Flames have some prospect decisions to make

While some truly awful stuff swirls in the world at large, the hockey world keeps puttering along. The Calgary Flames have conducted some business with a pair of college signings. But they also have some looming prospect decisions to make as spring begins to turn into summer.

Here’s a quick rundown of the prospect decisions the Flames do (and don’t) need to make soon.

A pair of draft-related decisions are looming on June 1. The Flames have until that date to sign Linus Lindstrom and Milos Roman or lose their NHL rights.

Lindstrom, 22, was the Flames’ fourth round pick in the 2016 NHL Draft. He’s spent the past four seasons where he’s been for his entire playing career: Sweden. He’s spent four seasons with Skelleftea AIK and has a contract for next season there as well. He had an offensive breakout this season with 20 points in 48 games.

Roman, 20, just completed his overage season with the WHL’s Vancouver Giants. He was the Flames’ fourth round pick in the 2018 NHL Draft. He’s been a rock solid junior, but hasn’t turned the corner and become outstanding at anything. He had 47 points in 62 games for Vancouver.

Lindstrom seems more likely to be offered an NHL deal than Roman, but neither are slam-dunks.

The Flames can sign Dustin Wolf at any point. They have until June 1, 2021 to lock up their seventh round pick from 2019, but based on chatter it doesn’t seem like the signing will be particularly contentious. He seems likely to sign sometime in the summer or fall, as he has another year left in junior anyway. He’ll definitely be named the WHL’s top goaltender when the awards are given out and will probably also win the award for the entire CHL. He’s legit.

In Europe, the Flames have until June 1, 2021 to sign Filip Sveningsson, their seventh round pick in 2017. Sveningsson just finished his second full pro season and it was uneven. In 2018-19, he was superb and helped IK Oskarshamn earn promotion to the SHL. This season he wasn’t as good and Oskarshamn collectively wasn’t great. He’s a free agent and looking for a new Swedish home, and it would make more sense for the Flames to wait to sign him when he’s coming off a strong year.

Emilio Pettersen just finished his sophomore season with the University of Denver, being named a conference all-star and emerging as one of the top under-20 college scorers in the county. The Norwegian import was the Flames’ sixth rounder in 2018 and because he’s in college, the Flames have until Aug. 15, 2020 to sign him. Pettersen seems likely to head back for another year for reasons we’ve already examined, and I can’t help but think that next summer is when he goes pro – especially if Denver goes on a long NCAA playoff run.

And then there’s the prospects that are on the back-burner for awhile because they don’t need to be signed for quite some time:

There’s no transfer agreement between the NHL and the Russian Ice Hockey Federation, so technically once a Russian player is drafted the NHL club retains their rights forever. But Nikolayev’s deal in Russia expires after 2020-21 so that gives you an idea of when the Flames might try to suss out what he wants to do. He’s already been to a development camp, so that puts him ahead of other recent Russian picks.