Pardon the cliche, but Matvei Gridin looks like a completely different player than he did a year ago.

That’s said about a lot of players at NHL training camps, but it’s especially true of the 19-year-old. He’s bigger and stronger, yes, but a year spent putting up big points in the QMJHL seems to have catapulted his game to a new level.

Through two days of Calgary Flames prospects camp, he might just be the standout.

“Just his habits are so much better,” said Calgary Wranglers head coach Brett Sutter, who is overseeing the Flames’ prospects camp this week.

“Stopping, starting, doing all those pro-style details, they’ve been incredible. He had a good day of (fitness) testing, he’s in shape, he looks good.”

Even last year, there was no question Gridin could skate and that he had a nasty shot. He just needed a little more seasoning in junior, as many young players do.

Still, though, when he was cut near the end of camp and sent to the QMJHL to play out a season with the Shawinigan Cataractes – he’d previously played in the USHL – Flames head coach Ryan Huska had high praise for the young prospect.

“I almost envision him as a guy that’s going to go away, and he’s going to dominate in the [QMJHL],” Huska said. “He’s going to come back next year and be in a position to make our team. You have a sense about him. He’s got the ability to play the game.”

That speaks to how highly the Flames think of the young player they took in the first round, 28th overall, of the 2024 NHL Draft.
And Gridin received the message, loud and clear.

“I’m grateful for that, he said that and I felt I could do it and I did that in Shawinigan,” Gridin said Friday. “Maybe at the beginning of the season it was kind of tough for me, but when things started going well I felt like I was dominant.”

Gridin finished the season with the Cataractes with 36 goals and 43 assists in 79 games before putting up 17 points in 16 games in the playoffs.

Not bad for a guy who was adjusting to a new league and an environment where French – a language Gridin doesn’t speak – was the primary language around the rink.

The offensive numbers only tell us so much about Gridin’s potential, though. It’s not like there were questions about his ability to put up points. He’d scored 38 goals and put up 45 assists in 60 games with the Muskegon Lumberjacks the previous season in the USHL.

He could score, that wasn’t up for debate. It was the other areas of his game he needed to work on before he was ready to turn pro.
And it’s those areas that have impressed coaches so far at prospects camp.

“I think he focused really hard on his checking habits and details and defensive things and you know, he’s got that creativity and that offensive mindset to go for it,” Sutter said. “For those young guys, it’s always about rounding out your game and I think he’s made some big strides in that area.”

Where will those improvements land Gridin at the end of training camp? The goal is to make the Flames, of course, and it’s not out of the question.

Only a year ago, Sam Honzek was in the same position as Gridin is today and made the Flames’ opening night roster.

There aren’t any obvious roster spots available for a right-winger and it would take a truly exceptional camp for Gridin to put himself in real contention, though. The more likely path is he starts the season in the AHL with the Wranglers.

Dominate there, and who knows?

“The goal is to make the team but if I’m sent down to the AHL, that’s fine,” Gridin said. “I’ll grind hard and try to make the team.”

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