Should the Calgary Flames sign Lucas Feuk?

The Calgary Flames have until June 1 to make some decisions on a handful of previously-selected draft choices. With those decisions still looming, we thought it was time to review the players the club still needs to commit entry-level contracts to… or let them walk away.

First up, Lucas Feuk.

The rundown

The Flames’ fourth-round selection in 2019, Feuk is a 22-year-old winger/centre from Stockholm, Sweden.

Feuk was selected 116th in 2019 by the Flames after spending the 2018-19 season with Södertälje SK, split between their J20 SuperElit junior team and their HockeyAllsvenskan pro team – he scored at a point-per-game pace in junior that season.

But since then, Feuk just hasn’t been able to translate his junior success to pro. After 43 points in 42 games in his draft year, he had 27 points in 23 games in 2019-20 and 10 points in 8 games in 2020-21. His preferred style of play and skillset worked really well in Sweden’s junior circuit.

But as a pro? Not as much. Here’s how he’s fared in Sweden’s secondary league, the Allsvenskan:

• 2018-19: 0 points in 5 games (in his 17-year-old season and a limited role)
• 2019-20: 2 points in 19 games (in his 18-year-old season and a limited role)
• 2020-21: 1 point in 14 games (in his 19-year-old season and a limited role)
• 2021-22: 2 points in 10 games (in his 20-year-old season)

All-in, Feuk’s amassed just 5 points in 58 games in Sweden’s secondary league. He spent much of the 2020-21 and 2021-22 seasons in Sweden’s third tier, HockeyEttan, where he had 45 points in 50 games. He’s been good in Sweden’s third tier, but the third tier hasn’t been a place that has produced much, if any, NHL players. Heck, the HockeyEttan rarely produces AHL players.

Feuk came over to North America for 2022-23, spending the season on an AHL contract with the Calgary Wranglers. However, he spent the entire season with the ECHL’s Rapid City Rush, where he had 12 points in 45 games – due to performance and due to the Wranglers’ depth at forward, Feuk never got a call up to the AHL.

The numbers

In NHLe terms – converting point production in other leagues into an equivalent to estimate NHL scoring potential – Feuk (a) hasn’t shown a ton of year-to-year progression and (b) hasn’t really put up impressive numbers, particularly at the pro level.

The verdict

If we’re being completely honest here, how Swedish hockey treats young players – especially NHL-drafted players – is both weird and logical. In the Swedish system, teenagers do play pro hockey, but most of the time they play in depth roles and work their way up the lineup as they mature. And NHL-drafted players sometimes don’t move up as quickly, because it doesn’t make a lot of sense for Swedish teams to prioritize the development of players that might be bolting to North American hockey in a year or two. This is our way of saying that point production, especially for young Swedish pros, can be an unfair barometer of a player’s quality.

But point production in North American hockey is probably a reasonable metric to look at. And in his one season in the ECHL, the third tier of North American pro hockey, Feuk simply hasn’t moved the needle enough offensively to really merit serious consideration for an entry-level deal.