Meet the Heat – Jon Gillies
While the roster is far from set, we’re running a new feature giving you, the fans, an opportunity to get to know players that we could see suiting up for Stockton this season or in future seasons.
Today we feature goaltender Jon Gillies.
If you attended the meet and greet at the University Plaza Waterfront Hotel, you may have heard one of the few players that was actually name dropped by boss Brian Burke.
Probably because Gillies is an exciting prospect that has put up great stats wherever he’s played, and that he will be patrolling the crease in pros for the first time this season!
The 6’5″, 216lb. goaltender began his amateur career in the USHL with the Indiana Ice initially as a backup, but when a backup putts up a 15-6-2 record with a 2.82 goals-against-average and a .906 save-percentage, he’ll easily start to turn heads. The following season, Gillies time in the USHL increased from 25 games to 53 games where he led the Ice to another postseason berth, going 31-11-9 during his first full season in the 2011-12 campaign.
That year was Gillies draft year, where he ranked sixth among North American goalies in Central Scouting’s final rankings. The goalie would be picked up by the Flames in the third round of the 2012 NHL Entry Draft, 75th overall.
The following season, Gillies transitioned to the NCAA starting as a Freshman at Providence College. He played the last three seasons in Providence, earning a host of recognitions during his career, including being named as a freshman to the NCAA East Second All-American Team, Hockey East’s All-Rookie Team, First All-Star Team and Rookie of the Year. He was also named NCAA New England’s Rookie of the Year and to the Division 1 All-Star Team.
Most recently Gillies is coming off of arguably his best season, seeing as he won the NCAA Championship with Providence in 2014-15 and was named the tournament’s MVP.
Gillies also found himself named to the NCAA’s All-Tournament Team, was recognized as NCAA East’s Second All-American Team and again named to New England’s Division 1 All-Star Team. The honors didn’t stop there as he was named to Hockey East’s First All-Star Team and Hockey East’s Goalie of the Year.
Apart from winning the NCAA title, Gillies played a NCAA high 39 games, had a NCAA high of 24 wins, and established a career numbers with a 2.01 goals-against-average. He’s also just been very consistent over the course of his amateur career, posting a save-percentage of .931, .931 and .930 during his NCAA career.
Now could we see him in Stockton? The answer is yes. Gillies accomplished all that he could at the amateur level (did we mention he also won a gold medal with Team USA during the World Junior Championships), and now looks to continue at the pro level.
Now the bad news for goalies is that there’s a bit of a logjam when it comes to the Flames goalie situation. Calgary currently has Jonas Hiller and Karri Ramo (who backstopped the team to the playoffs last year) signed through this season, as they also do for Joni Ortio who could be on the bubble this year between the NHL and AHL. They are all excellent options between the pipes which makes Brad Treliving and Company’s job that much harder to find out where every goaltender will play.
Barring a trade, the Flames have at least three NHL-caliber goaltenders and could find themselves with four if Gillies continues to rise to the occasion, as he’s proven throughout his career. Of course that’s not necessarily a bad thing to have!
