Flames Weekly Prospect Update: A final push

• Tim Harrison’s season wrap-up
• Pavel Karnaukhov and Rushan Rafikov also had their seasons wrapped up and analyzed
• Matthew Phillips and his quest for 50 goals
• Rasmus Andersson and the Flames’ development of homegrown players
• Some NCAA free agent speculation

Forwards

• Dillon Dube is finishing off the season with a bang. He added eight points in four games this week, including a four point showing against Victoria where he contributed on every goal.
• The Garnet Hathaway narrative seems to have followed him to the AHL. The Heat went 3-0 this week in their attempt to claw back into the playoffs, but Hathaway only contributed a secondary assist. The Heat scored 11 goals.
• For what it’s worth, the Flames are 10-0 since he departed. It’s almost as if his appearance in the lineup has no correlation to whether a team wins or not.
• Though he is still a promising prospect that just needs to smooth out his rough patches to be a full time NHLer.
• The Heat also called up Brett Pollock this week as cover for Morgan Klimchuk (missed the March 8 game with a UBI) and for Daniel Pribyl (injured again). He has yet to play.
• Andrew Mangiapane and Mark Jankowski appear to be mutually benefiting from being placed on the same line. They’re taken off of 200 foot duty, but they’re contributing to the offensive upswing that could potentially save Stockton’s season.
• Mangiapane also had his first two goal game since New Year’s Eve, by the way.
• With three games and 13 points left, Matthew Phillips will probably not realize the triple digit dream. It was an unusually dry week for him, only scoring two points. It was really one point, because a secondary assist from the previous week was stat corrected and taken away from him.
• Eetu Tuulola scored a goal and an assist this week. If only he could get a few more minutes, though I say this every time.
• Tim Harrison has earned an ATO with the Adirondack Thunder, and will be joining the team soon. More info later.
• Linus Lindstrom has finished his season, but also more on that later.
• All CHL kids will be done by this time next week too, by the way.

Defenders

• Rasmus Andersson getting the call is absolutely well deserved on his end, but you have to think it spells doom (although this was clear for weeks on end) for Tyler Wotherspoon and Ryan Culkin, former top defensive prospects.
• Though Wotherspoon did add a goal and an assist this week. Culkin didn’t play, and hasn’t for a while. It appears to be another injury, because he hasn’t been moved to Adirondack yet.
• His Swedish pal Oliver Kylington added two assists this week. He’s finally finding the scoresheet again, which is nothing but good news.
• Brett Kulak also has some sort of UBI and has been held out for the past week (again, forcing Rasmus to be the one who got the call).
• Adam Fox and Harvard handily dispatched Yale in two games, and will face a tougher ask in Quinnipiac in the semifinals, which is only one game. Fox had two assists in the proceedings.
• Brandon Hickey, on return from an LBI, also helped BU take down Northeastern who were probably the toughest team in the Hockey East aside from the Terriers. Boston fell down 2-0 early in both games, but rallied back to win 3-2 in both. Hickey had an assist in the QFs.
• If you’re wondering about Zach Aston-Reese, he’s probably going to the Frozen Four (as are Fox and Hickey) regardless of conference tournament result. Decisions on him (and the actual Flames prospects) probably won’t come for a few more weeks.
• Keegan Kanzig scored his first professional goal ever in a wild 6-5 game. Adirondack also lost a game 9-7 this week. Gotta love the ECHL.

Goalies

• Mason McDonald was thankfully not on the side of that drubbing, as his SV% went up this week.
• David Rittich boosted his SV% to .929 this week. He also leads AHL rookies in shutouts and is second overall in the league. Only Zack McIntyre and Jaroslav Halak have better SV%. The Flames may have found a gem.