WA-WJC-WhatWentWrongForCanada The Calgary Flames promoted the AHL's leading goal scorer, Rory Kerins, from the Calgary Wranglers to the NHL. On Friday, the 22-year-old was skating with the Flames at practice and could make his NHL debut against the Los Angeles Kings on Saturday night. It's been an exciting week for Kerins, who the Flames drafted in the seventh round (174th overall) at the 2020 Draft. On Wednesday, he learned he was named to the Pacific Division team for the upcoming AHL All-Star Classic in February. In addition to leading the Wranglers with 34 points in 34 games, Kerins is the AHL's second-leading scorer. Here are five things to know about the latest prospect to get called up by the Flames. SCORED FIRST PROFESSIONAL HAT TRICK IN OCTOBER Kerins kicked off his spectacular 2024-25 campaign by scoring his first professional hat trick in the Wranglers' third game of the season on Oct. 16, 2024. In Calgary's 3-1 win at Coachella Valley, Kerins scored all three goals and was the game's first star. [embed]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NmLk1hQkX0E[/embed] It was his first hat trick since the 2021-22 season when he had a six-point night for the Soo Greyhounds on Oct. 22, 2021, in an 8-5 win over the North Bay Battalion. Thus far, in 34 games, Kerin already has five multi-goal games for the Wranglers while pacing the AHL with 21 goals. KERINS COULD BE THE FOURTH NHL PLAYER FROM CALEDONIA, ON Caledon, short for Caledonia, is a small town in the Greater Toronto Area in Ontario with a population of roughly 76,000. If and when he makes Kerins NHL debut, he'll become the fourth player from the community to skate in the league. According to Hockey Reference, Kerins could join Andrew Campbell, Taylor Raddysh, and former Flames netminder Cam Talbot as the only players from Caledonia to skate in the NHL. FINISHED SECOND IN OHL SCORING IN 2021-22 During Kerins' final season in the OHL, 2021-22, he scored a personal best 118 points in 67 games to finish second in league scoring behind Wyatt Johnston of the Windsor Spitfires. That year, Kerins was one of six players to surpass 100 points, including Lucas Edmonds (113), Luke Evangelista (111), Brandon Cole (101), and Logan Morrison (100). [embed]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=C2Qb3LegRtc[/embed] Interestingly, Kerins is waiting for his NHL debut, while others from that year's OHL scoring race, such as Shane Wright (Seattle), Will Cuylle (New York), Brandt Clarke (Los Angeles), and Matthew Poitras (Boston), are already in the league. BROTHER LIAM WON NCAA (AHA) TITLE Kerins is 22 years old and an NHL prospect skating in the AHL. His older brother, Liam, is eight years older and took a different path to pro hockey, playing in the SPHL and France. Undrafted, Liam played with the North York Rangers in the OJHL before skating with Rochester Institute of Technology, where he won an NCAA (AHA) championship in 2016 and was named to the NCAA (AHA) All-Tournament Team. Following his college days, Liam played with three teams in the SPHL, winning a league championship in 2019 while getting a chance to skate 15 games with the Brampton Beast in the ECHL. He retired after the 2019-20 season, during which he played 23 games with Cergy-Pontoise in the France2 league. ONE OF THREE FORWARDS DRAFTED BY FLAMES IN 2020 The Flames had eight picks in the 2020 Draft, selecting Kerins with their seventh pick in the sixth round, 174th overall. Surprisingly, he was only one of three forwards Calgary chose in that year's draft class behind Connor Zary (1st Rd. 24th) and Ryan Francis (5th Rd. 143rd). [embed]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dlo1atJEB_U[/embed] The rest of the Flames picks were either defensemen or goalies, which included Yan Kuznetsov (2nd Rd. 50th), Jeremie Poirier (3rd Rd. 72nd), Jake Boltman (3rd Rd. 80th), goalie Danill Chechelev (4th Rd. 96th), and Ilya Solovyov (7th Rd. 205th). So far, only Zary (103 games), Kuznetsov (one game), and Solovyov (ten games) have skated in the NHL, with Kerins on the cusp of becoming number four. Image [https://thehockeynews.com/.image/c_fit,h_600,w_600/MjExNDI4NzY0NzEyNzA3MjMx/thncgybanner-bookmark.png]
