Back in the summer time, the FlamesNation crew sat down and hashed out the rankings of the 20 best Calgary Flames prospects. That was completed back in early September, and we’ve had almost a full hockey season since then and the Flames have acquired a few prospects in the interim. Thus, there’s quite a lot to digest in regards to the composition and performance of the Flames’ young up-and-comers this season.

Let’s check in and see how the organization’s prospects have done this year, shall we?

CALDER ELIGIBILITY

Our requirement for “what makes somebody a prospect” was fairly simple: Calder Trophy eligibility. From the NHL, here’s the full definition of what makes somebody eligible:

To be eligible for the award, a player cannot have played more than 25
games in any single preceding season nor in six or more games in each of
any two preceding seasons in any major professional league. Beginning
in 1990-91, to be eligible for this award a player must not have
attained his twenty-sixth birthday by September 15th of the season in which he is eligible.

In essence, you qualify for our Top 20 Prospects ranking by being:

A player on the Flames reserve list (e.g., recent draft pick or signed to an NHL contract)
Not yet 26 by September 15, 2015
Having played fewer than 25 NHL games in any single preceding season (or fewer than 6 games in any two preceding seasons) [Drew Shore, Markus Granlund and Joni Ortio weren’t eligible last summer because of this provision, nor was Freddie Hamilton after he joined the Flames organization.]

THE TOP 20, IN TABLE FORM

Rank	Player	Age	Team	Statline	NHLE
1	Sam Bennett	19	Calgary (NHL)	64gp, 15g/17a	42.3
2	Jon Gillies	22	Stockton (AHL)	2-3-1, .920sv	n/a
3	Emile Poirier	21	Stockton (AHL)	47gp, 11g/13a	19.8
4	Oliver Kylington	18	Stockton (AHL)	34gp, 4g/5a	10.3
5	Morgan Klimchuk	21	Stockton (AHL)	38gp, 3g/4a	7.1
6	Rasmus Andersson	19	Barrie (OHL)	59gp, 8g/49a	24.9
7	Brandon Hickey	19	Boston University (NCAA)	33gp, 5g/3a	7.3
8	Tyler Wotherspoon	22	Calgary (NHL) Stockton (AHL)	6gp, 0g/0a 42gp 0g/4a	3.7
9	Bill Arnold	23	Stockton (AHL)	36gp, 7g/10a	18.3
10	Mark Jankowski	21	Providence College (NCAA)	34gp, 15g/23a	33.8
11	Kenney Morrison	24	Stockton (AHL)	28gp, 2g/7a	12.5
12	Andrew Mangiapane	19	Barrie (OHL)	53gp, 46g/44a	43.8
13	Ryan Culkin	22	Stockton (AHL) Adirondack (ECHL)	10gp, 0g/0a 33gp, 0g/8a	4.5 (est.)
14	Kenny Agostino	23	Stockton (AHL)	49gp, 17g/25a	33.2
15	Hunter Smith	20	Stockton (AHL)	38gp, 1g/4a	5.1
16	Mason McDonald	19	Charlottetown (QMJHL)	17-15-3, .896sv	n/a
17	Brett Kulak	22	Calgary (NHL) Stockton (AHL)	6gp, 0g/0a 44gp, 2g/9a	9.7
18	Austin Carroll	21	Stockton (AHL)	40gp, 4g/5a	8.7
19	Garnet Hathaway	24	Calgary (NHL) Stockton (AHL)	4gp, 0g/2a 35gp, 6g/11a	18.8
20	Rushan Rafikov	20	Admiral Vladvostok (KHL) Lokomotiv Yaroslavl (KHL) HK Ryazan (VHL) Loko Yaroslavl (MHL)	17gp, 0g/2a 16gp, 0g/0a 4gp, 0g/1a 3gp, 0g/0a	4.0

UNRANKED, BUT ELIGIBLE

Player	Age	Team	Statline	NHLE
Riley Bruce	18	North Bay (OHL)	52gp, 1g/10a	5.5
Matt DeBlouw	22	Michigan State (NCAA)	25gp, 7g/7a	16.0
Turner Elson	23	Stockton (AHL)	48gp, 11g/15a	21.0
John Gilmour	22	Providence College (NCAA)	30gp, 9g/14a	23.2
Derek Grant	25	Calgary (NHL) Stockton (AHL)	9gp, 0g/0a 30gp, 23g/15a	49.1
Tim Harrison	22	Colgate (NCAA)	36gp, 8g/9a	9.0
Keegan Kanzig	21	Stockton (AHL) Calgary (WHL)	1gp, 0g/0a 46gp, 11g/6a	8.2
Pavel Karnaukhov	18	Calgary (WHL)	47gp, 12g/18a	14.0
Adam Ollas Mattsson	19	Djurgardens IF (SHL)	22gp, 1g/3a	9.0
Brett Pollock	19	Edmonton (WHL)	65gp, 25g/43a	23.3
Kevin Poulin	25	Stockton (AHL)	10-7-2, .845sv	n/a
Nick Schneider	18	Medicine Hat (WHL)	17-24-1, .898sv	n/a
Hunter Shinkaruk	21	Stockton (AHL) Utica (AHL)	5gp, 2g/1a 45gp, 21g/18a	32.6
Patrick Sieloff	21	Stockton (AHL)	36gp, 1g/6a	7.5
Bryce van Brabant	24	Stockton (AHL)	46gp, 7g/5a	10.1

TRENDING UPWARD

Sam Bennett is a regular NHL player now, and has quietly become a pretty good one. He’s eighth in rookie scoring.
Andrew Mangiapane is a very strong OHL player, and scores a ton. He, Derek Grant and Bennett are the only Flames prospects with NHLEs north of 40.
Kenny Agostino and Mark Jankowski are virtually identical statistically when you control for league differences. Hunter Shinkaruk also projects, points-wise, to be part of this “pretty good but not great” cluster.
John Gilmour, Rasmus Andersson, Garnet Hathaway, Brett Pollock, Turner Elson and Nick Schneider are also having pretty solid seasons in their various levels.

TRENDING DOWNWARD

Emile Poirier just hasn’t been great this season. His ticket to the NHL is going to be his offense, and he just hasn’t put it together lately.
Morgan Klimchuk hasn’t been amazing offensively, though his defensive play has drawn some nice responses from Stockton regulars. When you account for his style of play and his size, his play away from the puck was always going to be what got him to the NHL. He’s coming along slowly, but steadily.
Ryan Culkin was stuck in the ECHL due to the numbers game in Stockton, but he hasn’t really been amazing since getting brought up to the AHL. Heck, he also failed to put up numbers like Brett Kulak did last season in the ECHL: Kulak had 30 points in 39 games with Colorado in 2014-15, well ahead of Culkin this season.
Rushan Rafikov probably isn’t a prospect of note anymore, considering he bounced around the KHL and the Russian minor leagues like a bad penny.

Players that won’t be eligible for next season’s Top 20 listing for various reasons: Derek Grant will be 26 and has played too many NHL games; Kevin Poulin will be 26; Sam Bennett and Tyler Wotherspoon have both played too many NHL games.

PROSPECT DEPTH MOVING FORWARD

This coming NHL Draft is going to be pretty important for the Flames. In terms of prospects with point-generating potential – which I’ll generously say is anybody with an NHLE of 20 and above – the Flames have roughly 10 (Bennett, Andersson, Jankowski, Mangiapane, Agostino, Elson, GIlmour, Grant, Pollock and Shinkaruk, and a case can be made for Poirier). Of that group, Bennett and Grant won’t be prospects next season, and everybody else will probably be playing pro hockey, as guys like Andersson, Jankowski, Mangiapane, Gilmour and Pollock are all graduating from junior and college.

To keep the pipeline moving, the Flames desperately need to restock their offensive potential outside of the pro level.

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