FlamesNation Prospect Update: International season approaches

6 years ago

Dillon Dube and Matthew Phillips went to go play Russia in the CHL-Russia series, and WJC talk is heating up with about a month and a half to go. The Flames will likely have a lot of representation in the tournament, so I imagine management is quite happy (and so are the scouts, who will probably be asking for a raise soon).

In case you missed it

Here’s last week’s update.
I had some thoughts about the new and improved Adam Ruzicka.
Andrew Mangiapane won the player of the month award for October.
Stockton’s Finest provides a recap of the Heat’s weekend games.
Off-site content! TSN’s Bob McKenzie gives his thoughts on the World Juniors, and name drops Dube and Phillips.

Rasmus Andersson – D, Stockton Heat, AHL -X

	GP	G	A	P	5v5 P	P1	5v5 P1	NHLe
Current	10	1	7	8	3	3	3	30.83
Change from last week	1	0	1	1	0	0	0	0.85

The Flames recalled Andersson in part because of the injury to Travis Hamonic and in part due to Mark Giordano expecting another child. I suppose we’ll get to see him for a week-ish and then he’ll go back to California.

Before leaving, he added an assist to his season totals.

Austin Carroll – RW, Stockton Heat

	GP	G	A	P	5v5 P	P1	5v5 P1	NHLe
Current	2	0	0	0	0	0	0	0
Change from last week	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0

I still don’t know what the plan for Carroll is.

Dillon Dube – C/LW, Kelowna Rockets, WHL

	GP	G	A	P	5v5 P	P1	5v5 P1	NHLe
Current	15	7	11	18	7	13	6	28.54
Change from last week	3	2	2	4	0	2	0	0.80

Before leaving for the CHL-Russia series in Moose Jaw, Dube put up a first star performance against the Victoria Royals with a three-point game. How’s he doing in Moose Jaw? Well…

He also had an assist in the game.

Zach Fischer – RW, Spokane Chiefs, WHL

	GP	G	A	P	5v5 P	P1	5v5 P1	NHLe
Current	10	3	4	7	4	3	3	16.65
Change from last week	2	0	1	1	1	0	0	-1.19

Fischer added an assist and seven shots in two games this weekend.

Stats are total.

Spencer Foo – RW, Stockton Heat

	GP	G	A	P	5v5 P	P1	5v5 P1	NHLe
Current	11	1	4	5	3	4	2	17.52
Change from last week	2	0	0	0	0	0	0	-3.89

Foo’s SH% has now dropped under 4%, which is a far cry from the 10-13% he was shooting in college. Given that he’s one of the Heat’s more frequent shooters, he’s going to explode any day now.

Adam Fox – D, Harvard Crimson, ECAC

	GP	G	A	P	5v5 P	P1	5v5 P1	NHLe
Current	3	0	5	5	1	2	0	31.43
Change from last week	2	0	3	3	0	2	0	-6.29

Fox is really owning the powerplay QB role. All but one of his points are powerplay points. He’s tied for the lead in scoring for Harvard, by the way.

Josh Healey – D, Stockton Heat

	GP	G	A	P	5v5 P	P1	5v5 P1	NHLe
Current	7	0	0	0	0	0	0	0
Change from last week	2	0	0	0	0	0	0	0

Josh Healey played two hockey games in the past week.

Mark Jankowski – C, Stockton Heat -X

We can probably say goodbye to Mark Jankowski on the prospect updates, right?

D’Artagnan Joly – RW, Baie-Comeau Drakkar, QMJHL

	GP	G	A	P	5v5 P	P1	5v5 P1	NHLe
Current	8	5	4	9	5	9	5	23.06
Change from last week	2	4	1	5	3	5	3	9.39

The best name in hockey had himself a week. Against Chicoutimi, he scored a hat trick and added an assist. He’s provided a jolt to the Drakkar offence since returning from injury, contributing on just under 40% of all goals, and on 31% of 5v5 goals. He also has yet to score a secondary point, fyi.

Pavel Karnaukhov – LW/C, CSKA Moscow, KHL/Zvezda, VHL

	GP	G	A	P	5v5 P	P1	5v5 P1	NHLe
KHL current	6	0	2	2	2	1	1	23.02
Change from last week	2	0	2	2	2	1	1	23.02
VHL current	12	6	8	14	10	12	8	36.35
Change from last week	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0

Across the pond, Pavel Karnaukhov also had himself a week. After being sent down to the VHL, the pivot was unexpectedly recalled and put up two assists on his return. Then he was scratched the next game, because hockey makes a lot of sense sometimes.

Morgan Klimchuk – LW, Stockton Heat

	GP	G	A	P	5v5 P	P1	5v5 P1	NHLe
Current	11	4	3	7	5	6	5	24.53
Change from last week	2	0	0	0	0	0	0	-5.45

Klimchuk played two hockey games this weekend. The Heat only scored two goals in those two games, so you’re going to read this a lot. Sorry.

Oliver Kylington – D, Stockton Heat

	GP	G	A	P	5v5 P	P1	5v5 P1	NHLe
Current	11	1	6	7	6	4	4	24.53
Change from last week	2	0	0	0	0	0	0	-5.45

Ditto.

Linus Lindstrom – C/LW, Skelleftea AIK, SHL

	GP	G	A	P	5v5 P	P1	5v5 P1	NHLe
Current	16	2	0	2	2	2	2	5.95
Change from last week	2	0	0	0	0	0	0	-0.84

Lindstrom doesn’t do hockey things that make it onto the scoresheet that often, but he’s slowly earning the trust of his coaches. His past two games have seen him bumped up to the 3C position. Perhaps points will follow.

Ryan Lomberg – LW, Stockton Heat

	GP	G	A	P	5v5 P	P1	5v5 P1	NHLe
Current	11	0	1	1	1	1	1	3.5
Change from last week	2	0	0	0	0	0	0	-0.78

They have the Matthew Tkachuk Friendship Tour in the AHL, too. It just stars Ryan Lomberg, instead:

Andrew Mangiapane – LW/C, Stockton Heat

	GP	G	A	P	5v5 P	P1	5v5 P1	NHLe
Current	11	6	10	16	10	10	7	56.06
Change from last week	2	1	0	1	0	1	0	-8.17

Mangiapane, one of the only Heat players to do something this week, fell victim to a stat correction. He was initially credited with an assist on the lone goal against the Texas Stars, only to have it taken away. That snapped his perfect start to the season, and he will have to settle for only having a 10-game point streak. Ah shucks.

If you’re wondering, some of Flames management were at Stockton’s games this weekend. Do what you want with that information.

Mitchell Mattson – C/LW, Sioux Falls Stampede, USHL

	GP	G	A	P	5v5 P	P1	5v5 P1	NHLe
Current	11	3	2	5	5	3	3	10.44
Change from last week	1	1	0	1	1	1	1	1.26

Mattson scored the third goal of a tragic 7-6 SO loss to Cedar Rapids. Sioux Falls was down 6-0 (!) halfway through the second period and then came storming back to tie the game.

Adam Ollas Mattsson – D, Stockton Heat

	GP	G	A	P	5v5 P	P1	5v5 P1	NHLe
Up to date	6	0	0	0	0	0	0	0
Change from last week	2	0	0	0	0	0	0	0

I don’t have hockey things to say about AOM, but since the Heat held their Hockey Fights Cancer night, I would like to take this space to share his story about losing his mom to cancer.

Matthew Phillips – C/RW, Victoria Royals, WHL

	GP	G	A	P	5v5 P	P1	5v5 P1	NHLe
Current	19	15	20	35	13	24	8	43.81
Change from last week	2	0	1	1	1	0	0	-3.75

Another slow week for Phillips. He’s making more noise at that CHL-Russia series, where he scored by redirecting Kale Clague’s slap shot:

Emile Poirier – LW/RW, Stockton Heat

	GP	G	A	P	5v5 P	P1	5v5 P1	NHLe
Current	11	1	1	2	2	1	1	7.01
Change from last week	2	0	0	0	0	0	0	-1.55

Zilch.

Brett Pollock – LW/C, Stockton Heat, AHL

	GP	G	A	P	5v5 P	P1	5v5 P1	NHLe
Current	1	0	0	0	0	0	0	0
Change from last week	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0

Enjoyed a lot of pressbox popcorn, presumably.

Daniel Pribyl – RW/C, Stockton Heat

	GP	G	A	P	5v5 P	P1	5v5 P1	NHLe
Current	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0

Still injured.

Rushan Rafikov – D, Lokomotiv Yaroslavl, KHL

	GP	G	A	P	5v5 P	P1	5v5 P1	NHLe
Current	29	1	7	8	8	4	4	16.74
Change from last week	3	0	1	1	1	0	0	0.4

Rushan Rafikov played three games last week and added an assist.

Adam Ruzicka – C/LW, Sarnia Sting, OHL

	GP	G	A	P	5v5 P	P1	5v5 P1	NHLe
Up to date	18	13	15	28	10	21	6	38.27
Change from last week	3	1	3	4	1	2	1	-1.09

Ruzicka’s strong start to the season continues, as he keeps up his frantic >1 PPG pace.

Hunter Shinkaruk – F, Stockton Heat

	GP	G	A	P	5v5 P	P1	5v5 P1	NHLe
Up to date	10	2	2	4	2	3	2	15.42
Change from last week	2	0	0	0	0	0	0	-3.85

Nothing.

Hunter Smith – RW, Kansas City Mavericks, ECHL

	GP	G	A	P	5v5 P	P1	5v5 P1	NHLe
Up to date	7	1	1	2	1	1	1	6.56
Change from last week	2	1	1	2	1	1	1	6.56

Smith added two points, his first in the ECHL, this week.

Filip Sveningsson – LW, HV71, Superelit/SHL

	GP	G	A	P	5v5 P	P1	5v5 P1	NHLe
SHL current	3	0	0	0	0	0	0	0
Change from last week	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0
Superelit current	12	7	7	14	8	11	5	19.13
Change from last week	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0

Sveningsson has apparently not played hockey in two weeks. Twitter searches being what they are, but all signs seem to indicate that he’s with the HV71 big club, albeit not playing for them.

Eetu Tuulola – RW, HPK, SM-Liiga

	GP	G	A	P	5v5 P	P1	5v5 P1	NHLe
Current	17	6	0	6	3	6	3	12.44
Change from last week	2	1	0	1	0	1	0	0.69

Tuulola is starting to find consistency with HPK, scoring an OT game-winner this week.

Juuso Valimaki – D, Tri-City Americans, WHL

	GP	G	A	P	5v5 P	P1	5v5 P1	NHLe
Current	12	4	8	12	5	9	3	23.78
Change from last week	2	2	2	4	2	3	1	4.76

You’ve probably seen this once or twice this week, but here you go again:

Kid’s sick.

Tyler Wotherspoon – D, Stockton Heat

	GP	G	A	P	5v5 P	P1	5v5 P1	NHLe
Current	11	1	4	5	2	3	2	17.52
Change from last week	2	0	0	0	0	0	0	-3.89

Wotherspoon also did stuff this week.

Jon Gillies – G, Stockton Heat

	GP	TOI	SV%	SA
Current	7	363.87	0.924	212
Change from last week	1	58.35	-0.004	28

Gillies had a rough go of it in his only appearance, allowing three goals on 31 shots against the Manitoba Moose. Not great.

Mason McDonald – G, Kansas City Mavericks, ECHL

	GP	TOI	SV%	SA
Current	3	128	0.91	67
Change from last week	2	63	+0.01	47

McDonald has been the stability in net needed after Parsons had a few struggles this week.

Tyler Parsons – G, Kansas City Mavericks

	GP	TOI	SV%	SA
Current	5	359	0.870	216
Change from last week	2	99	-0.018	56

Parsons has been uncharacteristically bad this first few weeks of the season. I don’t know if it’s just early season jitters, the team in front of him, the adjustment to wacky pro hockey life of the ECHL (KC played a game at 9:30 AM on a Wednesday, which is nutty to me), or some combination of all three.

He didn’t start his last season in the OHL on a great note either, so perhaps he’s just a slow starter. Parsons was pulled from a game last week with an injury, so that’s another possible explanation.

David Rittich – G, Stockton Heat

	GP	TOI	SV%	SA
Current	4	250	0.937	127
Change from last week	1	60	0.021	40

Rittich stepped in on the back-to-back game against Texas, leading the team to a shutout victory. This has caused people to get very excited, but let’s put things in perspective and remember that it’s only four games. Rittich put up a stinker immediately following his first shutout win that got people excited, and generally has consistency issues (both him and Gillies recorded 13 sub .900SV% games last year, the problem being that Gillies played in eight more games than Rittich).

Nick Schneider – G, Calgary Hitmen, WHL

	GP	TOI	SV%	SA
Current	14	825	0.901	434
Change from last week	2	120	0.002	68

Schneider had both an above and below average game this week, stopping 34 of 37 (.919) against Lethbridge, and then just 28 of 31 (.903) against the same team.

A brief WJC outlook

Although we’ll expand in a later article, here’s some of the names that are likely headed to the WJC:

Canada: Matthew Phillips, Dillon Dube

USA: Adam Fox

Finland: Juuso Valimaki

Slovakia: Adam Ruzicka

The Flames also have some players who could go deep into the tournament. Canada is always a powerhouse, and with Dube (who could be captain, and will at least be an alternate) and Phillips leading the way, they will likely last until the medal round. Fox’s performance with Team USA at the Summer Showcase suggests that he could be the driving force on the team. Ditto for Valimaki. Ruzicka didn’t have a great performance at the U20 WJC last year, but was firing on all cylinders at the U18 tournament, and will look to translate that performance over.

I’d place Eetu Tuulola (Finland), Linus Lindstrom, and Filip Sveningsson (Sweden) in the tentative pile. Tuulola seems a good bet, given that he’s playing in Liiga, but without much other info I can’t really say. Lindstrom was named to Sweden’s exhibition roster, which is usually a good sign for WJC selection. Sveningsson has lit up the Superelit, and earned a call up (sans ice time) to the SHL, making him a dark horse for the Swedish roster.

Just sending five players would be a major point of pride for the organization. Imagine if they could send all eight of the eligible ones.

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