I have fired up my BigOl’JetAirliner to do a recon of each and every team the Winnipeg Jets will have to face in the upcoming campaign. When the wheels eventually touch back down in good ol’ River Heights, I hope to have a good idea of our competition’s key players/prospects, their strengths & weaknesses, and the overall depth of each franchise. To assist with that last topic, I opted to use the projected line ups provided by DailyFaceOff.com but since the visual display of the lines was better on PuckPedia, I ended up using that site to create the graphics included in the articles. Thanks to both of those helpful sites.
For the fourth installment of our series, I headed in the direction of western Canada and made sure to swap my fedora for a cowboy hat before I landed in southern Alberta. Switching my music list from The Rat Pack to My Country Mix, I hopped on a horse and headed to the arena with Tim McGraw blasting in my earbuds.
CALGARY FLAMES:
The Flames were hoping to remain competitive last season despite the threat of a bunch of pending UFAs possibly walking away in the off-season. But as the year progressed it became apparent that wasn’t in the cards. Thus, Elias Lindstrom was shipped off to the Vancouver Canucks, Chris Tanev sent to the Dallas Stars, and Noah Hanifan moved to the Vegas Golden Knights at the trade deadline. With that exodus of talent, Calgary limped to a tie for 10th worst record in the league (38-39-5). Not all that surprising considering the franchise was the 13th lowest scoring team with 253 goals for and allowed the 10th most goals against (271).
That poor result made off-season changes necessary as GM Craig Conroy shedded more veterans via trades, with forward Andrew Mangiapane (WSH) & goalie Jacob Markstrom (NJ) finding new homes. The team mostly received draft compensation or young prospects, but Calgary also picked up 24 yr old defenseman Kevin Bahl as part of the package for Markstrom. The 6’6″ 229 lb left-hander put up 11 pts & a 48 GF% in 81 games last season with the Devils and will get an opportunity to play a bigger role with the Flames. Management wasn’t done there as they brought in 6’5″ winger Anthony Mantha (44 pts in 74 gms b/w VEG/WSH) over the summer as well.
With the departure of Markstrom, the reins to the starting goaltender position appear to be in the hands of 23 yr old Dustin Wolf. The under-sized tender (6′) was selected in the 7th round of the 2019 NHL Entry Draft and has pretty much torn up the AHL through three seasons (.924/.932/.922 save %), so now is the time to see what he can do in the big league. Last year, young Wolf did get 17 NHL games under his belt, but the basic numbers weren’t exactly stellar (3.16 GAA/.893%).
I don’t think it is very clear if the Calgary Flames are going for a quick retool or an all-out rebuild, mainly because there are still a bunch of 30 yrs or older veterans on the squad like Nazem Kadri (75 pts), Mikael Backlund (39 pts), Jonathan Huberdeau (52 pts), Blake Coleman (54 pts), & MacKenzie Weeger (52 pts). Perhaps they plan to move on from those players at some point too, but since the Flames are only $3M above the NHL salary cap’s floor at this point they can’t shed a whole lot of money. With almost $20M to spend before the ceiling, the franchise could profit from other NHL teams needing to shed salary by acquiring more picks/prospects to help out whatever Conroy’s plan is. There are rumblings that some of the older players aren’t happy with the current situation, so how the Flames’ start the season will become a big factor in how things play out.
Calgary hasn’t given their young prospects much NHL icetime in recent history. If you took the time to look at the past 7 drafts, you would discover that 7th round selections Wolf & unsigned RFA Ilya Solovyov have played in 10 NHL contests. The other players to get in more than 1 game are Martin Pospisil (4th rd) & Connor Zary (1st rd) and they only made their NHL debuts last season, yet lead the team with 63 contests. On the positive side, management did add exciting defensive prospect Zayne Parekh (6′ RD) with 9th overall selection in 2024 draft. Parekh opened a lot of eyes last season with the Saginaw Spirit when the 18 yr old scored 33 goals and amassed 96 points in 66 OHL games. The young prospect will likely continue developing with Saginaw for another season before getting a legit shot at breaking into the NHL.
Lets take a look at a possible opening day roster for the Calgary Flames via PuckPedia’s graphic
Kadri is probably the only top six player who you could reasonably expect to be at the point per game pace based on their playing history. The 35 yr old Backlund scored like a top six center two seasons ago (56 pts), but his scoring last year was more in the elite third liner range (39 pts in 82 gms). Coleman set career highs last season (30 goals, 54 points), but can the 32 yr old repeat or will he return to being a 30-38 pt guy again? Huberdeau’s 115 pt season seems far off in the distance now, but was actually only two years ago. Unfortunately, his two seasons in Calgary have resulted in him averaging less than half that production (53 pts).
Zary is the Flames’ prospect with the best chance to do some damage in the top six this season. The 22 yr old lit up the AHL early last season (10 pts in 6 gms) before he got promoted to the NHL. The 24th selection of the 2020 draft did well with the chance by putting up solid numbers through 63 games with Calgary (34 pts, 60.6 GF%, & 52.6 CF%). New addition Mantha has always seemed like a guy who could put up more than 50 pts in a season, but he hasn’t actually been able to do that over his 8 NHL seasons (amassed 48 pts twice early on with Detroit)…if the 29 yr old remains in the top six, maybe he’ll do it this year?
There will be challengers though, since the 3rd line consists of some interesting players that could move into the top six. For one, Andrei Kuzmenko put up 46 pts in 72 games last season between the Canucks & Flames. The 28 yr old has a high upside too as proven by his 39 goal season with Vancouver and the Russian flirted with a point per game after the move to Calgary (25 pts in 29 gms). Yegor Sharangovich is another potential gem, the 26 yr old scored 30-46 pts/yr with NJ before being traded for Tyler Toffoli. Then went on to have a career season with the Flames (31 goals, 59 points), yet the goals for percentage wasn’t great when he was on the ice (39.8%).
The Calgary Flames’ defense does have a couple proven veterans who would be greatly coveted if they should become available. The 30 yr old Weegar is one of them, with a history of performing well offensively (43 to 81 pts) and only twice barely losing the Goals For battle over his 6 full NHL seasons. Another right handed defender that other teams would like to acquire is 27 yr old Rasmus Andersson, a 2-way player that provides offense (22 to 50 pts) and is difficult for opposing forwards to deal with. 24 yr old Bahl (LD) and 27 yr old Daniil Miromanov (RD) will give the Flames some size on the backend, with the 6’4″ Russian putting up 7 pts in 20 games & a 53.8 GF% after being acquired from Vegas.
I previously covered what expected starter Wolf brings to the table so lets look at what backup Dan Vladar has to offer. The 27 yr old Czech had a good debut season in 2021-22 (.906%), but since then the tender hasn’t reached that level again (.895/.882%)….not exactly the numbers you want from the guy backing up an inexperienced rookie.
PROBABLE FATE:
With a lot left undecided regarding the direction the Calgary Flames will take as the season plays out, my crystal ball is giving a couple potential outcomes for the franchise. Unfortunately for the team’s fans, neither ends with them suiting up for the playoffs.
If things go really well, then I could see the top 3 forward lines performing well enough offensively, even though Calgary might not have a NHL quality 1st line. The Flames’ top 4 defense has the potential to be tough to play against if Bahl & Miromanov can thrive with the increased responsibility. Wolf has done incredible things in the AHL, so he has the talent to quickly find his groove in his rookie campaign. Should these things occur, I could see the Albertan team being in the wildcard race late into the season, yet just falling short to their Western Conference rivals.
The more probable outcome is that Calgary hits some road bumps in the early season and a few of the top-end veteran talent start looking for a move (i.e. Kadri, Andersson, Weegar, etc). If this happens, then GM Conroy will probably have to switch to a more out-right rebuild and possibly look to jettison pending UFAs like Kuzmenko and Mantha at the trade deadline. At least this path leads to a potential top 5 to 10 overall selection in the 2025 NHL Entry Draft.
I wish I could end by saying the near future looks good for Calgary Flames fans…but from all appearances it seems they are just entering the country named Rebuild and it typically takes 5 to 8 years to drive to the other side.
UP NEXT: The Carolina Hurricanes…..
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