February Prospect Check-In

The Flames are garbage. It's been an uncomfortable truth since the start of the season, but now management has acknowledged this and decided to rebuild and restock. It's not all that bad, they did get some good pieces this trade deadline. So without further ado...

Make sure you check out January's check-in here

Stockton Heat

The Heat only have 21 games left on their schedule, and have to make every last one of them count in order to make the playoffs. They're six points out of a playoff spot with at least three less games played than anyone else in the Western Conference. With a few key players - namely, Derek Grant- out with injury, they'll have to rally to extend their season.

As always, make sure to check out Ed's constantly great coverage of the team here.

Brief read-up on NHLe is available here. Rob Vollman's translation factors are here. For the AHL, the factor is 0.48. (X) means recall

Player Spotlight:

Hunter Shinkaruk, upon joining the team, immediately became the leading scorer. That lasted for all of two games before Kenny Agostino took the throne. Shinkaruk's numbers, while including tons of powerplay goals, are nothing to scoff at for now. He could get a look at the end of this dismal season.

Promising:

• And so should Agostino for that matter. The man has been working his ass off in the AHL for the past few season, and should probably get another look before he hits the RFA market again.
• Ditto for Freddie Hamilton.
• Surprisingly, out of all these exceptional performances, Hathaway got the recall. He has been heating up the past few weeks, but Hathaway hasn't matched the performances of others. Perhaps the Heat want to keep their top scorers down so they can make the playoffs, but it's disappointing not to see other talent in the NHL.

Concerning:

• 1st round pick Morgan Klimchuk may finish his first professional hockey season in the single digits for points.

CHL

OHL translation factor is 0.33, while QMJHL and WHL factors are both 0.27

Player Spotlight:

Well guess what it's Brett Pollock. The Flames added the Oil Kings' top scorer yesterday, and he's already showing some good potential. He's not going to be as high scoring as Mangiapane, but he's going to be solid in the future. I can't wait for that duo to light some fires in the AHL next season.

Promising

• Mangiapane missed eight games with a suspension and is still on pace to hit 100 points. The kid is nuts
• All Flames prospects in the CHL are guaranteed playoff hockey, except for Pollock's Oil Kings, but they're sitting pretty in eighth in the Eastern Conference.

Concerning

• I guess everyone else fell on the NHLe month-to-month scale. Not what you'd like to see.

NCAA

NCAA translation factors are here. DeBlouw plays in the Big Ten, Harrison in the ECAC, and Jankowski, Gilmour, and Hickey in the Hockey East

NCAA	GP	G	A	P	NHLe	Month-to-Month
Matt DeBlouw	23	6	5	11	13.73	0.97
Tim Harrison	33	7	9	16	9.14	2.61
Mark Jankowski	34	15	23	38	33.91	2.4
John Gilmour	30	9	14	23	23.26	1.42
Brandon Hickey	31	5	3	8	7.83	-1.02

• It's just about playoff time for the NCAA schools, first starting with conference tournaments (just a note, even if they lose in the conference tournament, that does not exclude them from the Final Four). Jankowski and Gilmour's Providence Friars shared a piece of the Hockey East Championship, while Hickey's Boston University Terriers sit in fourth. DeBlouw's MSU Spartans haven't had their season end just yet, but are fifth in the six-team Big Ten, and are likely outsiders for that tournament. Harrison and Colgate finished 10th in the ECAC. Not looking good on that front.
• Jankowski finished off the season nicely, allowing us to continue the debate about whether or not he is an NHLer. I'm still saying the Flames shouldn't sign him, mostly based on roster issues. There are already three definite NHL centres ahead of him, and plenty more in the depths of the AHL. Again, why not continue to rack up the second round picks?
• Brandon Hickey has been a massive disappointment this season. Maybe he misses Jack Eichel, maybe he's just having an off year, maybe he'll step it back up in the playoffs. Either way, you expected more and got much less.

Europe

Europe	League	GP	G	A	P	NHLe	Month-to-Month
Adam Ollas-Mattsson	SHL	22	1	3	4	8.5	0
Rushan Rafikov	KHL	33	0	2	2	3.98	-0.27
	VHL	4	0	1	1	N/A	N/A
	MHL	3	0	0	0	0	0

• No change on this front. Ollas-Mattsson is still out with the injury sustained during the WJC. Unfortunate, considering the steps forward he took this year.
  
• The KHL is in the midst of their playoffs, but either Rafikov is not playing in those games, he is injured, or no one is tracking the stats. Either way, his team is a game away from elimination. Toodles.

Goalies

Goalies	League	Record	GP	SV%	GAA
Jon Gilles	AHL	2-3-1	7	0.92	2.31
Joni Ortio (X)	AHL	9-9-0	20	0.893	3.36
Kevin Poulin	AHL	10-5-1	18	0.919	2.63
Mason McDonald	QMJHL	17-15-3	35	0.896	3.46
Nick Schneider	WHL	15-23-1	41	0.898	3.64

• This team is more willing to give the corpse of Niklas Backstrom a start rather than Kevin Poulin, who has been absolutely nuts this season. If goaltending is a severe issue, why won't the franchise look internally for a solution first?

Prospect of the month

To break the cycle of Barrie Colts and Derek Grant, I'm giving this month's award to Kenny Agostino, who continues to make a push for why he deserves a contract, and maybe an NHL spot, for next year. Sound off in the poll/comments below