'Hungry For More'

January 13 is a day that will live on in Rory Kerins’ mind forever.

He took his first strides - and earned his first two assists - as an NHLer, helping the Flames score a 5-2 win over the Blackhawks at the United Center in Chicago.

"I just remember the nerves, I remember the days leading up to the game and I remember all my family being there, and how cool it was to have them there and have a pretty special night in the first game,” he recalled. “I just remember feeling proud, and feeling hungry for more.”

That hunger is what’s driving Kerins to be better than ever before this coming season. The 23-year-old put pen to paper on a new one-year pact with the Flames, extending his stay in the Stampede City after the most successful - and most memorable - season of his young pro career.

“It’s awesome,” Kerins said of the new contract. “Obviously something that I wanted to get out of the way.

“It’s where I wanted to be, happy that they wanted me back. Just excited to keep going here, with Calgary.”

He’s already beaten the odds. A sixth-round pick in the 2020 NHL Draft, the product of Caledon, Ont. is one of only five players selected in his round five years ago to have suited up in an NHL contest.

He’s got five to his name, and that feeling of pulling on an NHL sweater - and hearing his name announced as part of a Flames goal - is something he wants to experience time and time again.

“For me, I never really had a family member or someone really close to me to tell me how it is,” Kerins said. “So that was kind of like my first taste of it; you’re not sure what it’s like but once you get there, it’s like, ‘Wow! This is cool, something pretty special and something I want to do for a long time.’”

It’s not just those NHL appearances that are driving Kerins to push harder this summer. He potted a career-high 33 goals last season, leading the AHL’s Calgary Wranglers with 62 points, all while earning his first AHL All-Star appearance this past February in California.

One of the people he’s leaned on for tutelage - former Wranglers bench boss and current Flames assistant Trent Cull - just happens to be in his corner, behind the big club’s bench now, too.

“He improved me as a player a lot, he taught me a lot on both sides of the puck and how to be an everyday AHLer,” Kerins said. “I give him a lot of credit for giving me an opportunity to show what I can do at that level, and ultimately get that shot in the NHL.”

Kerins plans on spending the rest of the summer at home, skating with a pro group in Toronto that includes Flames centreman Morgan Frost.

But come early September, he’ll be back in Alberta with an eye on cracking the Flames opening-night roster.

To keep living out that dream, in front of the roar of the C of Red.

“This is gonna be one of my first training camps where - I guess you could say - I’m sniffing for the big club,” said Kerins. “It’s just something that I’m excited for, I’ve just gotta stay focused on what (my) job is right now: getting faster, getting stronger.

“When the time comes, I’ll be ready for camp and then, we’ll see how it shakes out.”