I'd be remiss in my duties if I didn't start the post off with this video (s/t to Bucky's Fifth Quarter).

Ramage Hit On Oliver St Cloud @ Wisc (via firstandskol)

Big beautiful clean hit. Of course he got the 5 and a game.

Anyways, John Ramage, being a shutdown defenseman picked in the 4th round and playing in the NCAA, doesn't get nearly as much coverage as CHL players do, and in a way that's really too bad. So I reached out to Bucky's Fifth Quarter (SBN's UW-Madison blog) and asked Chuck Schwartz, the hockey editor if he could give me a scouting report. Here's what he had to say on the team captain.

Continue reading this post »

It's understandable that Flames fans are so protective of Sven Baertschi. He's the first "legitimate" prospect Calgary has had in ages. However, the reaction to a suggestion that Sven could be packaged with more for Jeff Carter was entirely hilarious.

What people often forget, is that while it's fine to get excited about and look forward to the future of young players with the team, prospects, at the end of the day, are still prospects. An NHL career is hardly a sure thing- remember Rob Schremp? 145 points in his last year in junior, and he's currently in the SEL after posting 20-34-54 in 114 games in the NHL between three teams.

Continue reading this post »

Jay Feaster continues to barter the deals and the Flames look like the early horse out of the gate this year closing a deal with Montreal and now Chicago.

I was a fan of Morrison last season. Pay for play I thought he was value. Despite this, I fully endorse this trade. Morrison was the odd man out of the Flames forward ranks, often getting scratched and the injection of yet another young player into the Flames D ranks bodes well.

More on Brian Connelly of the Chicago Blackhawks after the jump and a little future speculation on Feaster's potential additional trade moves coming up to the deadline.

Continue reading this post »

I have to admit being a little perturbed by SVEN's exclusion from the pre-season version of Hockey Prospectus' Top 25 prospects - or maybe just disappointed as Calgary Flames faithful (myself included) had been heaping loads of praise and expectations onto the young Swiss product, easily the Flames organizations top forward prospect.

However, after checking out the names, it would've been hard to actually include SVEN at that time as the list is actually quite impressive.

Today when I came across Corey Pronman's revised projection for mid-season, I was eager to see two things: 1) where did SVEN land, if at all? And, 2) where would he place incumbent #1 prospect Mikael Granlund this time after seeing him play several times at the World Junior tournament in Calgary?

Continue reading this post »

It's not too often we sit around getting mushy-eyed about a Flames prospect who's only just signed his Entry Level Contract, but this story by Vicki Hall of the Calgary Herald merits it.

The middle child born to a single mother, Michael grew up playing hockey with cousins Dustin and Darnell at the outdoor rink a couple blocks away from home.

In frigid Manitoba winters, Michael pulled a hockey sock over his face to prevent frost-bite in nightly games, which ran from the end of the school day until 9: 30 p.m. - with the occasional intermission for supper

No hockey schools. No top-of-the-line equipment. No power-skating lessons

Continue reading this post »

After watching last night's game from the press box and with David Moss returning from injury in short order, the Calgary Flames have sent Roman Horak west to join the AHL affiliate in Abbotsford.

According to Dan Kinvig via twitter, Horak will be wearing #20 for the Heat and will skate on a line tonight with Greg Nemisz and Paul Byron. That should make for a productive second line.

I was quite surprised to begin with that Flames management told Horak to find more permanent housing in Calgary because the fact of the matter is, the Flames have far too many forwards already up with one-way deals and it was a matter of time before he found himself watching from the press box like he did last night.

This is the right move, and the right time. He earned a spot on the team out of camp and deserved the opportunity to prove he belonged, but the fact is, the Flames are much better suited to have a Matt Stajan or a David Moss play that sort of defensive or energy role and let the kid go down to the minors to get more minutes. I'm sure they see him as a strong two-way prospect and his role in Calgary had diminished to the point where he wasn't exactly getting the opportunity to be that kind of player.

Good luck to Roman, he's a key prospect and will be an important part of the organization down the road.

This is probably one of my favorite articles to write. It's optimistic usually, allows me to praise some kids who may never play at the professional level, and I get to use fancy charts and such.

The columns contain basic info like team and league, as well as the equivalencies. The first three NHLE entries are the straight numbers--not prorated at all. In other words, if the 13 games Sven Bartschi is listed as playing were in the NHL, how many points he would score? The column "NHLE SEASON" is prorated for 82 games, a full NHL season. The final column is the difference between this month and last month, allowing us to see if they're improving or regressing on a month to month basis.

My comments and thoughts after the table. (As a quick note, the equivalencies I used are as follows (from BehindtheNet): SM-Liiga 0.54 (mistakenly written as, though not processed as, 0.65 last month), CHL 0.30, AHL 0.65, H-East 0.41; Gaudreau's equivalency for his season in the USHL last year is 0.27)

Table, notes, and comments are all after the jump.

Continue reading this post »

The Flames are currently last in the Northwest, second worst in the Western Conference, and fifth worst in the NHL overall. I don't bring this up revel in the joy of always being right, but rather to look at some of the positive things we have to look forward to- and with the release of Central Scouting's preliminary prospect rankings today, I can't think of a better thing to look forward to than the drafting of a high end prospect for the Flames.

So based on preliminary rankings, who could the Flames draft?

1. Martin Frk- RW QMJHL- Halifax Moosehead

With Yakupov, Grigorenko, and Galchenyuk all likely gone in the top three and Ryan Murray looking like a solid bet for #4 overall, the player with the vowelless last name is likely one of the best players available at forward. He hasn't played a game this season due to post-concussion symptoms (CSS claims he'll start playing again next month), but provided he is able to recover, the six foot winger could be an excellent prospect for the Calgary Flames.

Continue reading this post »