Notes and quotes as Baby Flames wrap stint at Saddledome

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While the American Hockey League’s Stockton Heat — based at the Saddledome during this one-of-a-kind season — have now wrapped their northern exchange, the farmhands aren’t necessarily on vacation just yet.

With the Calgary Flames still in action for nearly three weeks, several of the obvious call-up candidates will stick around as potential reinforcements for the parent club.

Some will head home after exit interviews, while a few of the young’ns — mostly those on minor-league contracts — will join the ECHL’s Kansas City Mavericks for their stretch run.

The Heat, temporarily relocated this winter due to cross-border travel restrictions, capped their shortened slate with Thursday’s 2-1 overtime loss to the host Manitoba Moose.

The Flames’ farm team finished with an 11-17-2 mark in their 30-game campaign, although wins and losses are never the most important measure at the minor-league level. It’s all about grooming some of their promising prospects — the likes of Adam Ruzicka, Matthew Phillips, Emilio Pettersen and Connor Mackey — to eventually wear the Flaming C.

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“I think the big thing we accomplished was developing the players by playing games. That was the key component of this year,” said Flames assistant general manager Brad Pascall, who doubles as GM for the Heat. “We didn’t want a year to go by where guys weren’t playing games, they were just practising and working out. We thought them playing games, even just playing 30 games as we did, was important for their development in their careers and as Flames prospects. So we felt that was the goal of the year — it was playing those 30 games, getting through without any issues, no delays, no COVID-19 outbreaks, nothing like that.

“I think we were successful in that way, of clicking mileage off and getting these guys more and more experience as pro hockey players. That was the goal, and we accomplished that.”

WHOLE LOTTA ‘ROZY’

Adam Ruzicka tied for top spot on Stockton’s scoring charts, although more than half of his offensive production came during a dynamite four-game stretch.

The 21-year-old centre made franchise history in late February/early March with a blistering run of back-to-back-to-back-to-back three-point outbursts. He totalled a team-high 11 goals and 10 assists in 28 outings.

Thanks to his 6-foot-4, 220-lb. frame and offensive flair, ‘Rozy’ is the most intriguing forward prospect in the Flames’ pipeline. As Pascall put it, “This is a player that we’re really excited about.”

Consistency has always been a talking point with Ruzicka — it’s the main reason that this skilled Slovak was still available in the fourth round of the 2017 NHL Draft — and although there were some lulls in his second professional campaign, he wasn’t as hot-or-cold as his numbers might indicate.

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“He’s developing the ability to be able to play consistently on both sides of the puck, more so than maybe the stat story tells,” praised Heat coach Cail MacLean, who leaned heavily on Ruzicka in all situations. “Adam realizes that, in order to play at the NHL level, to get his foot in the door, he has to be good in those other areas. He’s a big man who can make plays, but he also has to be reliable. He has to be strong on faceoffs. He has to be good in his own end. He has to be strong when it comes to that compete for the puck.

“And I think that he’s taken steps there. It’s not just him showing his strength when he has the puck. He’s showing his strength in terms of winning the puck, and that’s important for him because that’s exactly what he’s going to need to do at the next level in order just to get the looks and be able to show his skill.”

WHAT ABOUT PHILLIPS?

At 23, Matthew Phillips has probably given up on a growth spurt.

Despite his wee stature, the 5-foot-7, 155-lb. forward should loom large in any discussion about end-of-season auditions with the Flames.

Those who keep closest tabs on the Heat will tell you that the Calgary-raised right-winger — he’s known as ‘Bubba’ to some of his former teammates in the Bisons/Buffaloes AAA program — continues to make a convincing case for a chance to show his stuff on the biggest stage. If he was 6-foot-something, he’d already be an NHL regular.

Phillips notched eight goals and 13 assists during the truncated season, tying with Ruzicka for the team lead with 21 points. His stat-sheet included seven multi-point efforts, although he — just like every other farm-clubber — cooled off after a superb start.

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“There’s a guy that moves his feet all the time. He is always moving and always working,” MacLean said. “I think the real growth that we saw this year with Matt was that he took a forward step with his skating during the COVID-19 break and that allowed him to, I think, become a little more dynamic with the puck and his ability to find open space. Yeah, he can stickhandle in a phone-booth, but now his edges are such that he’s able to change direction even better than he could before and find a little more space.

“I think he has made some real positive strides with that skating improvement and made himself more of a threat offensively. He was always a sneaky, tenacious threat in terms of turning pucks over, but he’s now just more of a pure threat with the puck. I think that’s one of the big strides that he’s taken.”

Proof of his durability, Phillips was one of just three dudes to suit up for each of Stockton’s 30 games in 2021. Canmore’s Luke Philp — third on the team with 17 points — and defenceman Zac Leslie were the others.

AROUND THE BOARDS

The AHL formally announced Thursday that there will be no Calder Cup quest. The Heat were the last team to start this abbreviated season and the first to finish, a result of the manoeuvring necessary to squeeze them into the Canadian Division schedule on relatively short notice … Don’t forget about Martin Pospisil. The 21-year-old left-winger had piled up 11 points and 35 penalty minutes in 14 games with the Baby Flames before he was sidelined by a nasty knee-on-knee hit. Pospisil is actually recovering from two injuries since he had surgery on a nagging shoulder issue. (The knee, thankfully, did not require any under-the-knife repairs.) “I think he showed that he’s growing into a guy that can compete as a top-line player at this level, and we hadn’t gotten that far before,” MacLean said of Pospisil, who still has just 40 nights of pro experience. “We saw a young man who was growing over the course of a really tough season last year. But this year, we saw someone who has the ability to play with aggression and has size and can make plays. That is a good combo” … While the Heat staff have raved about the hospitality in Calgary, they didn’t have much success on Saddledome ice, with a woeful 2-8-1 record in their temporary home rink … Signed to an AHL-only deal, netminder Garret Sparks posted a solid stat-line — a 2.69 goals-against average and .913 save percentage — in Stockton’s crease. Sparks, 27, has experience at the big-league level and has become a valuable mentor to Flames’ goalie-of-the-future frontrunner Dustin Wolf, so it could make a ton of sense to bring him back on a two-way contract.

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OFF THE GLASS

Some of the prospects are now more familiar with the prairies. When Artyom Zagidulin was assigned to the minors shortly after his NHL debut, the puck-stopper drove from Calgary to meet the Heat in Winnipeg. If he had hopped a commercial flight, he would have needed a string of negative tests before he was allowed to re-enter the team cohort. Over the past week or so, forwards Byron Froese and Glenn Gawdin and blue-liner Connor Mackey made that same drive — except headed westbound — after being recalled to the taxi squad while the farm team was playing a five-game set in Manitoba … For those who didn’t have to spend 13 hours in a rental on the Trans-Canada Highway, there were some travel perks for the Heat in 2021. Since they were subject to the same pandemic protocols as the parent club, they crisscrossed the country by charter. “We flew on the same Air Canada jets that the Flames and Maple Leafs and Canadiens fly, so a pretty nice way to travel for those guys,” Pascall said. “Guys were pretty pumped. Some guys like (Alex) Petrovic have played in the NHL before, but for first-year guys and guys right out of junior, they’re like, ‘Wow, this is pretty good.’ They were probably thinking, ‘Hey, maybe I’ll work a little harder and I’ll get to do this all the time’ ” … Some figured that Gawdin would see significant time in Calgary this winter, but he was limited to five appearances in his only call-up. If the Seattle Kraken thinks he’s ready for full-time duties as a fourth-line centre, the 24-year-old centre could be an option in the expansion draft … The Heat should have an exciting cast of rookie arrivals in 2021-22, headlined by Jakob Pelletier, Connor Zary and Dustin Wolf. (Zary and Wolf impressed in early-season intros at the AHL level before returning to their junior squads.)

wgilbertson@postmedia.com

Twitter.com/WesGilbertson