Music: {allcanada} Unknown farmhand Stefan Meyer continues to turn heads at Flames camp

Add Stefan Meyer (notes) to a shrinking list of prospects making waves during the Calgary Flames training camp.

The 25-year-old forward from Fox Valley, Sask., was recently moved back to centre to help alleviate the run of injuries to the club's top three pivots. He has excelled to the point where head coach Brent Sutter singled him out for praise following the club's fifth straight pre-season win Wednesday, a 3-2 decision over the New York Islanders.

"He's been a pretty good player for us," said Sutter, following Thursday afternoon's practice at the Pengrowth Saddledome. "One thing about Stefan, he's a great skater. He's got tenacity, some decent skills that go with that and does everything at a high speed.

"Certainly (Wednesday) he might have been our best player and the other game he played in he certainly was one of our top half-dozen or so guys. He just brings another element. We want to be an up-tempo, speed-type team, a game's that quick and responsible."

No one, perhaps outside of Sutter, knew what to expect of the six-foot-two, sixth-year pro originally drafted out of the Medicine Hat Tigers by the Florida Panthers in the second round of 2003.

He's been knocking around in the AHL with Rochester and San Antonio since graduating from the Western Hockey League in 2005, getting in just four games with Florida during the 2007-08 season. Few observers felt he was no more than competitive fill, a solid farmhand for Abbotsford.

But he's elbowed past that and, like rookie defenceman T.J. Brodie (notes), has become a bonafi de contender for a NHL job. At centre or otherwise.

He knows, however, there's still a long ways to go and some tough decisions to be made before the pre-season wraps up Sunday night at the Saddledome with a second straight game against the highfl ying and similarily unbeaten Edmonton Oilers.

"It's fun, a change I'm really familiar with," he said of the switch from left wing to centre. "It's a position I played when I was originally drafted and had a fairly successful junior career, so I hope to keep adapting, learning so I'm taking in everything I can.

"I've got my mouth shut and eyes and ears open. I've been taught from a lot of guys I've played with that's the way to go into camp. You have to try win the respect of the older guys and that's just what I'm trying to do."

Meyer's work was rewarded Wednesday when was elevated from a fourth line of rookies to centre veteran winger Curtis Glencross (notes). On Thursday he joined Glencross again along with off-season acquisition Tim Jackman (notes).

"There's a lot of western boys around here," he smiled. "We have a lot to talk about … the topic when we're away from the rink is when the crop's going to come off and stuff like that, so I'm enjoying my time here, learning a lot. It's just been a great experience."

While he scored his first goal Wednesday in a 3-2 win over the New York Islanders, he doesn't have the resume of a sniper. He had a career high 21 goals during the 07-08 season at Rochester and never scored more than

34 with the Tigers. He is a blue collar player who goes to the tough areas and gets there in a hurry. But Sutter knew that long ago. He did, after all, coach against Meyer for five years when he was handling the reins of his Red Deer Rebels.

"I've seen him play ever since he was in peewee hockey," said Sutter, "so I know what he's about as a player. We'll just have to see how things unfold over the next couple games, but he's a guy who certainly has fallen into the mix here and that's exciting for him, and also great for the organization to bring a player in like that. And he's proven and shown what he can do."

Meyer admits he can almost compare this camp to the one where he stuck around to the end and almost made the Panthers' starting roster in 2007-08.

"This is probably the most comfortable I've felt just because I've put the time in, was dedicated to what I had to do and now I just try to sit back and focus on the things I can control, hopefully get my name out there and put myself in a position where I'll do OK," he said.

"My main focus is just one day at a time, do the little things right and show them I'm an accountable person on and off the ice."

This And That: The Flames reduced their camp roster to 30 players with the reassignment of first round draft pick Greg Nemisz (notes) to Abbotsford. A second player, veteran defenceman Staffan Kronwall (notes), was placed on waivers for a second straight season … No. 1 centre Olli Jokinen (notes) and No. 2 line winger Rene Bourque (notes) were excused for "general maintenance." Jokinen is resting a pulled back muscle suffered in Saturday's game against Phoenix, while Bourque's maintenance is unspecified but is listed as day-to-day … Second line centre Matt Stajan (notes) (shoulder) did skating a shooting drills prior to practice.