A pair of Calgary Flames prospects saw their college teams eliminated from their conference playoffs this past weekend, but both could still end up playing for awhile longer.

2021 seventh-rounder Arsenii Sergeev and 2023 third-rounder Aydar Suniev both saw their teams knocked out of their conference tournaments this weekend, but both are well-positioned to potentially make the NCAA’s national championship tournament anyway.

Let’s get into how the Flames’ college prospects are looking and how things look for Sergeev and Suniev’s national title aspirations.

Northeastern University (where Jake Boltmann plays in his graduate season) advanced to their conference semi-final round later this week via an upset over Boston College. They would need to win their conference tournament to qualify for the national tournament. They play Maine on Thursday.

The University of North Dakota (where Cade Littler plays as a freshman) advanced to their conference semi-final round next weekend via a win over Omaha in their best-of-three quarterfinal series. Littler, who had four goals over the rest of the season, had three goals over two games to help North Dakota win. They would need to win their conference tournament to qualify for the national tournament. They face the top team in their conference, Western Michigan, on Friday.

Niagara University (where Trevor Hoskin plays as a freshman) was eliminated by Army last weekend. They’re too low in the pairwise rankings to qualify for the national tournament, so they’re finished for the season.

Penn State University (where Arsenii Sergeev plays as a junior) were eliminated by Ohio State in their conference semi-final round. Penn State is ranked 13th in the pairwise rankings as of this writing, so depending on what happens with the other conference tournaments, they have a good chance at being one of the 16 teams in the national tournament. (They would be a strong contender for one of the 10 at-large bids, as the six conference tournament wins automatically qualify and usually four of the six conference winners are top-16 in the pairwise rankings.)

The University of Massachusetts (where Aydar Suniev plays as a sophomore) were eliminated by Boston University in their conference quarterfinal round. UMass is currently 11th in the pairwise rankings, so they also have a good chance at one of the 10 at-large bids.

It seems improbable that the Flames will try to sign Boltmann, Littler or Hoskin this year – Boltmann is a fifth-year collegiate player whose NHL rights are about to expire, while Littler and Hoskin are still pretty inexperienced and likely need a bit more time.

However, we often get asked about the Flames potentially signing Sergeev or Suniev. In short: yeah, we could see it happen. Sergeev has played three college campaigns and has really had a breakout season at Penn State, while Suniev has progressed nicely through two college seasons, and the only question for him would be whether another season at UMass would be better than the challenge of the AHL.

So let’s just say either of them sign at the end of their college seasons. It’s worth pointing out that Suniev is 20 and Sergeev is 22, so neither of them would sign deals that are eligible for slide years. So they would have two potential paths:

It would be one or the other, though: if you’re on an AHL try-out deal, you don’t have an active NHL deal so you couldn’t be called up, and if you go directly to the NHL after signing after the trade deadline you’re not eligible to play in the AHL based on their roster rules.