With a chunk of the season behind us, it's probably a good time to look at how the baby Flames are progressing. Keep in mind, this is all straight numbers reporting as I haven't seen any of these guys play since the pre-season.
Here's the QC Flames scoring at-a-glance. Like last year's club, the farm team is again mediocre at best, led in scoring by fringe NHLers (Lundmark and Eriksson) and lacking any sort of high-end talent. Still, there are a few notable stats-lines so far.
Kris Chucko - My favorite prospect punching bag. He's off to his best start ever, offensively speaking. He's already managed 10 goals and 21 points, nine points shy of his entire output from last season.
Of course, I have no idea if this represents a real step forward or is a product of expanded ice-time. There's no ice-time or points-by-situation break-down for AHL skaters that I know of, so there's no way to calculate and compare scoring rates.
Still, if he keeps up this PPG pace, he'll finish the season at around 73 points. That would at least suggest some NHL upside. It'll be interesting to see if he can sustain this gain or not.
Ryan Wilson - Sutter spoke highly of the undrafted rookie d-man recently, saying he could probably be playing in the NHL right now. While I think that's probably more of a GM pumping a kids tires through the media, it's nice to see a gamble like Wilson paying off. He's the farm's top scoring blueliner behind Bubba and is apparently turning into something of a fan favorite.
Kyle Greentree - The big ex-Flyer prospect apparently "wasn't right" at the start of the season owing to that ugly head injury he suffered in the Flames prospect tournament this summer. He's gotten back on track recently and has managed the third best point total on the team. My bet is he surpasses Chucko in the near future.
Matt Pelech - Pelech is having a hell of a year so far. As in, one hell of a BAD year. The former first rounder was one of the final cuts from the pre-season, but hasn't been able to carry that back to QC. Both his stats line and first hand accounts say he's struggled mightily, which is probably a little concerning for the organization. Pelech was expected to challenge for a spot on the big club both this season and next, but he's apparently incapable of getting the job done at the AHL all of a sudden.
Also of note - Dan Ryder and John Armstrong have played well recently, although both started out poorly for different reasons (Armstrong - injury, Ryder - rust). Going forward I would expect an expanded role for the two and some better numbers as they acclimatize to the AHL.
Juniors
Mitch Wahl - Calgary's second rounder from this summer was on fire to start the season but has slowed somewhat recently. He has 15 goals (5 less than his 20 from last year) and 29 points through 26 games already. He was also chosen to represent to the US at the upcoming World Championships.
I liked what I saw out of Wahl during the prospect tournament. He was fast, shifty and aggressive and seemed to have good instincts. Hopefully he can continue moving in the right direction.
Greg Niemisz - Is in the top 20 in OHL scoring with 11 goals and 29 points in 26 games so far. That projects to a 76 point season, a decent jump up from his previous 67 point year.
Nemisz is also an impressive +23, which suggests he isn't just piling up points on some high powered power play (*cough*Schremp*cough*). To be fair, however, it looks like Greg plays on something of Juggernaut in the Windsor Spitfires. His 29 points are good for third on the team, well behind Taylor Hall (49 points) and Ryan Ellis (45 points - also a defenseman!!) - both of whom are 1/2 in the OHL scoring race and a year younger.
One of major pitfalls of drafting juniors is favorable surroundings, where a kid puts up good numbers simply because he has excellent teammates. We'll have to wait and see if that's true of Nemisz I guess.
TJ Brodie - Keeping with the OHL, TJ Brodie has probably been the most pleasant surprise out of all the Flames prospects so far. The mid-rounder has 5 goals and 25 points through just 20 games, placing him 5th in the league in terms of scoring by defensemen (despite playing 7 or 8 games less than everyone else due to a minor injury).
Brodie was another kid that really stood out to me during the rookie tournament. His speed and poise with the puck were note-worthy and it looks like he's taking a big next step this year: to put his output in perspective, the Rangers first round pick Michael Del Zotto (drafted specifically for his offensive ability) is currently 7th in the league with 23 points in 23 games. Good stuff.
John Negrin - Darryl Sutter's favorite draft choice started out slowly but has been gaining momentum recently. He's managed 3 goals and 19 points through 28 games so far, which is pretty much right in line with his output from last season.
I was expecting a step-forward from Negrin this year, so Im a little disappointed to see him treading water. Im unsure as to the quality of his team (although they seem middling by the numbers) which may have something to do with his relatively ordinary performance.
Negrin will be 20 this March and should be dominating a league with so many teenagers, especially if he has NHL aspirations. He might be doing just that even now, but it isn't showing up in his stats.
Mikael Backlund - As you can guess, info on Backlund is spotty. According to Elite Prospects, Backlund has just 4 goals and 7 points through 14 games, which is really shrug-worthy production from someone so highly touted. It's somewhat worrying to see Backlund struggle (by the numbers, at least) after his colossal face-plant during the pre-season. Some expected him to step up and take the place of the departed Patrik Berglund, who tore the place up as a 19 year old last season, but that hasn't happened. The only good news I guess is there is lots of time left for him to turn things around.
