Introducing Ben Hanowski and Ken Agostino

 

 

As the dust settles on the Iginla frenzy, Flames fans are left with a hole in their collective hearts and a glimmer of new hope in the form of Ben Hanowski, Ken Agostino and a fresh first round pick.

I won’t lie, the Penguins return strikes me as underwhelming. In looking at previous big name rentals, most guys garnered at least one high-end prospect as well as a first rounder and perhaps a roster player. Calgary got one of those things.

Which isn’t to shovel dirt on the new kids already. In Hanowski and Agostino the Flames got a couple of players who might turn out down the road. They just aren’t the potential high impact kids one may have hoped fo or expected from moving a player of Iginla’s caliber.

With that said, here’s some background on each guy:

A former third round pick in 2009, Hanowski was a really big deal in high school hockey. He scored a record setting 405 points during his time in HS, crushing the previous mark of 378 points in Minnesota. That incredible offense never really translated at the next level, though, where Hanowski has put up merely good numbers with St. Cloud State of the WCHA. His career best in college was a team leading 23 goals and 43 points as a 20-year old, a high water he failed to improve upon as a senior this season (16 goals and 29 points in 34 games).

Hanowski is a bigger guy at 6’02", 200 pounds and is described as having good hockey IQ and a hard shot. Skating is typically considered his weakness since he’s not the fastest guy around. Corey Pronman of Hockey Prospectus describes Hanowski as having 2nd line upside:

At 22 and with 4 years of post secondary under his belt, Hanowski should be about ready to turn pro, so the Flames will be able to test his mettle at the AHL level as soon as next October.

Like Hanowski, Agostino tore things up in high school. He finished his HS career with well over 200 points and finished as Delbarton, New Jersey’s highest scoring player ever. Chosen in the 5th round by Pittsburgh, perhaps because he was a smaller player with just okay speed at the time, Agostino has been a bit more prolific than Hanowski in college with two straight seasons of a better than point-per-game average for Yale University.

Agostino has marginally better (more consistent) offensive results in college but most think he ultimately has a lower ceiling than Hanowski. Again, from the Corey Pronman link:

Clearly Feaster and Weisbrod’s weighting of things like "character and smarts" played a role in targeting both of these players, as well as the organization’s new found fascination with high school prospects and collegiate hockey.

Obviously I have personally never seen either guy play, but from my research and talking to various people, it sounds like Agostino and Hanowski are at about the same prospect level of, say, a Max Reinhart or Bill Arnold – smart, versatile forwards who could become useful NHL players if things break right, but who nevertheless do not have a high impact ceiling. Those certainly aren’t terrible pieces to have, but there’s a non-trivial chance they will turn out to be little more than AHLers as well. 

Which is to say, the organizational chain that turned Kent Nilsson into Joe Nieuwendyk and then into Jarome Iginla won’t be carried on by either of these forwards. For the Flames to convert Jarome into a new franchise cornerstone, they will have to work magic with the Pens 25-30th overall draft pick in June. 

We’ll take a look at who they may be targeting at that point in the draft later this week and closer to the draft in June.