Flames Prospects NHLE – December 17th, 2012

It has been about a month since we looked at the NHL equivalencies of Flames kids and with Ryan giving us a more qualitative run down of their progress below, it seems like as good a time as any to see how their scoring is coming along.

We’ll start with the guys up front

Gaudreau has pulled away after his blistering start and is now all by himself at the top of the chart. I fully expect Sven to overtake Johnny G at some point (assuming he comes back healthy), but it’s hard not to gush about Gaudreau’s sophomore season thus far. His NHLE, although only based on 14 games (small sample alert), is still really, really impressive.

Everyone else below the two big guns has sunk to mediocre or worse territory. Granlund’s numbers are particularly disappointing – his NHLE has almost been cut in half relative to his output last year (34). It’s a really bad sign when guys in their teens take a big step backwards and suggests their previously impressive results weren’t real. Granlund naturally has the rest of the season to right the ship, but currently it looks like he was riding his big brothers coat tails to a non-trivial degree last season.

I added Turner Elson to add context, though his output implies he isn’t really a prospect of interest –  a guy with an NHLE of 20 in his 20/21 yar old season in junior probably isn’t going to go too far as a pro (unless he’s a fighter).

Brodie’s number have sunk as the Heat have gone through their ice cold phase over the last few weeks, but he continues to lead the blueline prospects in NHLE anyways. Wotherspoon finally usurped Culkin from the second spot thanks to the QMJHL being a slightly easier league than the WHL.

There’s hope both Kulak and Culkin will turn out to be capable two-way guys like Brodie and Pat Sieloff is impressing folks with his big hits and defensive acumen in the OHL. That said, the Flames prospect cupboard is barren when it comes to high-end offense from the back-end.

Mikael has slowed down after averaging nearly 2 points-per-game in the early going for Vasteras. His 27 points in 20 games now translates to an NHLE of about 40.