Three Questions With Flames AGM Brad Pascall

There’s quite a bit going on for the Calgary Flames organizationally and sometimes we don’t get a chance to dig into the farm team as much as we’d like. Thankfully, we had the opportunity to chat with Brad Pascall on the phone over the weekend. Pascall is the assistant general manager of the Flames, and operates in that capacity as the person in charge of the daily operations of the AHL’s Stockton Heat.

So in between games, player demotions and scrambling to find a second goalie for the Heat on the weekend, we had the chance to ask him questions about three quick topics.

(Answers have been slightly edited for clarity.)

In Keegan’s case, part of his development plan is ensuring that he plays and he has to play games. The situation here in Stockton was he wasn’t going to have that opportunity, at least in the short term. He played one game, but we have a lot of other prospects here and one of his goals is to play games and continue his path of development. In order for him to do that, we felt the best situation for him was to go back to junior.

Ultimately, we felt his development was best served for him by going back to junior, and playing a lot, playing in all situations, really focusing in on being a better player and being a well-rounded player. Of course, it was an option, but overall we felt that the best thing for his development was to go back to junior.

I think the thing for him, number one, is the transition into pro hockey. It’s out of a college environment and into a pro environment, so everything from living in an apartment, making his own meals, not going to class, how he spends his day, how he prepares for a scheduled game… Right now we’re playing kind of a college schedule, just weekends, but once things pick when up when you’re playing three or four games a week and how that preparation changes. And just being a good pro; the level of players that he’s going up against and the level of fitness needed, nutrition, and working out and following a regiment of stretching and what-have-you. That’s number one is the adjustment to the pro game. And number two, for him, as part of the adjustment to the pro game is just playing, and seeing the pro shots and getting in games and playing as many games as possible.

Oliver’s a young player who’s extremely talented with the puck, and as a young player, as any young player including Oliver, is working on becoming a well-rounded player. With that, is being a pro, of off-ice conditioning and on-ice working on things before and after practice, and really focusing in on what his development plan is as a young guy. He’s been impressive. He’s impressive. He’s obviously a good skater and very, very good with the puck. We feel that he’s enhancing and improving his game every day.