The Flames spent much of the 2023-24 season trading away veterans and getting younger. That continued this summer with the deals that moved on Jacob Markstrom and Andrew Mangiapane. Few experts have the Flames as a playoff contender, but their work in free-agency meant that they should at least be competitive on the ice this year while some of the prized young assets they’ve acquired recently continue to develop. It’s not a rebuild, exactly, but it’s not far off.
There’s an optimism surrounding the organization’s direction, though, and with good reason. The Flames have missed the playoffs for two years in a row and are likely to do so again this season, but young talent like Hunter Brzustewicz and Zayne Parekh should bolster the blue-line in coming seasons and the emergence of 2023 first-round draft pick Sam Honzek throughout pre-season means there’s a solid young core that will be playing day-to-day. If second-year emerging stars Connor Zary and Martin Pospisil take a step forward, the Flames should be fun to watch.
So no, we’re not expecting the Flames to be contending for the Cup this season, but the organization made the hard decision to start building from the ground up and it’s hard not to feel encouraged about the direction they’re heading.
Front office: B
Again, the Flames aren’t trying to contend for a Stanley Cup right now, so if you’re grading the front office based on how many wins-and-losses they pile up this season you’re out-to-lunch. The biggest piece of business that Flames GM Craig Conroy pulled off this summer was flipping starting goaltender Jacob Markstrom to the New Jersey Devils for young d-man Kevin Bahl and a first-round pick in the 2025 NHL Draft. With Dustin Wolf ready for NHL action and Dan Vladar eager to take on starter duties, it was a deal that had to be made.
Trading away Andrew Mangiapane with no salary-retention was impressive, and signing Jake Bean, Anthony Mantha and Ryan Lomberg to short-term deals in free-agency should help the Flames this season without hindering their ability to make moves when the team is back on the upswing in a few years.
Conroy and everyone behind-the-scenes earned rave reviews for their work during the NHL Draft, too, and the future looks bright with guys like Matvei Gridin, Zayne Parekh and Andrew Basha in the pipeline.
The Flames had to take a few steps back before they could start moving forward, but they deserve credit for embracing the challenge.
Coaching staff: Incomplete
Ryan Huska was dealt a tough hand in his first year as a head coach. Trade rumours were swirling around the club all season and they subtracted key veterans over and over again. His team at the end of the season was barely recognizable from the one that started training camp.
But Huska showed he trusted young players by putting Connor Zary and Martin Pospisil in big roles and did well to mix-and-match his ever-changing roster. He’s been a steady hand.
The Flames did make one change to their bench this off-season, announcing a mutual parting of ways with Marc Savard, who had primarily worked with the forwards and the power-play. The Flames converted on only 17.9% of their man-advantages last year, which was the seventh-worst total in the NHL. An improvement there will be important, and Cail MacLean has been tasked with running the power-play.
They had the ninth-best penalty-kill in the NHL last year, so they’ll be hoping for more of the same.
Leadership: A
In his first year as Flames captain, Mikael Backlund needed to help his team navigate a tough season in which the organization traded away veteran after veteran. Despite that tough environment, the group stayed generally competitive until the final six weeks of the season. He’ll be playing his 1,000th game this season, is universally respected in the locker room and understands the culture the Flames are trying to build.
Beyond that, the Flames leadership group is generally considered to be a group of six. MacKenzie Weegar, Rasmus Andersson, Nazem Kadri, Blake Coleman and Jonathan Huberdeau are all important voices in the room and several of them had exceptional seasons last year.
Obviously, losing guys like Chris Tanev last year meant others had to step up, but for whatever it’s worth, the “vibes” seemed good around the Saddledome this season.
Forwards: C
The Flames have a lot of draft picks coming in the next couple years, so they’ll be able to add good, solid young talent. It’s also not as if they don’t have some very good forwards on their team. Nazem Kadri led the team with 75 points last year, while Yegor Sharangovich led the team with 31 goals. Sharangovich is out week-to-week, so it will be on rookie Sam Honzek to fill his shoes on a line with Kadri and Andrei Kuzmenko – who can definitely fill the net, too.
That’s going to be the Flames’ top-line. The trio tasked with scoring a tonne, and there are intriguing options elsewhere, too.
The Flames brought in Anthony Mantha to try to get the expensive and under-performing Jonathan Huberdeau to get back to his best, and shifting Martin Pospisil to centre should give that line some speed and physicality. But the Flames need more than 52 points from Huberdeau, plain and simple.
The third-line will see the always reliable duo of Mikael Backlund and Blake Coleman teaming up with emerging second-year star Connor Zary. As third-lines go, that’s pretty solid, and the fourth-line will have fan-favourite Ryan Lomberg playing with Kevin Rooney and the enormous Adam Klapka. It’s got potential to be a lot of fun.
There just isn’t quite as much high-end scoring talent on the roster as you’d like. If they can make life difficult with their forecheck, the Flames should be competitive, but they’ll need young players to develop the right way if they’re going to win any games by out-scoring the opposition.
Defence: B
This should probably be an “incomplete” because we just haven’t seen that much of a couple players who are going to play big roles this year.
You know what you’re getting with Rasmus Andersson and MacKenzie Weegar. They’re puck-moving blueliners who do a little bit of everything. It appears they’ll be getting lots of time on the power-play, too, which is interesting in a good way.
Otherwise, we barely got to see Andersson play with Bahl in pre-season because Bahl was dealing with an injury. Acquired in the deal that sent Jacob Markstrom to the New Jersey Devils in June, Bahl played all 82 games last year and offers serious size. We just don’t know what sort of chemistry he’ll have with Andersson.
And Weegar’s going to be partnered with Daniil Miromanov, who is a source of fascination. He came over to Calgary in the trade that sent Noah Hanifin to the Vegas Golden Knights, and picked up seven points in 24 games. There’s a sense that we didn’t get to see the best version of the Russian, though. He was coming off a major knee injury and if there’s a substantial step-up in his game, it will be huge for the Flames.
The third pairing will see some combination of Jake Bean, Brayden Pachal and Tyson Barrie, signed at the end of camp. They’ve all got very different skill-sets and something to prove.
The future on the blueline is exciting, though, as Hunter Brzustewicz and Artem Grushnikov will be building their games in the AHL and are high-end prospects, while first-round draft pick Zayne Parekh returned to junior but has real star-potential.
Goaltending: Incomplete
Look, the Flames traded away one of the best goalies in the world when they dealt Jacob Markstrom to the New Jersey Devils, so they undoubtedly got worse between the pipes this summer.
But that opened the door for Dan Vladar to finally earn a full-time starting job. It meant there was space for two-time AHL goalie of the year Dustin Wolf to be on the NHL roster full-time.
Those are real positives, and with the Flames not in Stanley Cup-contention right now, why not get a better read on the players you have in your system instead of paying Markstrom? He wasn’t going to be the starting goalie in a couple of years when the Flames are pushing to be back in the mix anyways.
It was the only logical way forward in net for the Flames, and even if there are a few shaky nights in net this year, at least you’ll know what you have going forward by the time next summer rolls around.
Don’t sleep on Devin Cooley, either. Signed in free-agency, he’ll start the year with the Calgary Wranglers but may very well get a few games in this season.
Overall grade: B
This is all in the context of where the Flames are as an organization and where they’re headed. A ‘B’ grade isn’t an analysis of their playoff chances, it’s an acknowledgment that they took steps to build long-term, which is what matters. Their prospect pool is as deep as it’s been in years and while the players and coaches will push to be competitive this year, there’s no external expectations for them to be in the playoffs next spring.
But if you’re not going to be a contender, at least be building towards something. Don’t just sit around in the mushy middle and hope that lightning strikes. The Flames opted to take action. They have gotten younger. They’ve got prospects pushing for playing time and a few more guys who should be in the mix next year. The future seems brighter than it has in Calgary in years.