Not only did Matthew Coronato play against his childhood favourite NHL franchise for the first time, the 22-year-old Calgary Flames sophomore was in the starting lineup against the New York Islanders on Tuesday.
Suiting up alongside Blake Coleman and captain Mikael Backlund, Coronato was on the red line for the opening draw opposite Anders Lee, Bo Horvat and Jean-Gabriel Pageau.
From Greenlawn in Suffolk County on Long Island, Coronato grew up cheering for the Islanders, with defenceman Nick Leddy his favourite player at the time.
Coronato played for the Long Island Gulls U16 Triple-A team, using his lethal shot to pile up 19 goals and 43 points in 22 games before joining a prep school in Connecticut for the 2018-19 season.
“It’s definitely cool,” Coronato told reporters in Calgary after an optional morning skate. “It’s an exciting night for me. I grew up watching the Islanders all the time, so it’ll be fun to play against them.”
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From prep school, he was off to the USHL’s Chicago Steel, where he scored 66 goals and 125 points in 96 games over two seasons and caught the eye of Calgary Flames scouts with 48 goals and 85 points in a championship season.
Coronato heard his name called 13th overall in the 2021 NHL Draft that spring.
Harvard was next. Two nearly identical 36-point, 34-game seasons (one with 18 goals and one with 20). The Flames lured him over before his junior season and he made his NHL debut that spring — suiting up for a single game.
His trajectory since has been increasingly lofty
Last year, he earned a spot in the lineup on opening night had after a stellar training camp and pre-season. After 10 games, though, he was sent to the AHL’s Calgary Wranglers to work on some details. Coronato started to show serious improvement in March.
He stuck around again after camp this year and scored a pair in his second game, but was a numbers game victim and was sent to the Wranglers for two games (netting two goals) before getting back to the Flames lineup.
Coronato’s been one of the better Flames ever since, fitting in perfectly with Backlund and Coleman. Heading into his start against the hometown club, Coronato had five goals and seven points in 13 games.
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