Flames 2019 Top 25 Under 25: Best of the Rest

After a few days of voting, we have now set our order for the 2019 edition of the Flames Top 25 Under 25! I’d like to thank everybody who took the time to get their votes in to help us decide our order this year.

This year we changed it back to the format where each of our writers submitted their list, then the fan votes were tabulated into their own list and all were averaged together. For those curious the order of votes will go: MGMacGillivray, MarkParkinson14, MadelineCampbell, Gordie.Taylor, and the Reader Vote.

For today’s honorable mention article, we will give you players #37-26, with their each of the five votes listed as either N/A (outside Top 28), HM (honorable mention 26-28), or their vote in the top 25 if they had one.

With that in mind, here are the honorable mentions, and the rest.

The Rest

#37: C Josh Nodler

Voting: N/A, N/A, N/A, N/A, N/A

Last Year: N/A

As is usually the case with late round picks from the most recent draft, Nodler finds himself at the bottom of the current rankings. Can only go up from here. He had 42 points in 54 games with Fargo of the USHL last year and has commited to Michigan State University for next year.

#36: LW Lucas Feuk

Voting: N/A, N/A, #25, N/A, N/A

Last Year: N/A

Feuk falls into the same category as Nodler, but perhaps gets the edge for being drafted one round earlier. Feuk had 43 points in 43 games for the Sodertalje U20 team in Sweden. He’ll be a project as is often the case with late round picks.

#35: C Mitchell Mattson

Voting: N/A, #25, N/A, N/A, N/A

Last Year: #39

Mattson mostly moves up because the total number of eligible players went down this year. After being drafted in the 5th round in 2016, it’s looking like there’s not a lot there in the prospect. He had no points in 14 games with Michigan State last year.

#34: G Nick Schneider

Voting: N/A, #24, N/A, N/A, N/A

Last Year: T-#34

I’m somewhat surprised that Schneider didn’t rise at all off his #34 ranking last year after he had a pretty respectable first pro season split between Stockton and Kansas City. While he may be overshadowed by some of the other goalie prospects in the organization, you can never fully count out young goalies as evidenced by Jordan Binnington.

#33: C Linus Lindstrom

Voting: N/A, HM, HM, N/A, N/A

Last Year: #28 (Honorable Mention)

We didn’t hear much about Lindstrom last year, as he tallied just six points in 44 games with Skelleftea of the SHL. The Flames only have team control of him until June 1 2020, so he’ll need to turn some heads this year to remain with the organization.

#32: C Milos Roman

Voting: N/A, N/A, N/A, HM, #24

Last Year: #33

The fans seem to be a bit higher on Roman than the writers do after this past year. He had 60 points in 59 games for the Vancouver Giants (WHL) in the regular season, and had 12 points in the playoffs during their run to the WHL finals. Calgary will also need to decide on Roman in June 2020.

#31: D Carl-Johan Lerby

Voting: N/A, #23, #22, N/A, N/A

Last Year: N/A

The Flames signed Lerby after the end of the 2018-19 season, intending for him to be a long term project but also possibly add another Swede on the backend. Lerby will be returning to Sweden for the upcoming season to play for the Malmo Redhawks again. He had 21 points in 47 games for Malmo last year.

#30: D Rinat Valiev

Voting: N/A, #15, HM, N/A, N/A

Last Year: N/A

Valiev was acquired from Montreal in October as part of the Brett Kulak trade. He dressed in 57 games for Stockton, registering 21 points and even had a brief callup to the NHL but didn’t play for Calgary. They obviously liked him enough to qualify him as an RFA this summer and now we await his new deal.

#29: LW Filip Sveningsson

Voting: N/A, HM, #23, HM, N/A

Last Year: #32

Sveningsson had 27 points in 43 games for IK Oskarshamm of the Allsvenskan League, the second highest league in Sweden. While he’s still a ways away from any shot at making the Flames, he did take a good step forward this year and could find himself in Stockton the year after next as his development continues.

Honorable Mentions

#28: LW Justin Kirkland

Voting: N/A, #21, HM, N/A, HM

Last Year: N/A

Kirkland was signed by the Flames on July 2 after he put up 30 points in 75 games for the Milwaukee (AHL). He was originally a third round pick by the Predators, and should provide some depth for Stockton next season. He’ll be 23 at the start of the season, so the clock is starting to tick on him if he’ll be able to find his way into the NHL.

#27: C Ilya Nikolaev

Voting: #25, N/A, #24, HM, N/A

Last Year: N/A

Calgary’s return to Russia continued this offseason with the drafting of Nikolaev in the third round. Nikolaev had 25 points in 41 games for Loko Yaroslavl’s junior team in the MHL. He’s known to be a strong puck handler and have good hockey sense, but his skating still needs some work. He’ll be playing in Russia again for this upcoming season.

#26: C Luke Philp

Voting: N/A, #17, N/A, #23, HM

Last Year: N/A

The Flames signed Luke Philp to an entry level contract in March, as he wrapped his final year with the University of Alberta in CIS hockey. Philp will now aim to be one of very few that have taken this path to the NHL. If it seems familiar to you, Derek Ryan also played at UofA before going pro in Europe and eventually finding his way to the NHL. Philp had 45 points in 24 games last year and will look to make an impact in Stockton this year.

That’s it for the Best of the Rest. Join us on Monday when #25 is unveiled!