[sureLoss]

https://www.sportsnet.ca/nhl/article...ub-when-ready/

“For now, my focus is on winning a national championship at Harvard and I believe we have a strong chance to do it,” said the native of Greenlawn, N.Y., whose Ivy League squad just wrapped up its regular season with a 21-6-2 record.

“Once my season is over, my family, my advisers and I will listen to what Darryl Sutter and Brad Treliving have to say about where they see me fitting into the organization, and then make our decision about whether to sign.

“My intention remains to sign with the Calgary Flames when I’m ready, and I would find an opportunity to play in the NHL attractive.”

Flames assistant GM Craig Conroy went out east to watch and chat with Coronato last weekend, and Flames director of player development Ray Edwards is at almost every game the 20-year-old righty plays.

The Flames would obviously like Coronato to join the team for the final handful of games, see how he measures up as a pro and eliminate the risk of him returning to college for a third year, which would leave him a fourth year away from being a free agent.

“We love the player, we think he’s had great development over two years -- we’ll see what happens at the end of the year,” said Flames GM Brad Treliving, tip-toeing around a delicate issue, as expressing overt interest in signing him could be a distraction for the player and his Harvard program.

“We communicate with him regularly. We’ve been around him all year, lots of feedback for him.”

Coronato is certainly aware of the way Sutter handled young players like Matthew Phillips and Jakob Pelletier early on this season, which had many in the hockey world wondering if other prospects with potential options would shy away from Calgary.

“We paid attention to the Pelletier thing, but Sutter didn’t say anything about Matt Coronato or players like Matt Coronato,” said a person close to the situation.

“Matt is Matt. He’s very confident in himself and there’s lots of variables involved here.”