Stockton Heat mailbag: Defense, goalies, and just who might make it

In my posts about the Stockton Heat, I get a lot of questions regarding players down on the farm. While I try to answer as many as possible, there are some that I don’t get to. So I reached out to Flames Nation to see if I could do the occasional Stockton Heat Mailbag that would cover not only players, but the Heat, the Heat organization, Stockton Arena, the AHL, the City of Stockton, and hockey in general.

While I personally don’t do Twitter, Facebook, Instagram, or any social media, you can reach me via the Flames Nation twitter feed (@FlamesNation) or email me at stocktonfinestfn@gmail.com with your questions. I would say you could send me a letter, but the postman never rings twice.

For the inaugural mailbag, I received a few tweets along with an email that covered two topics. To round out the post, I pulled some questions I received from previous posts to expand on the answers. Time to channel my inner Cliff Clavin.

When Phillips first came up a few years back, I thought there was no way this guy would ever make it. He was so small and he looked like a fish out of water. But that was two years ago. At the beginning of this season, I thought he was pressing a bit. Once he got that initial goal, he loosened up and just started to play. He and his center, Glenn Gawdin, have built some chemistry together and have embraced their fourth line role. I like the fact that he is not afraid to head to the front of the net.

From what I have seen so far, he can produce at the AHL level. He is currently 10th on the team in points with seven points, all coming in his last eight games. I think a successful year would be a 20-point campaign, especially if he remains on that fourth line.

That is a tough call to say he will make it in the NHL. He does not possess the puck handling skills of a Johnny Gaudreau, but few do. His road will be a tough one, but he will need to produce at a high level over a period of the next two or three years to show he belongs. He needs to bulk up and get stronger. Otherwise, he will continue to get pushed off the puck.

It took a few games before both Taormina and Valiev hit the ice. Taormina was hurt and Valiev had visa issues. Once they hit the ice, they were slotted together as second pair. Like with the top pair of Oliver Kylington and Adam Ollas-Mattsson, you have the offensive-minded Taormina, who also plays on the power play, teamed with the stay-at-home defenseman Valiev.

Stockton’s defense was shaky, but once this tandem arrived, they helped settle things down. Valiev backs up Taormina when he jumps up in the play. Valiev has more penalty minutes than Taormina (14 to 2), but he is also only -2, as compared to -8 for Taormina. While Taormina is billed as the more offensive of the duo, both currently have three points (0-3).

As for whether or not either will make the NHL, I think Valiev has a better shot at making it than Taormina, just based on age alone (Taormina is 32 years old while Valiev is just 23).

Lastly, to answer Jumping Jack Flash’s question about recent pairings, now that Oliver Kylington is with the Flames and Dalton Prout is on a conditioning stint with the Heat, the pairings were shuffled during the most recent game against San Diego. Prout was with Vailev and Taormina was with Ollas-Mattsson. On Friday, Prout had a goal and an assist, Valiev had two assists, and Taormina had an assist.

kingcambie‏ @kingcambie asks:

The Heat play the same system as the Flames, making it cohesive for players who are either called up or sent down. In my opinion, this is the main reason for the Heat’s slow start. While the big club gets a month of preseason to learn the system, the Heat’s official training camp is only two weeks long and they get two preseason games sandwiched in the middle of that camp. While a majority of Stockton’s roster was in the Flames camp learning the system, there are some that are on either AHL contracts or PTOs that get signed late that do not get the full camp experience in Calgary and have to learn on the fly.

Mauricio Cardoza‏ @Msea91 asks:

Ollas-Mattsson looks confident. He has added some muscle from last year and has been more physical this year, finishing his checks and moving people away from the front of the net. His defensive-minded play allows his partner, Kylington, to jump into the rush. This year he is showing off his offensive skills, notching two goals to go along with three assists in 16 games. As a comparison, he had zero points in 14 games played last year. He still needs at least a year or two, maybe three, but he could be a good bottom six option for the Flames.

Daniel Tiller‏ @tiller_daniel writes:

Based on the Prospects Report from Christian Tiberi, and reading about this guy and the numbers he is putting up, I sure hope he comes to Stockton. Thirty-one points in 17 games is impressive. The question is if he does come, where to put him? Would it benefit him to move to wing? With a roster deep down the middle with Curtis Lazar, Alan Quine, Tyler Graovac, and Gawdin, it will be hard to find ice time for him. Even on the wing, he would be playing bottom six minutes, as Cail MacLean won’t move Andrew Mangiapane, Buddy Robinson, Morgan Klimchuk, Spencer Foo, or Kerby Rychel off the top two lines. I could see Pospisil rotating with Brett Pollock or Anthony Peluso in the bottom six.

Rob Thomson is the bench coach for the Philadelphia Phillies. Although he is Canadian, I think he needs to work on his slap shot a little and defend more. He is invisible on the ice. I think Burnward meant Rob Hamilton.

Rob Hamilton was signed on a PTO from the Manchester Monarchs right before the first Colorado game. He came in and scored the game winner in overtime. Born in Calgary, he is a 24-year-old left-handed defensemen who has six points (2-4) in six games and leads the team in +/- at a +6. He has been on the bottom six, mostly with Josh Healey, which gives Stockton an offensive/defensive combo on all three defensive pairings.

I will start with Parsons. In two years, I have seen him play live only three times. I saw his first win in San Jose last year, and he got lit up for five goals earlier this year. When I did see him play, he was active in net and came out to challenge shooters. He has played a total of 38 pro games: last year he played in 28 games in Kansas City (12-12-0 with a 3.16 GAA and .902 save percentage) and seven games in Stockton (1-3-0 with a 4.39 GAA and .856%). This year he is 1-2-0 with a 4.91 GAA and a .831 save percentage but has not seen the ice since Oct. 21. His injury history is a huge concern, but Tyler is still only 21 and has time to turn it around if he can remain healthy. He has promise.

Gillies is another story. Now in his fourth year (albeit his rookie year in 2015-16 was cut short with hip surgery), he has never really dominated in net. In seven games that rookie year, Gillies went 2-3-1 with a 2.31 GAA and .920 save percentage. The following year, coming back from surgery, he went 18-14-4 with a 2.93 GAA and .910% in 39 games. Even though he was outplayed by David Rittich, he was the #1 goalie for the Heat. Last year, he went 17-16-5 with a 2.53 GAA and .917% in 39 games. He finished the season in Calgary, going 3-5-1 in 11 games with a 2.88 GAA and a .896 save percentage. This year, in 13 starts, his goals against has ballooned to 4.77 and his save percentage has plummeted to .848 while going 4-5-1. He has been pulled four times this year, including the last three games he has played.

I don’t know if I mentioned this before, but Gillies has a huge hole top side. Most of the goals scored against him are high cheese. This year it is both glove and stick-side high. When watching him, once he is scored on, his head drops and his body slumps. His body language screams “here we go again”. He is the smallest 6’6” goalie I have ever seen. Nick Schneider, who is four inches shorter, plays taller than Gillies.

Now the million dollar question (actually $750,000): can he be fixed? The short answer is yes, as he is still only 24 years old. If the Flames are intent on keeping Gillies, I think it would be smart to invest in him by bringing in some past goalies (Kipper???) to work with Gillies one-on-one. I would keep him as a scratch for a month or so and have him concentrate on his techniques, skills, and positioning. You have a hot goalie in Schneider and a capable back up in Ryan Faragher that will allow Gillies to work on his game away from the team.

If you do not intend to keep him long term, then ship him out as part of a package as soon as possible to allow him the chance to work with another goalie coach. Sometimes a change of system does the trick. Just make sure to ship him to the east coast and out of the Western Conference so in case he does improve, we don’t have to face him. When he is on, he can be unstoppable. But those games are too far and in between to count on.

If you have any questions regarding the Heat, you can always send me a tweet to @FlamesNation and address it to Stockton’s Finest (they will get it to me) or email me at stocktonfinestfn@gmail.com. I will continue to try and answer your questions in the recaps I post as well. I hope to have a pre-game roundtable with as many of you as possible when Mrs. Finest and I come up for the San Jose game on Feb. 7 and continue for our friends in Vancouver on Feb. 9 when the Flames visit the Canucks.