Which flames ex-prospect do you have a soft spot for?

[calgarywinning]

I would go with Sven as well. His Portland Winterhawk stats were off the charts. Then that end of season goal spree when they called him up.

[savardandjokinen]

Baertschi
Ortio
Horak
Corban Knight

[SebC]

Robert Dome

PPG season in the AHL, monster pre-season playing with Iginla, got one game with Flames.

[AC]

Originally Posted by SebC

Robert Dome

PPG season in the AHL, monster pre-season playing with Iginla, got one game with Flames.

In a similar vein: Carsen Germyn and Tomi Maki to a lesser extent.

[dammage79]

Markus Granlund. I had hoped his shot would be found by many of Johnny hockeys passes. He was my Brady Tkachuk and we got him. Too bad the depth chart pushed him off to Vancouver.

Ryan Howse. Had that shot every team wanted. Dude just flat out quit. too bad.

Rushan Rafikov. Still a Flames prospect I suppose but I had hoped he would make the jump after seeing him in the WJC's interesting D man.

Bill Arnold. Big RHS Natural C. Have no idea how or why he just up and retired from hockey after the Flames not signing him.

[zukes]

Andrei Trefilov. As a kid I always liked European and Russian goalies for some reason

[devo22]

Ryan Culkin. I had high hopes for him and felt he was a better prospect than Kulak. Had a fantastic start to his pro career (18 points in 37 AHL games), then sadly had his career derailed by a freak injury and a couple of other injuries.

[dustyanddaflames]

Mitch Wahl and Andrei Taratukhin. I remember someone on CP being closely tied to “Tuk” and relaying what was going on at the time he left NA. Was so wrapped up in that saga.

[the_only_turek_fan]

Marty Murray.

[EastCoastFlamesFan]

Emile Poirier - was shocked when we drafted him (really wanted to Shinkaruk or Theodore at the time) but quickly latched onto him during his first year in junior. Had a little bit of everything in his game and when he went to the A his first year I thought he'd be a mainstay for us for a long time. A lot of people were drooling over a Poirier - Bennett - Ferland line combo. Regardless, I wish him nothing but the best as maybe he just needed a change.

Corban Knight - I remember when we signed him from Florida (right?) there was a lot of hype around him. He had a pretty good first year in the AHL but sort of faded after that. A few cups of coffee around the league later and it turns out he's really nothing more than a AAAA type of player.

Ryan Culkin - Another kid from the Q that I had a soft spot for. Like a lot of us have said, he always seemed to be lumped with Kulak and I too thought Culkin was the better player. I still check his stats from time to time and it looks like he's been in the ECHL for a few years now.

Hunter Shinkaruk - As mentioned above, I really was hoping we'd draft him during that 2013 1st round. I think he was supposed to be a top 10 pick but then kept falling. When we traded for him a few years back I was super pumped and I believe he was still a pretty hyped up prospect at that time as well. Do we have something with him? Probably not, but would love to be proven wrong.

Someone else mentioned Andrei Trefilov here and funny story when I was a kid he was one of my favorite players as well. Random, right? I think I was fascinated that teams could carry more than 2 goalies and at the time was like the 3rd or 4th guy in the system (looking at you Jason Muzzatti). This was 1994 so my exposure to the Flames when I was living in Connecticut was limited to a random SportsCenter highlight and reading the Hockey News. Trefilov came in during the 94 season and posted back to back shutouts (one of them was against the Rangers too) and I was convinced he was our goalie of the future. I even sent him a card to be signed--never got it back though.

[Huntingwhale]

Originally Posted by MarkGio

Eric Roy. I thought he was a steal at the 5th round because he was projected early in his draft year to go in the first. He even put up solid numbers for the Wheat Kings. Not sure what happened.

I would love it if random prospects did a Reddit AMA

Was going to post this too. Even though he was a 5th rounder he was originally predicted to go in the 1st round, so I thought he was an absolute steal in the 5th. Thought for sure he would be a diamond in the rough. I was pretty disappointed when things didn't pan out.

[ToraToraTora]

I always liked Chuck Kobasew. Don't really know why, but that was around the time that I really started following the flames more than being a casual fan (as casual as a junior high kid could be).

There honestly weren't a lot of prospects around that time to feel excited about. Maybe Saprykin?

[Muta]

For me, it was three guys - Sergei Varlamov, Andrei Taratukhin and Robert Dome.

Three supremely talented players which, if any of them panned out, would have been of critical assistance to the Flames at those times.

[CliffFletcher]

Originally Posted by Jiri Hrdina

Back then I had a soft spot for those European players because they seemed new and fresh so the likes of Forslund, Vittakoski, and Varlamov always floated my boat.

Niklas Sundblad, the Swedish Wendel Clark.

[Buff]

Tim Sweeney. He scored 97 points in his first year on the farm team. Smallish but we had Fleury so I wasn't worried about small guys being able to make the team. I loved the Kid Line he was put on for a few games with Reichel and Matteau. Two other guys I was looking forward to seeing develop as Flames. I though Sweeney was going to be the best of the three. I guess not.

Cory Lyons. I saw a lot of him with the Lethbridge Hurricanes. The guy had a booming cannon. He kinda reminded me of Brett Hull. He could come down the wing and release that shot like no other. Unfortunately his skating and conditioning were nowhere near good enough to get him to the NHL. Lyons and Wes Walz were exciting duo here in Lethbridge. I was excited when the Flames acquired Walz.

Chris Dingman and Marty Murray. Linemates for Brandon. They always scored a lot on Lethbridge. Nobody could get the puck away from Dingman and Marty Murray was super slick. When they drafted them both in back to back years I was hopeful that they would play together on a line in Calgary for years to come.

Chuck Kobasew scored all those goals in pre-season and I thought we had another good goal scored in the system. He had decent wheels too. I used my last pick in my hockey pool every year on him because I was sure he was going to breakout. Got some autographed stuff from him because he golfed in the summers with my wife's co-workers brother in Kelowna.

[genetic_phreek]

Mitch Wahl for me. I always thought he would do well. He's feisty, a great skater, and has pretty good hands. Had the concussion in Abbotsford and was never able to get back on track.

[Gizmo]

Originally Posted by zukes

Andrei Trefilov. As a kid I always liked European and Russian goalies for some reason

I still remember him letting in arguably the worst goal I'd ever seen up close against the flyers. It was his first game as a flame as their goal crease was battered with injuries. We had gotten him in a trade with Chicago earlier in the day IIRC.

[Locke]

Mikkel Aagaard.

I thought he had what it takes to make the show...

[rumy]

Hnat Domenichelli. I always thought that since he and Iggy had success in Kamloops together, they could team up again and be great together as Flames... Only one of them did, obviously.

[Flames Fan, Ph.D.]

Originally Posted by zukes

Andrei Trefilov. As a kid I always liked European and Russian goalies for some reason

I was young so it was "exciting" to see a goalie that was so active and flopping around out there.

Now I realize goalies who remain with 5 metres of their crease tend to be better goalies...