Flames Top 25 Under 25: #14- Jon Gillies

#14: Jon Gillies

Position: G

Age: 24

Team: Stockton Heat (AHL)/Calgary Flames

Draft: 2012, Round 3 #75th Overall

Last Year: #7

Voting Points: 1704

Jon Gillies finds himself at #14 this year, which isn’t terrible, unless you consider the fact that he was #7 last season. Gillies is going to have a shot to be the backup to Mike Smith this coming season, but it’s not going to be handed to him. Gillies and David Rittich split the starters duties once Smith went down with an injury, but neither shined. Gillies went 3-5-1 last year and looked shaky at times. He has a penchant for giving up an early goal before settling in and that is something that he must work on if he plans on spending any time in the NHL for the long haul.

Calgary looks like they have faith in the 24 year old as they recently inked him to a new, 2 year deal. Mike Smith is only under contract for this season and a strong effort in training camp could/should give Gillies the push he needs to make the Flames NHL roster heading into 2018-19. If he doesn’t and gets beat out by Rittich? That means another trip back to Stockton and at that point you’d have to think it would be close to the end of the line for the goaltender and the team. But if you push all that negativity out of the way, David Rittich wasn’t exactly lights out last season and Calgary really needs to know if Gillies is the future or not.

Is Jon Gillies worthy of the #14 spot on the list? Vote in our poll below!