Saturday was a very good day for the Calgary Flames.
Yes, they beat the powerhouse Winnipeg Jets 3-1 on the road and earned two points that kept them in the driver’s seat for the Western Conference’s second wild card spot.
But if you’re one of those people who finds themselves more excited by the future than the present — regardless of whether you’re calling for a full rebuild — you looked around the hockey world and saw some awfully encouraging performances from the youngsters in the Flames organization.
Here’s a quick rundown of how some of the youngsters on the current Flames roster and in their prospect pool impressed this weekend:
Wolf’s heroics
It’s getting to the point where we’re running out of superlatives to use for Dustin Wolf.
Among NHL goaltenders who have played 25 games or more, only Logan Thompson, Mackenzie Blackwood and Connor Hellebuyck have a better save percentage than the .917 that Wolf has posted.
He’s 16-7-2 with a 2.50 goals-against-average and has essentially won the Flames’ starting job, although we’re still expecting Dan Vladar to get lots of starts down the stretch.
Against the Jets on Saturday night, Wolf was as good as he’s ever been. He stopped 38-of-39 shots, including at least a half-dozen excellent opportunities from the Western Conference’s top team.
The 23-year-old is no longer the goalie of the future for the Flames. The future is now.
Parekh’s big night
If there was any sense that Zayne Parekh wasn’t quite at the level he was last year earlier in the 2024-25 OHL season, those concerns seem pretty unfounded as we sit here today.
Against the Guelph Storm on Saturday, the Saginaw Spirit defenceman scored a hat trick and added two assists. He’s now recorded eight points in the Spirit’s last three games and is tied for the third-most points among defencemen in the OHL. At the pace he’s on, he might catch fellow Flames prospect Henry Mews for the league lead among blueliners before long.
With his fourth point on Saturday night, an assist to Michael Misa, Parekh became the Spirit’s all-time leader in points by a defenceman, with 183.
Maybe by his own standards, the Flames’ first-round pick, ninth overall, in the 2024 NHL Draft had a bit of a slower start. But he’s making up for it in a big way recently.
Brzustewicz’s big moment
With 11 seconds left in the game and the Calgary Wranglers trailing the San Diego Gulls 5-4, Jeremie Poirier fired a shot on net. The rebound bounced to the stick of Hunter Brzustewicz, and the blueliner made no mistake firing it home and sending the game to overtime.
It was a big moment for Brzustewicz, who was acquired by the Flames in the deal that sent Elias Lindholm to the Vancouver Canucks a year ago.
The 20-year-old has been adjusting to life as a pro, and while he hasn’t carried his eye-popping numbers from junior into his first season in the AHL, that’s to be expected.
There’s been real, tangible improvement in his game as the season has worn on, and scoring a huge goal in a come-from-behind 6-5 overtime win should do wonders for his confidence.
It’s worth noting, too, that after taking 24 games to score his first AHL goal, Brzustewicz now has two in his last two games.
Coronato coming into his own
Matt Coronato’s early-season demotion to the AHL was always going to be temporary.
But since getting called back up by the Flames, he’s quickly emerged as one of the team’s most important players.
He scored the opening goal with a beautiful one-timer against the Jets on Saturday night, and it was just his latest big-moment contribution.
Looking for proof of how good Coronato has been?
So far in 2024-25, he’s leading the Flames in plus/minus, at +11. He’s third in goals, with 11, behind only Nazem Kadri and Jonathan Huberdeau. He’s also fourth in points, with 24, and third in points-per-game, at 0.60.
At only 22 years old, the Flames’ first-round pick, 13th overall, in the 2021 NHL Draft has already established himself as a useful piece of the team’s puzzle.
Late picks thriving
With his assist on Coronato’s opener on Saturday night, Rory Kerins recorded his fourth assist in four games.
The 22-year-old is an amazing story. A guy who was essentially an afterthought during training camp but put up numbers you couldn’t ignore with the Wranglers and forced his way into the conversation for the Flames when Connor Zary got hurt.
The Flames needed a centre, and Kerins has answered the call.
Remember that he was a sixth-round pick, 174th overall, in the 2020 NHL Draft.
That got us thinking about some of the Flames’ later-round picks from last year, and Luke Misa, in particular.
The Flames picked Misa in the fifth round, 150th overall, last June, and he’s having a phenomenal year.
As of Sunday morning, the Brampton Steelheads forward is 10th in OHL scoring, with 24 goals and 33 assists in 41 games. On Saturday against the Kitchener Rangers, he scored a hat trick and added an assist, too.
You can’t help but look at those numbers and wonder if the Flames might have hit a home run with their fifth-round pick.