The Calgary Flames have completed their 2020-21 season. Thursday was the day for exit interviews with the media and the beginning of the off-season as management tries to improve upon a club that missed the post-season.
Here’s the most important things you need to know from the visits with the media.
General manager Brad Treliving was on with our pal Pat Steinberg on Sportsnet 960 The Fan this afternoon. He summarized the season in a very succinct way:
I feel that it was a good team that under-performed. Now, is it good enough to get us to where we need to go? To me, the answer is no. So then you have to sit back and really evaluate where you go with it and what changes need to be made and what direction you take.
Later on, when answering a subsequent question, he conceded that now is probably the time to look at the club’s core, noting “I think we’re going to have some hard conversations about where we go with the group.”
In his chat with the broader media crew earlier in the afternoon, Treliving confirmed that the league will have a flat cap “for the foreseeable future” – it’ll last at least until league revenues have recovered to pre-pandemic levels and the NHLPA has paid back its hefty escrow debt to the owners. He also confirmed that the AHL affiliate will be returning to Stockton in 2021-22 after a year north of the border playing out of the Saddledome.
Treliving also provided some insight into some player injuries:
  • Jacob Markstrom had a concussion mid-season. (It wasn’t specifically mentioned, but it seems likely that it was in that scary collision with Canucks forward Tanner Pearson on Feb. 17.)
  • Josh Leivo broke his finger in one of the two recent games in Vancouver.
  • Sean Monahan (hip) and Noah Hanifin (shoulder) both had their surgeries.
  • Dillon Dube suffered a concussion against Vancouver in the season-closing game and won’t be headed to the World Championship after all.
  • Chris Tanev played through several broken ribs and a torn pectoral muscle that he suffered in the Mar. 29 game with Winnipeg.
Head coach Darryl Sutter said he hasn’t sat down with Treliving yet to hash things out – that’ll likely happen next week – so it’s unclear right now if he’ll make any tweaks to the coaching staff. He inherited Geoff Ward’s staff after joining the team mid-season.