive, the wazoo. You know, he's not a shutdown defender by any stretch. I'd say he's basically the Al Mechanist in the sense that, He's, I think Al McKinnisne's act. Some high praise. Yeah. But I think he's the guy that played, you know, a ton of offensive minutes. And if he's, he's 20, signed an entry level deal.

So he's going to be more likely, much like Conwick. He's eligible to return to the OHL. But he will not return the OHL. He has played so much hockey in the OHL. And to be blunt, I mean, you know, what more does he need to prove there? You just had 92 points as a defense. Well, he got outscored by a, by a guy, a little bit. younger than him. So damn it, you know, he needs to go back and really dominate.

But yeah, unless you're absolutely nitpicking his game, you're like, okay, well, this guy's going to go to play pro now. He's like, he's not, if the, the big knocks against Ristevich is, is he great in his own zone? He's not great. He's not terrible. He's fine. You probably want him to be better than fine if he goes to the, the, the NHL. So he needs to become better than fine. The place he's going to get better is in the American League. Yes. And so they have guys who can help him and you know he's he needs to probably become as the kids say man strong he's still kind of boyish he's 20 he's going to fill out so they need to you know if you're playing in in the wrangler town you get uh you know those hands-on reps the developmental staff and you know the the regulars in

the flames have their own strength coaches and strength staff in the saddle dome working with their young players and i think he's he's a guy that just needs to be pushed a bit to fill out because you know he he was so good in the in the OHL that I just think you know the rest of his details will probably need to be polished a bit but I mean you look at a guy with those kind of numbers. It's just

insane numbers. 92 points as the defense like he immediately you were tracking it I remember it was like if he has a couple huge games like he get at 100 we're talking about rare air in the history of the OHL you're talking about he just fell short he just Hall of Fame caliber guy now that doesn't mean he's going to be

a prolific NHL what it tells you is that he's an incredibly rare offensive talent. Yeah. And, you know, that's, that's what you want. You want guys that can move the needle for you offensively. And, you know, we talked, you know, earlier in the last week's episode about sort of the flames had a bunch of guys that could sort of play the defensive role. You have your, you know, your Grushnikovs, you have your Salavios, you have your Kisnetsov's, maybe Yonni Yermo, who's sort of a bit more of a sort of an all-rounder. I don't know he's quite got the ceiling in either end that some of these other guys do defensively or offensively, but he'll be playing potentially at Def Camp.

They actually had Yermo and Bruce DeVich playing out a pairing and they're pretty decent. But if the idea is, you know, okay, you got guys that can keep the puck out of their own end. Now you need some guys that can run a power play or potentially be, you know, we've, we've heard this here for years, you know, basically since 2019, when Kail McCar came in and just blew the doors off of the flames in that first round series and people going, oh, geez, once you wouldn't you wouldn't you love to have one of those. I don't know if 100% which is quite that,

but he's not far off. He's, he's not quite Kale McCar in terms of like, I don't know if he gets that kind of ceiling. And I think McCar's details in all three zones are a little bit better. But if you have a poor man's kale McCar, and you got him as one of the prospects out of six pieces you got for Elizland home, that's,

uh, that's not a bad haul. It really is impressive. Yeah. Uh, that that deal continues to look like Craig Conroy's best is the general manager. Uh, that doesn't mean there weren't other good ones.

but, you know, some of the returns felt right around where they should be. Some felt a little light. But the one that just felt like it was out of the bell curve of like expected outcomes was the Lint Home deal because he wasn't having a great year. You were only going to run it for two or three months if you're Vancouver. They get a first. They get a conditional fourth, which could have turned into a third and didn't. And then they traded that for two picks.

And they got the head for two picks. And then you have the two to European defensemen that, or sorry, you have Yermot and then Brestevich. Like Brestevich is almost immediately like one of the best prospects in the flame system. Yes, he had a really good year, but you get to watch him for most of that year before you got him in the trade. There's a serious get for Craig Conner on top of the first and all the other pieces. Bristewicz checks in at number three.

And yes, another guy you'll be able to see at the Doma bunch. Can he run an American League power play? Can he pile up points of the American League? Can he work out those away from the puck details, DZone details with the Wranglers this year? because look, he's a later birthday. If he's very good at this level, they're not going to leave him there long. Oh, no.

And I think that's a nice thing. If you're, you know, if you're looking at the flames, I mean, the only, the only Wrangler's D-Man, I think might push for time this year

as significant level of Sahlavio, because I think he's a familiarity. And, you know, he's, I'd say he's a high floor guy. I don't know if he's a high ceiling guy, but he's probably close to what he's going to become. So you can,

he's a six, seven that's got some size and looks comfy in his own zone. That's going to give you no offense. So if you need a six, seven to play that role, which six sevens are asked to play, you can go to them. You saw it this year. It was fine. And the nice thing is, though, like between Solov and Pahal and maybe Kevin Ball,

depending if he's a long-term piece and, you know, Rasmus Anders has got two years left. They have a lot. And Jake Bean is the only sign for two years. So you have probably, you know, a window where maybe some spots are coming open after a year, maybe some more come open after two years. And you basically have the ability to tell the, tell all the kids, okay, tell you. tell you what, we got contracts coming up. And we've shown the ability like, hell, the flames have shown the willingness with guys of the year left.

This particular general manager showed a willingness with guys of the year left, Tyler Toffoli. If there's guys who are pushing and we want to make spots, we'll make spots for you. But you got to, you know, you'll know the guys who are sort of teetering. It's up to you to sort of push them off the brink. Yeah. And, you know, they have some guys that could be here long term or could not. And I think like that's, that's going to be the fascinating part.

So I think Rustavich, he's really well positioned. You know, he's, he's probably for what, three months. He was the best defensive defenseman in the system. And then other stuff happened.

But if he's, if he's your second best or third best defensive defenseman in your system, NHL or otherwise, you look at your system and go, it's pretty good. That's something you can build off. It is interesting. Suddenly they got a lot of guys that can zip it around offensively.

You know, Porre is sort of at the end of his prospect window. He's getting a fresh start this year. based on losing last year to injury most of it. Moran, Star kind of faded a bit in the draft plus one season, but we'll see if you can get it back on track. Clearly,

the guy at number nine is an incredibly special offensive player. And, you know, that's like that, you said it a year ago, and a lot of those guys are there. Or we're just getting into the system. Brestevich has added,

like they've got, it's going to be a battle to see who's running the power play for this club in three, four years. Yeah. And, you know, it's, there should be a lot of competition. It used to be, you know, when the flame system was a little bit shallower, guys got chances by default because it's like, oh, you know, we need a winger, who they got. Okay. Well, we need a goalie who they got. Oh, I need a defenseman who they got. Now, outside of maybe goaltender, you got like pushing three, four credible options. Like maybe not center, but you have some options of young guys you could try out. But they have a lot of, a lot of really versatile, unique depth and a lot of different types of players. So like Slov, you have if you need a bottom sixers, probably your first guy up. But,

you know. So you lose Uighur to injury. You're looking for a different kind of guy. One of your, if you're one of your, yeah, one of your offensive guys gets hurt, depending on what side,

he shoots. Maybe you give Ristevich, maybe you give Poyer, maybe you give someone else. That's the, that's the exciting thing. It's a group that's shown the willingness as recently as last November to, if the mojo is not going on the big club or someone gets hurt,

those throw whoever's, whoever's working on the AHA level there and give them a chance. All right. Pick number, prospect number two of your top tens coming up in mere, but in mere moments will know who number one is based on the two stud prospects left on the table. And we will find out in moments whether Dustin Wolf has a three Pete is the top prospect in the organization. Pike, prospect number two is.

It's Dustin Wolf. The king is dead. Long live the king. This is in no way a knock on Dustin Wolf. On last week's program, we spoke rather glowing. about the season that Matt Coronado had in the sense that Coronado was just asked to do a bunch of different things and I think did them quite well and so I would say this anything about Justin Wolf

Dustin Wolf MVP a year prior goaltender of the year four years in a row he was not goaltender the year last year in the American League simply because you know was here half that he was here I think the NHL one third of the year and so he just didn't have the sample size in the American League to be the MVP or a you know top contender for the Hap Holmes or I think the Hap Holmes Award, whatever the hell it was, the annual goalie of the award that he won twice. But he would have been special there,

but it also speaks to the one thing you can't go very far without mentioning. If Dustin Wolf was 6'4 doing the things he's been doing his whole career, he's already in the NHL like years ago. Like Spencer Knight and he, I believe, or same birth year or same draft class, Spencer Knight had similar numbers at a similar level, his draft year, went in the top 15 picks.

Dustin Wolf was the fourth to last pick of the entire draft. Round seven. Again, both USA world junior goalies, both dominant numbers. The funniest thing about that is, so the world junior goalies that year, Spencer Knight, who was the first goalie picked that year, and Dustin Wolf, the last goal he picked that year, which is phenomenal. Yeah, yeah, and that was the, the, the,

goaltending combo for the Americans at that tournament, just wild. Yeah, but yeah, this is the idea, like for, you know, I mentioned Coronado, you know, so if you're Wolf, He'd done everything you really can do at the AHA level to be like a dominant player. Like he's, there's literally nothing else you can do once you're already the best. So you've won the MVP. You've, yeah, like how do you, how in the world do you, uh, you know, top that? You don't.

You, you graduate. And then the challenge to Calgary Flames face is you had Jacob Markstrom and Dan Vladar. And so if he's a non-goaltender, he would have graduated and been in the enchilla. They didn't have a spot for him. Uh, and now they do. Jacob Markstrom's gone. Dan Vladar's coming off hip surgery, but will be ready, is already skating. And they brought in Cooley from Stephen Cooley, the most existential goalie I've ever heard. Who is a very intriguing guy that was in an incredibly horrible environment, being a goalie for the San Jose Sharks, and had some good performances.

And some great interviews. Big time. But this is Dustin Wolf's crease to lose. He's going to get a chance to be the man. And to be fair, from the trade, once he got called up on, he had better numbers than Jacob Markham. He had better goals saved above expected than Jacob Markstrom. When this team was stripped of its best defensive pair before the deadline and stripped his rude, I mean, you traded. They gave the way on purpose. You traded Hanifan. They made a conscious effort to.

They were going to go. You needed to get younger. We understand all that. There's a conscious uncoopling. In that worst environment, Dustin Wolf was the best goal they had last year. Yeah. And I would say this. Like his numbers in the year is basically a lot of it was weird usage until about March.

February or March when, you know, first they had, it was typically the year, the year he had was you got up, he got going to a rhythm in the American Lake and then, oh, Markstrom's hurt again, you got to come up. Come up. He comes up and he does know how often he's going to play. Because you don't know, oh, it's, you know,

it's emergency recall. You don't know how long Markstrom's out. So he'll be coming back up whenever. Okay, you're going back. Go back down to the Wranglers. It takes a little while to get used to the Wranglers because HL shooters, it's a different speed, so you have to sort of a job.

And to be fair, mentally to get to the NCHO and sent down. Like, you're dealing with, with there's a level of disappointment. The guys have to get over. It's very rare to see a player sent from the NHL down to the A where they're like, hey, guys, great to be back. Right. Even if it's down the hallway, you're just like, oh, God.

No, because his dream is to be an NHL or and he's like, I'm the bloody MVP of this league. Like, I would understand that that guy wants to be up. And to your point, when you're in sort of like a little spell here, move back here, oh, no notice you're coming up here, back to back. You're playing here. Like, he came up after.

the Vladar injury and got a run of play. Especially like he was up originally because Markstrom is still dealing with an injury. And I don't think he got told, hey, you're up until they announced the bizarre injury. He was still like sort of a, they had a plan, I think once, you know, obviously once they sort of threw in the towel. When they shut down Vladar, it's obvious what's up. Well, even before that, like they had that stretch where, you know, that Markstrom was out and they're like, okay, well, we're not making the playoffs.

We're post deadline. We're very clear eyed about what we are. So they mapped out some starts for Wolf and be like, okay, Mark, Mark he's going to be back, date whatever. You're going to get this many starts. Here's the game plan. Let's go. And so he got some starts and his numbers were good.

And he kind of, they were able to develop a rhythm. And then I think probably everyone's like, oh, man, it's kind of a shame. He has to go down. But then obviously the Darry's battling through stuff. And it just so happened. There's no way as a coincidence. It's definitely what they planned. Once Florida was up, once Markstrom is back, they're like, okay, we got to shut Dan down.

He needs surgery. let's get it done soon let's get him done he can you know we've already seen like you know wolf's got a rhythm marks from back they can they can you know work together for a bit he can learn from the veteran and bladar needs surgery he you know poor guy like he told us about the it's the lining of his hip was torn and yeah it's never we're getting a lot of weird medical stuff in the last couple weeks here but it's it was not fun injury especially for a goalie and so you had the opportunity to keep our arguably your most important prospect in the mix and give him a rhythm and get a chance to really

be like if Dustin Wolf was in the NHL what would it look like well it wouldn't look like up for a week down for a week up for week it would look like okay you're here you're going to give you two months to really get used to it and by the end of it he had some swagger he had some mojo and he looked like an actual goal I know people like he doesn't look big in the net all the time but when you look at a bigger when you looked at a blue line that at that point had Oliver Shillington who had hardly played in two years had Pahall waiver claim Hanley waiver claim Miramana, a guy that hardly played in the last two seasons. Like, you literally put them out there in, in, behind a defensive group that had

Rasmus Anderson, McKenzie Weger, and a whole bunch of guys trying to prove their NHLers. Yeah, you had one NHL defensive pairing and a bunch of guys, you're like, I wonder what this guy is. Yes. And you're trying. And in that environment, he posted mediocre numbers, which just by measuring it, that's excellent. Yeah, like they, they should have been. Well, right. If you take away the players that they had in front of him,

they should have been San Jose bad the last month of the season. And they weren't. They were really, really, really competitive. Were they good? No. Were they a tough out? Yes. And that's the whole idea.

And if the idea is if you, if you're like, oh, what's, what's it going to look like? What's going to look like with Dustin Wolf? Yeah. The answer is probably like March and April. And I don't hate that. Hopefully better. Because you, you know, you don't bring in ball to not pull. play. And I do think the guys that were trying to prove something got to prove it. And I think,

you know, I don't think this is going to be elite defensive club, but I do think this coaching staff has run a lot of water out of the towel, so to speak, in terms of getting the most out of the group. And yeah, like, he at the NHL level last year, had a 316 and 893. That sounds incredibly bad. If you go adjust for environment, I bet he's better than league average. Yeah. And that's the full year. If you look at it, if you look at his underlines from like February, March, April,

they're about average. Yeah. So a guy for a rookie. A guy being thrown in midseason behind a defense that had been utterly decimated by personnel changes. And, you know, let's let's be honest here by March. Actually, hell, it's the NHL. By November, December, most guys are playing through something.

And so this was a team that was just completely outgun and outman all the time. And they're goaltending, they gave them a fighting chance. And you, if you take, you know, you bring in these guys and you give them a bit more structure, you give them a bit more veteran presence, you put some young guys who know Wolf and his tendencies and have built, like, the most fascinating thing for me was like, I was, I was talking to some, some folks, you know, some pro scouts. And it was like, is it, must be tough to be a goalie. because you have, you know, it's tough for to be a goalie because you got to get used to your defenseman. It's tough for a defenseman to play behind a new goalie because they got used to each

other tendencies. Like we saw, you know, how many, how many weird things happen with Mike Smith and that's simply because the defenseman did not know he was going to try that. And how many times that's part of Mike Smith's game, but yes. We saw that bit with Markstrom too where like when Markstrom got a little bit too amped up, he would try to make too much stuff happen while skating around. I think the, if you're someone, you know, the, the, the nice thing with so many of these guys growing up in the system together is there's some familiar already especially within the defense uh even if you're even if you're a guy who you know if you're Anderson if you're wiger if you're you know slovyov if you're pahal if you're any of these guys they know him they played

with him for a few months and so if you're like typically if you're starting you know you traded your Vezna caliber goalie guy who is the runner up for the Vesna a few years ago you traded him for a young guy and a pick okay god your team might be bad because you do not know what you have. She kind of do, though, because you've had this, you had the ability to try him out. And the people who would need to adjust to what he does have arguably already had an opportunity to start learning. Little message for you for the Mod Medical Clinic, be aroused.ca. As men, we can be a little sensitive.

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Outdoor. Dot dental is the website. Check it out today. And we're back with more Barnburner. Okay, question for you. What does a good year look like for Dustin Wolf? Because, again,

it's grading on a scale because we know this team is very unlikely to be competitive and good in a playoff or better measurement. Oh, they're going to be, I think the, are, many of our, many of the

betting sites have the flames six or seven from the bottom. So they're, they're going to be not great. And yes, so, so. Time for then it'd be not great. I would argue. We all get that. What is a good season look like for Dustin Wolf? I would say if he, if he, the fewer AHA games he plays, the better because I think he, he's outgrown the AHL. There's nothing for

him to accomplish in the HAL. Agreed. He's Hunter Busteviched the AHA. There's nothing left for him to do. And so for him, okay, there's what, 82 games. I would like to see, realistically, if he plays more than 40 games, I'd say that's a success because, you know, I plan something on the site if you, you know, early in July and August, just looking at like, okay, looking at Kooli's numbers, looking at Lodara's numbers and looking at Wolf's numbers, who is the most ready to face a big workload? And the answer was

unabashedly Woolf. Well, he played a ton of hockey. The only years he didn't play a ton of hockey was a COVID year. He played like, what, 40 some games last year, despite bouncing back and fourth. They played the hell out of him and he's used to it. And he really likes playing, getting the hell played out of him. So I think, you know, as much as we're thinking, ooh, how are Vladar and Kuhli going to fit in? I think Flaard and Kuli fit in ideally as complementary pieces to maximize Destin Wals' effectiveness. I agree. I know Frank Seravale had an interesting take this summer that was very against the grain sort of noting his impression is that it's Vladars crease to lose. I don't know that that's one that's going

to age well. It's a different opinion. And that's fine, but I think it's not about, Dan Bladar has had a lot of time to establish what he is at the NHL level. And the only guy that's been playing, to your point, 40 plus games every year, 47, 55, 43, 40 plus games is Justin Wolf and as a goalie, that's more than have to schedule.

And 40 plus games with like pretty gaudy numbers. Oh, incredible numbers of the American League. Yeah. Incredible numbers. Like, people forget, like he, he was the MVP in the American League. He did everything but had play of success in the Western League because the two years that he was the starter,

they didn't have playoff because of COVID. And also, like, he missed, he narrowly missed out on being the Western Hockey League's all-time shutouts leader because the season got short because of the schedule. Two seasons got short. At worst, he's the third best goaltender in Western Hockey League history by the numbers. And so,

yeah, he's, he's got the pedigree. And I think he's, you know, he had to develop a little mental toughness last year with, you know, he had a couple,

he had one memorable game where he got absolutely shellacked against San Jose. And he, you know, I'll give him credit. He came out and, you know, he spoke with us and, you know, he was requested. He came out. He answered very, very, you know, succinctly, like, here's the things I think I did wrong. Here's the things I want to work on. Then he got sent down the American League and started, got back to doing a thing.

And so he's, there's a, I, you were, people are always, there's always going to be a amount of skepticism about a goalie who's generously listed six foot. I have spoken with Dustin Wolf many times. Without skates on, he's about my height. I'm 5.11 and change. So he's probably rounding up. Sure, he is. Yeah, there's lots of people measured at six feet that he stands next to on the ice.

They do not have helmets that go to the same spot. Yeah, but I'll steal a line from our dear friend Bradshaw Living, who's now in Leafsland. We were joking after the draft, I think during a development camp, a bunch of us were talking about, you know, like, oh, you know, Wolf's not very big. I don't know. And he's like, yeah, you sure gets through the way of the puck, isn't he? That's the whole gig. That's the result. The puck does not care about how tall your birth,

it doesn't care about your birth certificate, what number you're drafted or how tall you are. It just matters if you're in the way or not. And he's been fantastically effective at every level of hockey since he was a small child at getting the way of pucks. I'll add one little caveat to the what does a good Dustin Wolf season look like. I agree with you. You play more than half the games.

You've established yourself as a starter. Maybe not on a competitive team in the NHL, but for a first full campaign in the NHL to establish yourself as a number one, that would be really cool for Flames fans to see. That would be a significant accomplishment. Secondly, I'd love to see the goals saved above expected, these sort of environmental metrics in the positive, not the negative, because I just think if you go into this season and you're like, ah, yeah, you know, look at the goals against that fear had and look at the same percentage of Mika had and look at the goals. You're kind of missing the boat a bit. This is not

going to be a good environment for a goalie to operate in. I think it's going to be a great year to look at adjusted numbers, not the traditional goalie stats. I know that's sometimes hard for people. Like, I don't get it. What does it mean? I always go by say a percentage of goals against like, yeah, well, if someone faces 18 shots and none of them are from inside the house and another guy is six breakaways against. Like, we understand those are different environments. I'll leave it at that. If he could get more than half the games, establish myself as a one and have some better than expected numbers from the environment, he's going to be working in.

trying to prove he's their NHL goaltender in, that for me is a wildly successful first full NHL campaign for Dustin Wolf. Yeah. And I, I'm fascinated. I think the, the cool thing is looking at his contract. He's got,

this is the last year of waiver exemption. He's got a two-year deal. One, he's a two-way this year and a one way the year after. They obviously like him. They obviously, you know, he did not get a league man contract.

He got a little bit above league men, which is a nice little vote of confidence, you know, And now it's going to be up to him. And I think he's, he's an easy guy for people to move forward. I think, you know, I think there can be some nights that are long nights with the flames, but I don't think it'll be because of their goal tent. I think it'll be, I think we're going to have a lot of nights in the dome, even when the score is not ideal, where you hear a lot of howling.

Yeah. No, that's a good point. Uh, okay, that, uh, the anticlimatic part of the show comes where you already know who the number one is because we haven't said his name yet. And boy, he's a very good hockey player. Uh, the top prospect in the flames nation top prospect rankings for 20. 24. No doubt about the hype surrounding their number nine overall selection. Zane Perrick of the Ontario Hockey League, the Saginaw Spirit Defenseman, was absolutely electric this year on the blue line, a right shot defender that I would say is just his

side hustle as being a wizard. There is a lot of outthinking, deception, and wizardry occurring on the ice with him. God, he's good. He's, when we, you know, if you want to get a nice bit of intel on, on this year's draft class, go back and watch the,

the draft preview show we did. Yeah. Because we got a lot of fun opinions on that. But I think the, the flames went for ceiling. They went for a guy that, like, he can, he's,

he's 17 years old, just barely turned 18. And he, I would score 100, Bruce Stevich, who's 14 months older. Oh, you know, scored the entire O HL defensive group and most of the forwards in the Oh, OHL, yeah, he was top 10 in the OHL, Canadian Hockey League defenseman of the year, OHL defenseman of the year, at 17.

One of a Memorial Cup, uh, he's the kind of guy where I'll say that, I'll say that. So he's people with some swagger, capital S swagger. Yeah. He's got some confidence. He's got talent for days. He knows how good he is and he knows where he wants to go with his talent. I think the exciting thing for me is you can send him back. Like he's, he's got an entry level deal. He's 18. So he's got two years potentially that he can spend in the Western Hocle. He's an 06. He's a yeah. He's a yeah, he's a he's a he's no six. So he cannot be a full-time AHLer until the 2026 27 season. He's not going to play a game in the age. I don't think so. That is, it's very, I think it's like over 85% of players in

the NHL play a game in the A because of how good he is early and because, because, of the transfer agreement between the CHL and the NHL. This is a very strong candidate to never play a single HL game. And I think I'd like to see a look at them the next two falls. You might make this. Here's my thought process. I think you want him to go down to the OHL this year and say, okay, we want you to get 100 points this year.

We want you to just, we want you to make everyone in the, the Ontario Hockey League, hope and pray that you make the flames next year. We want them to be so tired of seeing you score on them and you just shove it in their face. Because he's the kind of guy that, you know, when he does, what he does shut you down or score on you, he's in your face a bit. He's got that chip on his shoulder. And so I think he's the kind of guy that will take that challenge and go and have a really good world juniors, have a really good season. Go try to bring his team.

I think they probably want him another Memorial Cup. Sure. So go and get another Memorial Cup. and just destroy the competition. And then next year, who's on this team next year? I don't know what defense men are back next year. It'll be the last year, Rasmus Anderson's deal. So that situation may have come to a head by then.

Yeah. So the idea being like this year. Mackenzie Weger will be on the team. This year, I don't know if they're like, I just don't know where he would fit this year. It'd be basically keeping him to keep him rather than keeping him because he have a plan for him. What have you kept him because he was great in the preseason and you knew you

were sending him back to the O anyway, but you got 10 games to kick the tires. I just don't know where he fits in. Like, who's, who, who's, who, who's, who's, who's, who's he? That's the only thing I have. I don't doubt he's a right shot defenseman. Can he play ahead of Pahall? I mean, he's not a third pair of defense. Maybe, maybe, but Pahol can't run a power play.

Maybe, maybe you run 70 and you use them on the power, like, I don't know. It's a fun idea. I'm not, yeah, I'm not, I'm not, I'm not, I'm not only ruled out. I probably would just keep him in the O and just say like, okay, go down and just, just, just, just just have a reign of terror. We want people to be hoping that you're getting the hell out of there. And then, but I think, you know, in next, next fall, I think the math changes because, you know, you're, would you want to burn like this, Flan fans, I hope you don't take this in the wrong way.

The team's not going to be good this year, regardless of Zane Prex on the team or not. So burning a year of Zane Prec is ELC on a year where the team is just not very good, probably isn't the best idea. Oh, I agree that entirely. I'm making the case to you've got a 10-game freebie where you don't burn a year. If he's fun and maybe it doesn't hurt in the ticket sales and maybe you get a little tweak of a hammy for somebody, I think it would be amazing to see him in the league,

understanding that of course he's going to go back to the O and have his reign of terror. But I don't know what he looks like at the initial level. It's a huge jump, but that would be a hell of a story, I guess, is what I'm really saying. Oh, yeah. Oh, yeah. And you know that. But I'm not sure he can do it, but it would be fun.

I'd also say, like, I think there's, I think I'm, I'm very hesitant to advocate for just give him a taste because I'm of the mindset of once somebody goes up, you want to keep him up. And so. You have to earn the job for sure. But I think I, I don't doubt he's going to make this camp. When were the, very, very difficult? Who were the last Flames first rounders to push to stay up?

I recall the Sean Monaghan one. They weren't going to do it. And then Brian Burke threw his hands up and said, like, he's won a job. We didn't want him to be here. And then he, he, he, he forced our hand. And then I'll say this. I think Chuck. I think Burke did a good job that year of basically being like, okay, well, we'll give him 10 games.

Okay, well, we'll give, he's past the 10 games. We'll burn the first year. But, you know, he's got to be here for 40 games in order to burn the first year of his, of his, uh, towards free agency. So I don't know. It's up to him to decide if he wants to be here to the full year. We can always send him back. And then it became, oh, yeah, he's, he's good enough to be here.

And then Kachuk was the next guy. do it and he was undeniable from camp on we also forget sam bennett that year where sam bennett was really good and then it turned out his shoulder was made of midst meet and then you kind of had to deal with it but you know sam was pretty close to me like he was good enough to be here outside of being not medically able to play professional hockey at that point it's big part availability but yeah no that's similar but not the same but yeah it's been a while yeah and honestly i i if you want to say is this kid the most exciting prospect of the plays have had since could chuck I would say, yeah, I would probably put him in terms of potential impact in that, in that mindset.

And, you know, the nice thing, I'd say the nice thing with Kachuk is, Kachuk's timing was probably, I'm going to say better. But, you know, the flames, they'd started the rebuild in 13 when they, they did the great, the great jettisoning of the veterans and Kippersaw retired. And then the team was starting to get some traction and starting to move up and start to move up. And so having Kachuk in 1617, okay, he was able to play. really useful role on a very important line on a team that made the playoffs. And then I think he took off from there.

I think he had the right circumstances to really excel and to learn a lot. And I think Monahan too, like Monaghan, I was told this by someone in hockey ops. Monaghan gained like eight or 10 pounds during the summer after he got drafted. Like he had the kind of, he had to kind of, you got, you know, he came to camp, they, you put him through his paces and he adds some muscle and he was physically ready. and he was always mentally ready he was born he was born 25 years old we always joked that he was like he had the mentality like of a 30 year old and never mind the quotes and the deep voice but it was like is like this is the most mature 18 year old anyone's ever met and uh i'm gonna do

some tax planning tonight the boys are going out but uh you know tax season's coming uh he knew exactly we was doing i oh yeah i i have a i have a lot of a lot of love for shell monahan because of he knew what he was doing but i think the percentage of I think, I just think, you know, for him do have a position. Like, we, we've just talked about Dustin Wolf. There's a position right now where Dustin Wolf can thrive in the NHL, even though the team's not very good, because of how he's progressed and how he's basically conquered every mountain put in front of him.

And he's been insulated too, right? Yeah. But I think for, for, for, for, for, for, for, for, for, for, for, for, for, for, for, for, for, for, it's just question of, okay, I don't know if he has much left to accomplish the O HL, but is that's the ideally situated to, right? come in and be an impactful, good NHL or not go back. Play away from the puck isn't there yet.

And it will be. It's just a matter of time. This is when I get to get on my soapbox and rant. There's only one league, umbrella league in the whole world where they don't allow players to graduate based on birth certificates. It's the Canadian hockey league.

If we're being honest, the best place in the world, for Zane Perrick to play hockey this year, it's in the HAL. Yeah. He's dominated the O. but a shitty ancient rule that protects millionaire owners, not the player's best interests and developmental interests of NHL teams,

is still in place. It's a joke. And I used to kind of buy the, that, you know, okay, if there's this one development league that's way better than all the others, but everyone's making up ground on the Canadian hockey league.

You're seeing more and more kids come out on a national development program, USHL. Like, it's just, it's not what it once was. This is not a league that's over 50% Canadian anymore. And this league is the only, one that has these special rules that protect millionaires, not development player,

not development of players are the goals of teams. It's silly. It's absolutely insane. All I know is I just want to see see more of Perak. And I think it's, I agree with that again, preseason hockey this year. Normally I'd say fans, if you want to skip preseason games, we're not going to blame you because, you know, it's the preseason. But she's like, especially with the, especially with the drafting between the drafting and between the, potential new roles we can see from existing young players in terms of who's going to be the center i don't know could be one of these young guys maybe yeah who's going to be on defense since this

year well we think we know who's being on the n hl team but the wranglers the hell knows yeah i think it's going to be really exciting and obviously i think per rec is the guy that if you hear he's playing the guy in an office who has tickets to the preseason game maybe offered to buy him a beer if he'll he'll take you yeah but there's also i think there's as we've gone to this last last couple of There's a lot of players who will be playing in the saddle of either in preseason or throughout the regular season wearing a C or a W who They could they could be fun to watch this year Sure. Well, I love when I have a really hot take Pikes never like yeah, yeah or like no no he's just like I'm excited to see this young player play you refuse to get political

I'm just gonna Hey one of us one of us worked in the league and has more informed opinions the other one so I'm gonna you know well I were to Ameriarily but I mean that's that's a I didn't work in the Western League. I know the people there feel differently. It's just you never see it where it's like, well, you know, he's too good for the Swedish junior team. And there's a guy that owns that team. I guess we can't let him play against men in North America.

No, you freaking call them up and put them in the league. When you dominate, you graduate every single league on earth, except the NHL because there's no league better than it. And the other one is the CHL because of a shitty rule. As this market's resident CBA nerd, I'll say this. The NHL and the PA has shown zero hesitation to create really, really dumb, circuitous rules for very specific reasons to sort of have their cake and eat it too.

The only one they don't have is the CHL agreement. It's the only rule in a, in a system of fairly porous, flexible rules. It's the only bit of rigidity in the system. Yeah. It's not a liar. It doesn't fit with all the other rules. But I also don't know what the, like what's the, I don't know what the solution to be. because it's like, okay, did they just say,

okay, if you're a first rounder, you can play in the A, then you're kind of losing some stars. I just don't know. What happens in every other league in the world, Ryan, if you're too good for it? You quit. You go to play baseball. No, but for example, like Grideen leads the OSHL in scoring.

There is no rule preventing him to play in the American league this year. If you got a kid in college, who dominates a college, there is no rule based on his age that prevents him for playing in the American league. Until he signs of the H. L deal. Well, but that's not one time. I'm talking about a collegiate player. Sweden, Finland, Czech Republic,

Russia. There's only one. So I'm done. That's my subbox. Are we hot? We're good. I think so. But people hate that. You know, there's certainly, you can, you know who the, some people's blood are boiling right now.

Some people's blood are absolutely boiling. They're just like, don't you know what junior hockey means to people? It's like, yeah, junior hockey means a lot to people. all other countries on earth and there isn't a silly rule. Yeah. But I again, though, let's let's, let's point out something. Yeah. The market team in this market owns the NHL team, the A HL team and the WHL team.

I imagine if you let them pick where the player could play. Yeah, I don't know. I think that's, that's, that's, that's, that's the kind of thing that fascinates me. Because like the dynamic. They see both sides of that argument for sure. Yeah. But, okay. Yeah.

That's, uh, either way. It's a good seat still available. Bash of five, Hansik, four, Brestevich, three, Wolf, two. We're going with Perik or Perrek? What are we doing here? I'm saying Perrick. St. Perrick, number one, your top prospect. For more Flamesnation.ca, full write-ups on the entire top 20. Last week, we counted quickly from 20 to 11 and much slower from 10 to 6.

Thank you for tuning in for the top five today. We'll be back with another barn burner in a few days' time. Thanks for hanging, buddies.