Flames Weekly Prospect Update: The spectre of playoffs

• Flames prospects Matt Phillips and Eetu Tuulola participated in the longest CHL game ever.
• Brandon Hickey may not actually sign with the Flames and instead return to BU for his senior season.
• Debating whether or not Rasmus Andersson should actually play an NHL hockey game.
• Mark Jankowski won Stockton’s AHL Man of the Year award for his service in the community.

Forwards

• Janko also won the AHL’s award for rookie of the month, and put up a point-per-game this week.
• However he wasn’t Stockton’s best player this week, far from it. Morgan Klimchuk picked up five points, including four goals, and Hunter Shinkaruk also put up five. Good show from two players who had very bad droughts in the season.
• Austin Carroll also added three points this week, his single largest outburst this season. Ryan Lomberg did the same, with a goal and two assists.
• It was a good week all around for the Stockton Heat, who won three games. They have six left, and are tied for the final playoff spot with Edmonton’s affiliate. It’s going to be a wild finish, but the team has won seven of their last 10. They stand a good chance of getting in.
• The Adirondack Thunder have also clinched a playoff spot this week, so the Heat have backups in case the Flames decide to raid them for players down the stretch (keep your eyes out for an article on this today).
• Mitchell Mattson is down with some sort of injury
• Matt Phillips had his season end in that marathon game, which brings up the possibility of him joining the Stockton Heat on an ATO. He doesn’t have an ELC (yet) so the team can’t automatically assign him there. We’ll see how it plays out.
• Eetu Tuulola moves on, playing against the Seattle Thunderbirds who just swept Tri City. That should be another fun series.
• Dillon Dube also advanced after the Kelowna Rockets team took down the rival Kamloops Blazers in six games. He’ll either face Prince George or Portland in the next series. The likely option is Portland, so we’re primed for a fun series between two WHL powerhouses.

Defenders

• Ryan Culkin is still too good for the ECHL, scoring at a better rate than Flames forward prospect Brett Pollock. He kind of had a crap season in the AHL (knee injury, usurped by major defensive intake), but maybe he can work his way back into the org’s good books with a dominant playoffs.
• Josh Healey made his professional debut! He played a few minutes and had one shot.
• Adam Fox will be in NCAA semifinal action against Minnesota-Duluth on Thursday. The final will be on Saturday, if he makes it.
• Still out: Brett Kulak, Kenney Morrison, Stepan Falkovsky.

Goalies

• Jon Gillies started and won all three of his starts this past week, stopping 84 of 90 shots.

Prospect playoff update

• Dube is tied for first on the Rockets in playoff points and second in goals.
• The Royals had balanced scoring all around, so technically Phillips finished a point out of being tied for first on his team (there are five players with four points each).
• Parsons is in an intense battle against the Windsor Spitfires (who really shouldn’t try, seeing as they have a guaranteed spot in the Memorial Cup). The series is headed to game seven, and Parsons has started every contest.
• Schneider hasn’t factored in at all for Medicine Hat, who had an easy draw and swept Brandon.