Article: Irving Understands Perseverance

[thymebalm]

From TheAHL.com

At six feet tall and 23 years old, Calgary Flames prospect Leland Irving of the Abbotsford Heat is neither the biggest nor the youngest goaltender in the American Hockey League. But he’s quickly becoming one of the best.

Irving credits the Calgary Flames organization with creating an effective development system for him to grow into.

“[The Calgary coaches] have taken care of pretty much all aspects of a hockey player,” he said. “As a goaltender, I’ve got a goalie coach down there working with me as well. They’ve done a great job at providing a good support system for us.”

It hasn’t always been so easy for Irving to thrive. As a seven-year-old in his hometown of Swan Hills, Alta., he was diagnosed with rhabdomyosarcoma, a rare childhood cancer. After undergoing more than a year of chemotherapy, he beat the often-fatal disease.

Great read on one of our best prospects.

[Canada 02]

glad he's happy with the organization. IIRC, prior to signing this summer, he contemplated leaving the Flames for Europe

[Husky]

Hes going to be the Flames future goalie. I can see the Flames trading away Karlson or Kipper...most likely Hank unless the a deal comes up the Flames cant refuse for Kipper. That way Leland can get a year or two from Kipper to learn from.

[getbak]

A couple of years ago, I was worried that he was going to be yet another bust first rounder, but he's really elevated his game the last couple of seasons. Hopefully he can translate that to the NHL game.

If he can keep up his performance for another 3 months (and the Flames continue their performance), I think Feaster might have to look at shopping around Kipper at the deadline.


Also, I have to say that the Flames poor performance has been softened a bit by the fact that so many of the prospects (and the entire Heat team) are having great seasons so far.