'NEVER SATISFIED'

The pack Dustin Wolf finds himself in keeps getting smaller, and that's just fine with him.
Wolf, the puck-stopping Flames prospect who has backstopped the Stockton Heat this year while carrying the lion's share of work between the pipes, seems to reach rarer and rarer air every time he takes the ice.
League recognition? That box got checked with a December monthly honor. Team record for wins? That was gone before Super Bowl Sunday. Lately, there have been greater heights. Three appearances ago, Wolf became the first AHL rookie since current Nashville 'tender Juuse Saros to reach 29 wins in a season, with Saros racking up the victories back in 2015-16.

Last night, Wolf became just the fifth AHL rookie since Y2K to hit the 30-win plateau, joining Niklas Svedberg, Alex Stalock, Ondrej Pavelec and Pekka Rinne.
"It's pretty nice to see stuff like that," said Wolf, shrugging off another ho-hum historic achievement. "Each and every day you go out there and try to give the team a chance to win. Sometimes you're going to play really well and not get the results you want, but just every day you come in you have to try to get better.
"If you're doing your job stopping pucks and leaving the opportunity for your team to get two points, the results are going to come."
Wolf makes a habit of brushing aside praise as easily as an unscreened wrist shot from the blue-line. It's a testament to the 20-year-old to have tasted success but become only hungrier for more of it.
That competitive fire and intrinsic desire to reach his peak is something that Flames Senior Goaltending Coach Jordan Sigalet has noticed.
"The thing with Dustin is he's never satisfied," explained Sigalet. "You see some guys putting up the numbers he has, doing what he's doing, and they take their foot off the gas or are happy with what they've done to this point. He's so determined to get better."

The fuel? Sigalet points to some numbers that keep the burn bright and hot: 7-214, Wolf's draft position (round and number) in the 2019 class.
"Being drafted when he was, it lit a fire under him to prove people wrong. He wants to show that (teams that passed on him) made a mistake. He's always been overlooked because of his size. He's very humble, very focused. You see it every day in practice, see it in games and he's such a smart goalie.
"Our area scouts from when he was in junior just loved him. They looked past the size because they could tell how smart he was, how polished and efficient at a young age. He's just a winner. He's won at every level. You could see the drive, the focus, the competitiveness, the hockey sense. Those outweigh the size. To get Dustin, we didn't see it as much of a risk."
By now, there shouldn't be much surprise to see Wolf near the top of the charts in every relevant goalie metric in the AHL. All he's done at every level is succeed, so it shouldn't be a shock to see him continue to do his thing with the Flames' farm club.
As the saying goes, you are the company you keep. For Wolf, just take a look at the names whose numbers his rival, and it's tough not to marvel at what the youngster is already compiling on his C.V.
"There's always outside sources looking in, talking about what's going on, the numbers and statistics from the past and all of that stuff," Wolf said about outside expectations on him. "It's cool to see yourself among players who could be your peers in playing in the NHL and had a lot of success there. A guy like Saros who's similar to my stature, has earned a starting job, it's great. I just want to keep proving people wrong, show you don't have to be large to have success.
"I have high standards for myself and how I want to perform every day. I have an expectation of myself to be perfect, but that's not a reality."

Though that last sentence came with a chuckle, it's not like he's been far off from that standard of performance.
He's earned every bit of matching and surpassing Saros's rookie year numbers, a fitting milestone to keep track of for a pair of goalies with similar, diminutive builds but sky-high ceilings. The comparisons run beyond the measurables for Sigalet between Wolf and his Predators counterpart, with Saros coming up behind Rinne and now Wolf, early in his career, with a chance to perhaps do the same behind Jacob Markstrom.
From a distance, Sigalet will continue monitoring Wolf's progress, as has been the case all season. He saw Wolf play in person as the Heat battled in Abbotsford and he'll be in the building as Stockton skates through a three-games-in-four-days run against Henderson next week. For the most part, though, it's live streaming and game tape that helps Sigalet and the Flames learn more about what they have in the prodigious netminder.
He's assembled one of the most impressive debut campaigns among AHL netminders in the last two decades and is eyeing a divisional crown and deep playoff run in his first year with Stockton. For that to be the case with any pick, let alone a seventh-round selection, you won't hear any complaints. What you do hear is that the goalie who's overcome size everywhere he's been and helped teams compete for titles, the expectations just continue to build.
An underdog story? Not quite. This is just the natural progression of a blue-chip player proving he belongs.
"We've seen a NHL goalie in Dustin Wolf since the day we drafted him," said Sigalet. "That hasn't changed. Our thoughts have only gotten greater for him. It's impressive what he's doing, but like I said, he's never satisfied.
"He wants to be the best, and he's not going to stop until he's a starting goalie in the NHL."