Speculation: Armchair GM 2024-25 Season, Craig Conroy's Can Do Calgary Flames

[Anglesmith]

Sucks for Mantha.

But Mantha played exclusively in the top 9 for the Flames and yet they recall a pure 4th liner, if that. Kerins and Pelletier should just ask for trades at this point

You are assuming that Klapka is being brought up and plugged into the roster 1-for-1 into Mantha's spot?

 

[Ledge And Dairy]

Sucks for Mantha.

But Mantha played exclusively in the top 9 for the Flames and yet they recall a pure 4th liner, if that. Kerins and Pelletier should just ask for trades at this point

Huh? Those 2 things are quite unrelated. Mantha's top 9 slot was already given to Coronato

 

[Yepthatsme]

Huh? Those 2 things are quite unrelated. Mantha's top 9 slot was already given to Coronato

If anything you think some posters would be rejoicing, as this move means the end of everyday Rooney. People see what they want to see though.

 

[Khrox]

If anything you think some posters would be rejoicing, as this move means the end of everyday Rooney.

But I don't WANT to rejoice. I WANT to be mad about everything the Flames do if it's not EXACTLY what I would do
-some posters on this forum probably

 

[Volica]

You love to see Wolf becoming a clear number 1 in this league.

But you also hate the fact that he's hiding all the blemishes of this club. There's no way this team should be a winning team when our leading scoring forward is projecting to hit 60 points and D man is leading the team in points.

I think we need to see some more Vladar starts, and Conroy needs to start selling some pieces here soon. We're only helping Montreal with how we're currently playing. There's just no chance a team that plays the way we do (gives up a bunch of chances every night, and doesn't generate many) is going to sustain a winning record through the rest of the year. We've won enough that teams like Anaheim, Chicago and SJ are almost out of reach already

It was a fun way to start the season picking up some wins, but it's clear the club needs some more high end youth here. If not we're just delaying the inevitable which'll come crashing down on us in 2-3 seasons anyway.

 

[Ledge And Dairy]

You love to see Wolf becoming a clear number 1 in this league.

But you also hate the fact that he's hiding all the blemishes of this club. There's no way this team should be a winning team when our leading scoring forward is projecting to hit 60 points and D man is leading the team in points.

I think we need to see some more Vladar starts, and Conroy needs to start selling some pieces here soon. We're only helping Montreal with how we're currently playing. There's just no chance a team that plays the way we do (gives up a bunch of chances every night, and doesn't generate many) is going to sustain a winning record through the rest of the year. We've won enough that teams like Anaheim, Chicago and SJ are almost out of reach already

It was a fun way to start the season picking up some wins, but it's clear the club needs some more high end youth here. If not we're just delaying the inevitable which'll come crashing down on us in 2-3 seasons anyway.

Our current standing is heavily screwed by the first 5 games still. Us beating Nashville was not remotely surprising. They were on a B2B with travel. It was (as Friedman likes to call it) a scheduled loss.

Selling? It's the middle of November. Nobody has cap space to buy.

 

[Some Other Flame]

Kuzmenko for Hall will solve everything

 

[HighLifeMan]

You love to see Wolf becoming a clear number 1 in this league.

But you also hate the fact that he's hiding all the blemishes of this club. There's no way this team should be a winning team when our leading scoring forward is projecting to hit 60 points and D man is leading the team in points.

I think we need to see some more Vladar starts, and Conroy needs to start selling some pieces here soon. We're only helping Montreal with how we're currently playing. There's just no chance a team that plays the way we do (gives up a bunch of chances every night, and doesn't generate many) is going to sustain a winning record through the rest of the year. We've won enough that teams like Anaheim, Chicago and SJ are almost out of reach already

It was a fun way to start the season picking up some wins, but it's clear the club needs some more high end youth here. If not we're just delaying the inevitable which'll come crashing down on us in 2-3 seasons anyway.

Yes - we have received good goaltending, but this team is also very much middle of the pack analytically which suggests they are not nearly as bad as you are making them out to be (or want them to be). I think this fanbase should really start coming to terms with the fact that there is a very real possibility that we end up giving a mid first round pick to Montreal barring a major sell off of assets. It totally sucks but Treliving torpedoed this organization due to sheer incompetence and very little care for the future of the organization he was set to leave behind. There is just too many crappy to mediocre teams this year. In typical Flames fashion - we just can't have nice things.

Even if our goaltending drops off a bit, I can't help but to expect that our specialty teams will improve.

 

[Mobiandi]

Once playoffs are out of sight again, this team will crater in the standings. The standings don't really matter until late Jan.

 

[Yepthatsme]

Our current standing is heavily screwed by the first 5 games still. Us beating Nashville was not remotely surprising. They were on a B2B with travel. It was (as Friedman likes to call it) a scheduled loss.

Selling? It's the middle of November. Nobody has cap space to buy.

Excluding the first 5 games we are 5-6-2, so one game under .500. Over that time we have shot at 7.92%, have an utterly hilarious 5.7% PP (it shooting 4.17% is even funnier), and have received .906 team save percentage. My favorite stat on the year is our leading point getter from last season currently has a 3.7% on ice shooting percentage at 5v5.

We haven’t been terrible even using the stretch you’re trying to use, we aren’t as bad as you hope think.

 

[Ledge And Dairy]

Excluding the first 5 games we are 5-6-2, so one game under .500. Over that time we have shot at 7.92%, have an utterly hilarious 5.7% PP (it shooting 4.17% is even funnier), and have received .906 team save percentage. My favorite stat on the year is our leading point getter from last season currently has a 3.7% on ice shooting percentage at 5v5.

We haven’t been terrible even using the stretch you’re trying to use, we aren’t as bad as you hope think.

Lets clarify something. I do not hope for this team to lose. I cheer for them to win every game. I also don't think they are bad, they just aren't good either. This is a team that works hard on most nights and are simply out skilled in games where they lose. I probably should have said first 6 games since we beat Pittsburgh in a high scoring contest too before coming back down to earth vs Carolina. My argument was not to ignore those games but that 11 points from a hot start is going to inflate our stats due to that stretch being 33% of our season so far. By the half way point of the season that 5/0/1 start will be far less impactful on our standing

 

[Yepthatsme]

Lets clarify something. I do not hope for this team to lose. I cheer for them to win every game. I also don't think they are bad, they just aren't good either. This is a team that works hard on most nights and are simply out skilled in games where they lose. I probably should have said first 6 games since we beat Pittsburgh in a high scoring contest too before coming back down to earth vs Carolina. My argument was not to ignore those games but that 11 points from a hot start is going to inflate our stats due to that stretch being 33% of our season so far. By the half way point of the season that 5/0/1 start will be far less impactful on our standing

I’m trying to point out that while you’re saying a hot start has artificially inflated our record, we’ve actually likely already “normalized” with the levels of pathetic the pendulum swung too. Our over arching numbers points to us being slightly on the unlucky side on route to a 9-6-3 record, showing that our cumulative record is probably a good display of where we deserve to be up to this point.

 

[FLAMESFAN]

I hate that we are sitting on the fence here.
Might as well just accept that we will be trying to make the playoffs, and will likely fall just short.
Blown opportunity to have done a proper rebuild and pick up a top pick or 2.

 

[Dack]

Yes - we have received good goaltending, but this team is also very much middle of the pack analytically which suggests they are not nearly as bad as you are making them out to be (or want them to be). I think this fanbase should really start coming to terms with the fact that there is a very real possibility that we end up giving a mid first round pick to Montreal barring a major sell off of assets. It totally sucks but Treliving torpedoed this organization due to sheer incompetence and very little care for the future of the organization he was set to leave behind. There is just too many crappy to mediocre teams this year. In typical Flames fashion - we just can't have nice things.

Even if our goaltending drops off a bit, I can't help but to expect that our specialty teams will improve.

We're mid to bad by public models expected goals (usually around 20th to 23rd in most stats) and are actually worse by some of the more advanced models. However, we have the highest 5v5 save percentage in the league which is kind of papering over the fact that we're getting outplayed most nights. Our special teams seems likely to improve but if goaltending slips 5v5 I think the Flames will start to tumble down the standings anyways, our special teams aren't good even adjusting for puck luck and if anyone can sustain a 5% powerplay it's tank commander Jonathan Huberdeau. Plus even factoring out analytics the Flames start to the year has felt a bit lucky. How many comebacks to win and or steal a point have we had? It feels like half of our wins.

However, I agree with you on the pick, really seems like we're headed towards giving up another 12th overall pick. There's too many garbage teams, seems unlikely we'll sink beneath all of them. Hopefully we're either bottom 10 or in the playoffs.

 

[Lunatik]

Excluding the first 5 games we are 5-6-2, so one game under .500. Over that time we have shot at 7.92%, have an utterly hilarious 5.7% PP (it shooting 4.17% is even funnier), and have received .906 team save percentage. My favorite stat on the year is our leading point getter from last season currently has a 3.7% on ice shooting percentage at 5v5.

We haven’t been terrible even using the stretch you’re trying to use, we aren’t as bad as you hope think.

You do know that 1 game under .500 was a top 10 pick last year, right? and if we maintain that 5-6-2 pt% the rest of the way, we'll finish with 1 less point than last season. For the record, under .500 was a top 10 pick in 4 of the last 5 full 82 game seasons, it might even be a higher percentage if you go back further but I stopped after 5 full seasons.

You have to remember while 5-6-2 might be 1 game under .500 (.462) in pt%, it is also just a .385 Win%

 

[Some Other Flame]

For what it's worth, league average SV% is apparently 0.901

So the Flames are actually getting above average tending if they're sitting at 0.906

And as good as Wolf has been, it's still his first full season. Some fatigue or setbacks are to be expected. And on the other side, Vladar hasn't played more than 27 games in a year since 18/19. Credit to Huska for sticking to with a platoon; it's definitely the best for both of them.

 

[Lunatik]

For what it's worth, league average SV% is apparently 0.901

So the Flames are actually getting above average tending if they're sitting at 0.906

And as good as Wolf has been, it's still his first full season. Some fatigue or setbacks are to be expected. And on the other side, Vladar hasn't played more than 27 games in a year since 18/19. Credit to Huska for sticking to with a platoon; it's definitely the best for both of them.

Wolf may have setbacks, but I don't think fatigue will be an issue, including playoffs, the last 3 seasons saw Wolf play 60, 65 and 59 games and pre-pandemic, he played 71 one year for Everett.

But I agree the platoon is a good idea.