CALGARY \u2014 There aren\u2019t many better ways to serve notice you feel ready for an NHL roster spot than by scoring twice and ringing a beauty off the post.<\/p>\n
Aydar Suniev took a big step towards showing he may soon be capable of helping fill the team\u2019s scoring void with a pair of pre-season finishes Sunday night that had the 20-year-old Russian grinning.<\/p>\n
\u201cI was working on my shot all summer and I\u2019m glad it\u2019s paying off,\u201d said Suniev, following a 4-2 loss to open the Flames pre-season schedule at the Dome.<\/p>\n
\u201cFelt great. Too bad we lost.\u201d<\/p>\n
Suniev also happened to score the Flames only goal in last week\u2019s prospects game.<\/p>\n
\u201cThree goals so far and he\u2019s scored all three, so good on him,\u201d said coach Ryan Huska.<\/p>\n
\u201cHe can shoot a puck, and when he has opportunities it\u2019s nice to see him have success.<\/p>\n
\u201cEvery year that Suni has come back there\u2019s been a lot of growth in his game. That\u2019s what we\u2019re excited about. He\u2019s maturing both mentally and, for sure, physically as well.\u201d<\/p>\n
Selected in the third round of the 2023 draft after scoring 45 goals and 90 points in 50 games with the Penticton Vees, the 6-foot-2, 210-pounder with the world-class shot offers plenty of hope for an organization desperately in search of goal scorers.<\/p>\n
Suniev cut Seattle\u2019s 2-0 lead in half by converting a nifty feed from Sam Honzek in the slot to beat Philipp Grubauer with a quick release along the ice. He stepped across the blue line and rifled a shot in off Nikke Kokko\u2019s glove to tie the game 2-2 with 10 minutes left.<\/p>\n
Suniev spent two years at UMass-Amherst before spending last season with the Wranglers, where the bulk of his 16 goals came in the second half as the team put an emphasis on helping him learn the defensive side of the game.<\/p>\n
A look at a few other notable performances:<\/p>\n
The best player on the ice all night was a youngster who made a big splash in camp two autumns ago when the 2023 first-rounder led the pre-season in scoring, earning an opening-night gig in the bigs. Injuries ruined that season for him, and last season wasn\u2019t much better, as he missed the last five months due to shoulder surgery.<\/p>\n
But on this night he was involved at both ends of the ice, forcing turnovers, creating chances and eventually setting up Suniev\u2019s first with a brilliant interception and feed.<\/p>\n
The two seemed to have good chemistry when on the ice together, giving fans plenty of hope that the roster spot he\u2019s been penciled in for due to Jonathan Huberdeau\u2019s injury will likely be well-earned.<\/p>\n
\u201cHe was back like he hadn\u2019t missed a year,\u201d said Huska of the 6-foot-4, 186-pound lefty, who opened the night with a big hit that should give him confidence his shoulder woes are behind him.<\/p>\n
\u201cHe brings an element to our team we don\u2019t have a lot of \u2014 he\u2019s got size, but he\u2019s also got some real speed. And when he\u2019s on the ice he\u2019s noticeable not just for his ability to forecheck and put pressure on the opponents, but tonight he made some really good plays with the puck.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n
Parekh appeared to pick up right where he left off late last season with a confident stride and approach that had him wheeling all around the offensive zone, making great passes and attempting plenty of shots as he moved in from the point.<\/p>\n
By night\u2019s end he had 10 shot attempts, but only one got through.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Paired with Yan Kuznetsov all night, he also ran the first power-play unit where he had a particularly impressive 4-on-3 in which he, Suniev, Matvei Gridin and Rory Kerins snapped it around in impressive fashion before Suniev rang his shot off the post.<\/p>\n
Parekh\u2019s engagement level was high, as he took exception to a late shove from Nathan Villeneuve and responded with several shoves, prompting an official to break them up.<\/p>\n
The man they call Brew ran the second PP unit and looked comfortable in a young group.<\/p>\n
Some may have been surprised when he started camp in the second group, behind players like Joel Hanley and Brayden Pachal, but the coach said that had more to do with the fact it makes no sense to keep nine defenders in the first bunch.\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cThe goal is to play in the NHL every single day,\u201d said the 21-year-old, who played 34 games with the Flames last year and 34 with the Wranglers.<\/p>\n
\u201cObviously playing a little bit last year was good to see how everyone prepares and goes about things, and then obviously the feedback of what I need to work on in the summer was good.\u201d<\/p>\n
He worked on his skating, and Huska said he\u2019s noticed the difference.<\/p>\n
Just a few days after re-signing on a one-year deal with the team as an RFA, the 23-year-old made an early splash with a big hit on defenceman Ville Ottavainen along the boards. The officials didn\u2019t like it, and kicked him out of the game with an elbowing major, but not before Seattle’s John Hayden got a chance to try offering up a little payback with a fight that ended without consequence.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Too bad he only lasted five minutes, as the winger acquired from the Rangers last season for Jacob Battaglia had the best early scoring chance when he took a great feed from Honzek and was denied by the crossbar.<\/p>\n
\u201cFor the short time he was in the game, he had an impact,\u201d said Huska.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s too bad that he got tossed out because he was very noticeable \u2014 he drew a penalty, had a chance off the crossbar and had a big hit.\u201d<\/p>\n
As the only player in camp on a professional tryout, the 28-year-old son of former Flame Michael Nylander has just two games to show he\u2019s worthy of being offered a contract.<\/p>\n
On a team that will be desperately searching to find more goals this year, the thought was that Nylander might be able to help the team\u2019s power play, as he\u2019d scored 23 and 34 goals his last two years in the AHL.<\/p>\n
You can certainly see the skill and shiftiness, but it\u2019s hard to imagine this limited look would entice the team to eat up a roster spot otherwise destined for youngsters in the organization.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Nylander \u2013 Kerins \u2013 Gridin
Honzek \u2013 Jones \u2013 Hunt
Stromgren \u2013 Gross \u2013 Basha
Othmann \u2013 Castagna \u2013 Suniev<\/p>\n
Hanley \u2013 Pachal
Kuznetsov \u2013 Parekh
Wiebe \u2013 Brzustewicz<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"CALGARY \u2014 There aren\u2019t many better ways to serve notice you feel ready for an NHL roster spot…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":899692,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[556],"tags":[64,63,575,85],"class_list":["post-899691","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-nhl","tag-au","tag-australia","tag-nhl","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/899691","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=899691"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/899691\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/899692"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=899691"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=899691"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=899691"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}