By: Chris Nosek

Last season the Flames received a massive boost due to the play of rookie goaltender Dustin Wolf. His great play provided the backbone as other young players like Matthew Coronato, Kevin Bahl, and Connor Zary stepped into critical roles for the team. The play from the young group caused the Flames to finish much closer to a playoff position than many expected. So where does this leave them going forward, building toward the playoffs or still mid-rebuild?

Biggest Departure: Dan Vladar, left as free agent

It’s quite clear that Dustin Wolf is the teams current top netminder and given his age, will be for the foreseeable future. However, last season Dan Vladar served as a near-perfect number two goaltender. He started 30 games posting a very respectable .898 save percentage with a 2.80 goals against average. Providing 17 quality starts, Vladar was right on par with his creasemate – they finished with .586 and .566 quality start percentages respectively. The Flames will be relying on Devin Cooley to fill in the role that Vladar played last season. While it’s clear the Flames believe he can do it, his performance has yet to show it. He’s played very well for the Wranglers, but it’s a massive wild card to assume he’s ready for 30 NHL starts at this point. The free agent list is extremely thin (consisting of Alexandar Georgiev, Ilya Samsonov, James Reimer, Georgii Romanov, and Chris Driedger). I wouldn’t be surprised if they Flames are watching the waiver wire heavily during training camp.

Biggest Acquisition: Morgan Frost, acquired via trade from the Philadelphia Flyers

Nazem Kadri and Mikael Backlund provide a solid 1-2 punch down the middle for the Flames. However, they are 34 and 36 years old, respectively. Kadri is signed through the 2028-29 season, however Backlund only has one season remaining on his current deal – he’s made it known he wants to stay with the organization going forward. This season, Frost will provide some much needed depth centering the third line. He wasn’t fitting in the lineup back in Philadelphia the way he once did, and it always felt that a change of scenery would do him some good as his career got started off with some injuries. If Frost is able to stay healthy and get back to the scorer he’s shown to be in the past, he will quickly work his way up the lineup which will allow both Backlund and Kadri to have less of the offensive burden fall on them.

Best Contract: Nazem Kadri, signed on August 18, 2022

For some reason over the past year or so Kadri’s name has come up in trade rumor mills a few times. He is only 34 years old and is a leader both on and off the ice. His physicality helps set the tone as only Brayden Pachal (D) and Martin Pospisil (C) have more penalty minutes for the team last season. This does not come at the expense of his offensive production as he accumulated points on roughly 30% of all goals scored by the Flames last season, and has led them in scoring for each of the past two seasons. While some would compain that he comes with a $7 million hit to the salary cap, he is locked in for four more seasons as the cap will continue to grow rapidly. He has become the type of player any organization would want their young players growing and learning around.

Worst Contract: Blake Coleman, signed as free agent on July 28, 2021

Blake Coleman was signed by former General Manager, Brad Treliving after he hit the free agent market after winning back-to-back Stanley Cup Championships with the Tampa Bay Lightning. With the exception of the 2023-24 season, he has largely under performed the $4.9 million cap hit his contract comes with. His lack of production caused the team to take on Joel Farabee as part of the trade that also acquired Morgan Frost. It seems that Coleman has been forced to play higher in the lineup than he can handle. Maybe the acquisition of Farabee will help line them both up in better positions and result in both of them producing better offensively. Regardless of where he is in the lineup, Coleman can not be a sub-40 point player this season while carrying a $4.9 milion cap hit. The fact that he has a modified no-trade list, limiting his trade options to only 10 teams, makes the situation worse.

Notes:

Entering last season, it was believed that the Flames were in the beginning stages of a rebuild. Surprisingly some of the younger players showed they just might be more ready than we thought. This season will show whether it was a flash in the pan or where they truely stand. Dustin Wolf needs to avoid a sophomore slump season and some of the veterans will need to step up their game. The Western Conference is going to be extremely difficult for the Flames. If they’re not careful, they could finish bottom 5 in the entire league.