Thoughts on this seasons Flames

[Mobiandi]

The only reason they may start well is because there are no expectations on them to challenege for the playoffs. This team tends to go opposite what they should. But they are definitely finishing bottom 2 in the conference

 

[herashak]

Likely a properly executed Simone Biles of suck

 

[Yepthatsme]

The only reason they may start well is because there are no expectations on them to challenege for the playoffs. This team tends to go opposite what they should. But they are definitely finishing bottom 2 in the conference

Nobody is unseating Chicago and San Jose from that throne. We also talk about how terrible our defense group is this year, but Anaheims is actually terrifyingly poor, and their forward core is just wall to wall youth which while entertaining is usually a recipe for disaster.

Think we’d be about 4-5 player trades off our roster to have a chance to break into that top 3. Chicago’s second best forward this year is Teravainen, San Jose best defenseman is a race between Ferraro and Walman, and Anaheim is rolling it back with the same group. All 3 were bottom 3 in both GF and GA (with the exception of Chicago allowing only the 4th most goals), that’s a level of suck we don’t have to sneak into that bad of a territory this year.

Unless we dump Andersson, Coleman, Kuzmenko, Mantha, and Backlund early ish in the year, I think we’ll be hard pressed to be worse than any of those 3, Montreal, and Columbus. I feel like it’ll be a tight race between us, Philly, Ottawa (won’t believe in them until it happens), Utah and Washington for the 6-10 range.

 

[Ledge And Dairy]

I'm pretty confident we will finish bottom 5. I look at it like this...

We finished tied for 8th-10th worst in 2023-24, that was with a full season of Markstrom and Mangiapane, 50-60 games of Lindholm, Tanev & Hanifin; as well as Kylington and Zadorov combined.

We're replacing Tanev w/ Bahl... Hanifin w/ Miromanov... Kylington/Zadorov w/ Bean... Mangiapane w/ Mantha... Lindholm w/ Kuzmenko... Markstrom w/ Wold and more games from Vladar...

Then I look at the teams that finished around us and below us in the standings...

Buffalo hs Byram for a full season while adding Zucker and McLeod... but their season depends more on Cozens and Thompson bouncing back and internal growth of Power... are they still a bad team? or was 2023-24 a down year after being close to a playoff spot in 2022-23? I personally think they will be better.

New Jersey.... healthy Hamilton, addressed goaltending by adding Markstrom and Allen... they also added Pesce... like Buffalo was 2023-24 a blip on the radar after a much better 2022-23 where they were one of the better teams in the league? I think the reality is somewhere in teh middle, but I think they are a playoff team.

Seattle... another team in the same boat as Buffalo and New Jersey, bad 2023-24 after a good 2022-23... are the additions of Stephenson & Montour going to be enough to get Seattle back into the playoff race? I don't know, but I think at worst they'll maintain their level of play.

Ottawa... Chychrun, Tarasenko and the terrible Korpisalo out... Ullmark, Jensen & Perron in... Pinto will be around the full season... it's hard to imagine they will be worse simply via goaltending alone.

Utah... it's hard to believe they won't improve after adding Sergachev & Marino to their blueline and only subtracting Moser from the 2023-24 roster in teh deals. Thy should challenge for a playoff spot.

Montreal... they be bad, but I don't think they got worse.

Columbus... their "big" adds were Severson & Monahan... but their season depends more on the growth if their kids.... I think they improve slightly due to internal growth.

Anaheim.... I have the pegged as the worst team in the NHL this season. Not necessarily worse than 2023-24, but certainly not improved, while San Jose and Chicago took strides to improve.

Chicago... a healthy Hall and adding Bertuzzi and TT upfront will help Bedard take a step forward... adding Brodie and Martinez n the blueline will add some stability so it's not just on Jones and Murphy.... and Brossoit should be a decent improvement on Soderblom who will get to start in Rockford where he should have been last year. They will definitely be improved, maybe enough that with our step back that they could pass us.

San Jose.... they added some experience in Toffoli, Wennberg and Goodrow to help insulate Celebrini... they're still not going to be good. Probably only better than Anaheim.

Looking at those teams, as well as Philly, Minnesota, Pittsburgh, Washington and St. Louis... I legitimately think we could very easily finish bottom

Great in-depth write up here. A couple notes though:

- New Jersey is probably going to rocket into the top 5 team range. Besides goaltending and the Dougie injury what really held them back was the size on their blue line. Sure they lost Bahl's 6'6 fram but they swapped out a 6'1 181lb Marino for a 6'3 205 lb Pesce, while also adding a 6'4 225 lb Dillon. Also worth noting that Hughes and Nemec will both be sophomores now, and not rookies playing 20+ minutes a night.

- Columbus added Severson last summer. Agree that their success is mostly on internal growth.

- Seattle was plagued by consistently having 2 key player or another on LTIR last year, they were almost never playing at full strength. But when they were they went on like 7+ game winning streaks.

- I think you are ignoring Anaheim's internal growth. There are a lot of high potential young players on that roster, especially with the addition of Gauthier. They will still probably be bad but mostly due to the same reason as us, poor defending.

- Chicago actually has a formidable D-core. Alex Vlasic was statistically the best defensive dman in the league last year and Korchinski is going to take another step. Not to mention Del Mastro is knocking at the door.

- San Jose also added Will Smith so they will probably score a lot more. However their D-core is still the worst in the league so they will also let in a bunch of goals. I still expect them to finish last, just not with less that 50 points again. I think they will be closer to 60

 

[Ace Rimmer]

Just a note, rarely have one-way offensive wingers ever been the difference between playoffs and not on bad teams.
Our defence is going to be atrocious this year. Really there are two top 4 guys on the entire roster and a bunch of question marks. Would it be awesome if Bahl and Bean turn into something good? Absolutely, is it likely? Probably not.

I like to do an if's game. General rule is the more if's the less likely a team is to be good.

So for the Flames to make the playoffs it would require:
If Huberdeau has a recovered/motivated season.
If Kuzy plays at the same level from the end of last year, through the whole year.
If Shango can replicate last year
If Coleman can replicate last season.
If Mantha finds chemistry with Huberdeau or on the roster.
If Wolf gives us essentially a Vezina caliber season.
If there's no drop off to Kadri's game.
If there's no sophomore slump for any of the returning rookies.
If Bean can be a dependable bottom pair guy.
If Bahl can develop into a good middle pair guy.
If Miramanov ends up being an offensive catalyst on the PP.

You compare that to like the Avs, and it's like:
If the team stays healthy.
If goaltending doesn't fall apart.

I don't think they'll be record-low bad. But I could see them winning 4/10 games; 65/66 point pace. They won 7 games of their last 18 after all their trades last year. That's 46 point pace. I think it'll be better than that, but not much.

Hot take: Wolf having a Vezina caliber season is all that is needed.

 

[Bounces R Way]

Simply put, I don't think we have the horses on the back end to insulate Wolf and Vladar. We're looking at some combination of Bahl, Bean and Miro in our top 4. Offense is the least of my concerns. I think we could finish in the 13-17 range in GF, but I'm expecting us to be one of, if not the worst defensive team in the league, we were already tied for 10th worst in GA last year, I fully expect our GA/GP to rise by about half a goal a game, to the 3.75 range.

Historically you're definitely right, young bluelines and young goaltenders do give up a lot of goals. I expect that to be the case. There's still quite a few bluelines in worse shape than ours though and if there is some chemistry in the fwd group they might be able to keep up in those 5-4 games. The Bahl pickup I liked, really lacked that physical presence as soon as Zad was traded. Miromanov I just don't have a great read on yet, thought he played some good games and some poor ones when he got here. He hasn't played a ton of hockey in the last cpl seasons and a full offseason training healthy should give us a better indication of what we have with him.

Just a note, rarely have one-way offensive wingers ever been the difference between playoffs and not on bad teams.

It was for the 2014-15 Flames.

Our defence is going to be atrocious this year. Really there are two top 4 guys on the entire roster and a bunch of question marks. Would it be awesome if Bahl and Bean turn into something good? Absolutely, is it likely? Probably not.

I like to do an if's game. General rule is the more if's the less likely a team is to be good.

So for the Flames to make the playoffs it would require:
If Huberdeau has a recovered/motivated season.
If Kuzy plays at the same level from the end of last year, through the whole year.
If Shango can replicate last year
If Coleman can replicate last season.
If Mantha finds chemistry with Huberdeau or on the roster.
If Wolf gives us essentially a Vezina caliber season.
If there's no drop off to Kadri's game.
If there's no sophomore slump for any of the returning rookies.
If Bean can be a dependable bottom pair guy.
If Bahl can develop into a good middle pair guy.
If Miramanov ends up being an offensive catalyst on the PP.

You compare that to like the Avs, and it's like:
If the team stays healthy.
If goaltending doesn't fall apart.

I don't think they'll be record-low bad. But I could see them winning 4/10 games; 65/66 point pace. They won 7 games of their last 18 after all their trades last year. That's 46 point pace. I think it'll be better than that, but not much.

I'm not at all saying they're going to be good and make the playoffs. Way too many ifs certainly.
Mostly just not seeing the no doubt bottom 5 roster many pundits and posters have labeled them. Think another 6-12 overall pick is more likely.

 

[Tkachuk Norris]

We lost 3 of our 4 best 5 on 5 and PK guys (Hanifin, Lindholm, Tanev). I don’t think people realize how much that Hanifin Tanev pairing carried this team last year. We had the easiest schedule in the NHL after the trade deadline and got demolished.

Our PP is abysmal but likely probably gets slightly better, cause how can it be worse.

Markstrom had a really strong year.

This team is going to be bad. Only way they aren’t bottom 5 is if we see Wolf play like Saros (I think there will be an adjustment there as he gets used to NHL shots, he’s not a blocker, and there will be some struggles).

The only teams worse than us right now are Chicago and SJ in my mind. Maybe the Habs. Maybe a team like Pittsburgh or NYI stink it up.

I like Huska but it’s going to be tough sledding.

 

[RasmusAndersson]

Imo many fans got so caught up debating retool vs. rebuild and whether we should’ve gotten marginally better returns for some of our players that they missed the bigger picture—Conroy made it a priority to focus on youth, add lots of draft capital, not overspend in FA, and sacrifice some short-term success for long-term gains. He clearly has his eyes towards the future, regardless of whether we finish 31st or 25th this year.

We may not agree with every move or be completely satisfied with every return, but he’s moving us in the right direction for the first time in a long time.

Of course it all comes down to the next few drafts and finding that legit 1C, but I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again: in Conroy I trust.

 

[scoringmachine]

I'm looking forward to the 2025, 2026, and 2027 drafts. With the right management, superb drafting, and a little bit of luck, the Flames organization can build a real cup contender.

What the Flames to win first overall in 2026 Draft and get Gavin McKenna.

 

[DomBarr]

What the Flames to win first overall in 2026 Draft and get Gavin McKenna.

to bad the Penguins are in need of a Crosby replacement then

 

[Volica]

to bad the Penguins are in need of a Crosby replacement then

The NHL when Pittsburgh, Edmonton and Chicago go too long without generational/Elite talent.

 

[Kranix]

The NHL when Pittsburgh, Edmonton and Chicago go too long without generational/Elite talent.

yeah wtf is up with that. The odds are against these three franchises getting the franchise saving megastar AGAIN. And they did it.

 

[DomBarr]

yeah wtf is up with that. The odds are against these three franchises getting the franchise saving megastar AGAIN. And they did it.

you are looking at the odds wrong...its the odds are against anyone BUT those 3 franchises getting a franchise altering/saving megastar.

 

[Ledge And Dairy]

yeah wtf is up with that. The odds are against these three franchises getting the franchise saving megastar AGAIN. And they did it.

I kind of get it. When you have superstars you throw all your draft capital and the kitchen sink to keep the team competitive as long as possible. And because you generally have success with said star players, any picks you do keep generally don't amount to much at all. Eventually those stars will retire or leave and your team will plummet to the bottom of the league with no good upcoming prospects to fill roles so your odds of drafting high are very realistic.

 

[Some Other Flame]

Let's see, a very one-dimensional forward group overfilled with middling veterans, a terribly inexperienced and questionable defence, and completely unproven goaltending. Put together that's a clear cut bottom 10 team no question. And given just how bad the defence is on paper, one could easily say bottom 5.

But since this is the Flames, it can only mean this group is going to wildly over achieve by making the playoffs and losing in the 1st round theryeby ruining everything. Parekh's will make the team out of training camp and put up 40+ points, Huberdeau decides now is the time to start scoring putting up 80+, while Vladar returning from injury plays like a vezina candidate.

Seriously though, it really looks like Conroy is deliberately aiming for a top 5 pick. He's built a team that's should be entertaining offensively but awful defensively, which is exactly what you want in the early stages of a rebuild.

 

[The Gnome]

My thoughts for the Season...Load up on your favorite whisky or bourbon cause you'll want to forget this season even happened. It's going to be far uglier than most people can stomach.

Bottom 5 is my guess...

 

[crazyfisherman]

honestly would not be surprised we squeak in the playoffs based on pure luck like the cardiac kids days, cept this time it would be cardiac old dudes

 

[Iggys Dome]

I could legitimately see a sub 30 win season this year. It’s not gonna be fun but at least we can look forward to the draft.

 

[Double Dion]

I really want to see us using the season to figure out some things. Presently I have these questions about the roster that I want to see answered this season:

1. Is Zary a center or a wing?
2. Is Pospisil a center or a wing?
3. Is Miramanov a project that is worth investing in?
4. Is Pelletier something or nothing?
5. Which of our defense first guys (Kuznetsov, Solovyov, Bahl, Grushnikov) are able to do that in the NHL?
6. Is there a market where we can get real value for one of Coleman or Kadri?

We aren't going to know which of our offensive D are potential stars this season, but we can half-way know if we have the goalie. I don't need to see Kevin Rooney trotted out as our 4C with Lomberg and Duehr. I want to see if Pospisil can be our 4C with Lomberg and Pelletier. I have zero use for a traditional veteran 4th line.

 

[Ledge And Dairy]

I really want to see us using the season to figure out some things. Presently I have these questions about the roster that I want to see answered this season:

1. Is Zary a center or a wing?
2. Is Pospisil a center or a wing?
3. Is Miramanov a project that is worth investing in?
4. Is Pelletier something or nothing?
5. Which of our defense first guys (Kuznetsov, Solovyov, Bahl, Grushnikov) are able to do that in the NHL?
6. Is there a market where we can get real value for one of Coleman or Kadri?

We aren't going to know which of our offensive D are potential stars this season, but we can half-way know if we have the goalie. I don't need to see Kevin Rooney trotted out as our 4C with Lomberg and Duehr. I want to see if Pospisil can be our 4C with Lomberg and Pelletier. I have zero use for a traditional veteran 4th line.

Agree on most of this, though I think we should also figure out our plan with Ras. A year ago I considered him untradable and a must re-sign. Now with Parekh, Brzustewicz, and Mews as our RD depth I'm leaning towards dangling him for more picks/prospects (I look at Nashville's 3 1sts and top 10 prospect pool and think he would be a good fit there as well as they have the assets, for example).

Also I want them to try Pelletier with Backs and Coleman.

 

[herashak]

If it gets ugly I think shipping out Andersson will be the right move. Guaranteed top 10 pick (setup for Mckenna) and even more cap space

 

[Double Dion]

Agree on most of this, though I think we should also figure out our plan with Ras. A year ago I considered him untradable and a must re-sign. Now with Parekh, Brzustewicz, and Mews as our RD depth I'm leaning towards dangling him for more picks/prospects (I look at Nashville's 3 1sts and top 10 prospect pool and think he would be a good fit there as well as they have the assets, for example).

Also I want them to try Pelletier with Backs and Coleman.

Agreed on Pelletier. For me Andersson is already clear. I'm moving him. He's too inconsistent. Some 40 game stretches he looks like a #1 and some he looks like a #4. I'd rather keep Weegar as the show the way vet.

 

[Boomstick]

I'm hoping Pelletier and Coronato have huge camps.
Not sure I want Duehr and Rooney playing over them two.
But we've got too many forwards. Conroy should maybe make a move or two to open spots for Pelts and Coronato.

 

[Lunatik]

I'm hoping Pelletier and Coronato have huge camps.
Not sure I want Duehr and Rooney playing over them two.
But we've got too many forwards. Conroy should maybe make a move or two to open spots for Pelts and Coronato.

Rooney is a C, I don't think he'll be relevant to their playing time. Whether or not the team sees Zary or Pospisil will be where Rooney fits in, if yes to either he likely sits in the pressbox.

 

[joescores]

Completely last in the standings with that netminding squad at the helm. Tough times for us Europeans committing to watching this disaster unravel early morning night after night but this is absolutely necessary for us to be competitive again- losing and drafting some great talents. I have a big respect for Huska and I adore our GM, so hopefully we are well set management wise.

I look forward for being wrong (talking to you Wolf) and can't wait to see some individuals shining and surprising.