The Puck Poolies Podcast discussed Matt Coronato’s scoring potential
By Ryan Pike
1 month agoAround the network, a bunch of our talented friends and colleagues are launching new podcasts. Over at Daily Faceoff, a great listen for fantasy hockey aficionados is the Puck Poolies Podcast with Matt Larkin and Steven Ellis.
In last week’s episode, Larkin and Ellis singled out Calgary Flames forward Matt Coronato as a prospect to watch due to his potential to rack up a lot of points this season.
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Here’s a snippet from Ellis’ assessment of Coronato:
“When you look with him in Calgary, I think everyone knew he was going to be there, but what role was he going to have this year with the team? I’m not sure I expected top six right away. But you know, he’s a smaller guy at 5-10, doesn’t really throw a ton of hits, but he’s got the speed, the skill and everything you’re looking for there.”
Ellis added that in viewings of Harvard – when Ellis had his eye on Montreal Canadiens prospect Sean Farrell – Coronato ended up “stealing my eye” and cited his goal-scoring as a key attribute. He also cited Coronato’s performance at the World Championships last spring, serving as one of the top American players in that tournament (as one of the youngest players on that United States team).
“The pre-season is the pre-season, but he still looked like the best Calgary Flame and he still looked like the best rookie for sure. I think Coronato is someone who’s just, he knows how to put pucks in the net. You’re not going to rely on him to play a physical game, maybe not even defensively, but if you put him in those scoring opportunities and you give him the guys to set him up there, I think this is someone who 45 points, 50 points here is not out of the question.”
The episode with this discussion came out last week, but Coronato dressed for all three games played by the Flames and his deployments were basically precisely how Ellis laid them out: he’s primarily been played on a forward line with perennial Selke Trophy candidate Mikael Backlund (and savvy two-way winger Blake Coleman), two players that can carry the mail defensively and play a possession-heavy style. Coronato’s also been used on both Flames’ power play units, and his first NHL goal came on a nice feed from Elias Lindholm against Pittsburgh.
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Elephant in the room: yeah, Coronato’s minus-6 rating is the lowest on the Flames roster. But look back over the goals he’s been on the ice for and try to place blame. He’s a rookie who, so far, has had the bad luck to be on the ice during some bad stretches of team play. He’s also scored a strong goal, and the likely hope is his two-way luck will balance out… and his offensive production will ramp itself up, too.
The Flames are back in action on Thursday in Buffalo.
Be sure to check out the Puck Poolies Podcast every week on the Daily Faceoff YouTube channel (and wherever you get your podcasts).
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