[MrMastodonFarm]

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Wednesday, September 14, 2016
Penticton 2016: Eight Intriguing Flames Prospects To Watch

2. C Mark Jankowski, No. 77

Drafted 50 months ago, Mark Jankowski is making his rookie tournament debut. Having freshly graduated from Providence College, he's finally a pro and is anxious to begin his first official season. He did get in eight games late last season with Stockton and the first impression was a good one scoring a couple goals.

Big, strong, skilled, good defensively -- as you have to be when playing for Nate Leaman at PC -- Jankowski has done a great job of hushing his critics and turning himself into a legitimate prospect. He's battled skeptics ever since Jay Feaster drafted him instead of Olli Maatta. Not helping either was the ex-GM touting him as the next Joe Nieuwendyk. He continues to take big strides and seeing him for the first time in Penticton will be fascinating.

6. G Tyler Parsons, No. 82

The plan in June at the draft was not to take a goalie that early. After all, there are a lot of goaltenders in the pipeline at the moment. But general manager Brad Treliving could not resist grabbing Tyler Parsons as the second goalie off the board when at pick No. 54, he was still out there. They thought he would have been long gone by then.

If last year taught us anything, you can never have too many goaltenders in a system in hopes that one or two will develop into solid homegrown options. The position is just so important. Fresh off Team USA's world junior camp, look for Parsons to make a statement this season -- and starting this weekend -- that don't forget about him. If you're Jon Gillies, take a look over your shoulder.

8. D Stepan Falkovsky, No. 80

Talk about an intriguing prospect. Selected in the seventh round in June, one should never expect much from a pick that late in a draft, but Stepan Falkovsky, a guy I've heard best described as "raw", does have quite the interesting resume. Playing for Ottawa (OHL) last season in his first year in North America, you know the kid can move bodies from the front of the net as he's listed at 6-foot-7 and 225 pounds. However, it seems those big mitts of his are unusually soft also. In his 58 games, he scored nine times and racked up 32 points. That's pretty good output.

Where Falkovsky will play this season remains uncertain. A return to Ottawa is not in the works. The 67s are set with their allowed number of import players and as a double-hit, Falkovsky would also tie up an overager spot. In asking about the big Belarusian this week, Treliving referred to him jokingly as "homeless" for now. He said there are a couple options the team is mulling over, one of which would be assigning him to Adirondack in the ECHL. While where he'll be in October remains TBD, where he'll be this weekend is in a Flames uniform and I'm interested to see him up close. I just don't want to make him angry