It’s been just under a month since the 2024-25 NHL season commenced and the Calgary Flames have been a pleasant surprise. Projected to be a bottom 10 team, no one expected this Flames team to start off the season going undefeated in regulation through the first six games played.
It’s a team playing with no expectations and that lack of added pressure to perform has allowed this group to just go out and play hockey and it’s worked for them. Players have expressed how great the locker room is this year and it’s something that has pushed this group to want to play hard for each other.
Reality seems to be settling in for the Flames as they have lost their last three games in a row but it’s not something that should be surprising. They have lost to the Carolina Hurricanes, Winnipeg Jets, and Vegas Golden Knights, three very good teams that are a lock for the playoffs.
Regardless of those three losses to some very good teams, the Flames have played some good hockey to open the season and a few players have stood out. There are obviously more players who deserve props other than the ones that will be mentioned. Players like Nazem Kadri, Andrei Kuzmenko, Mikael Backlund, and MacKenzie Weegar have all had great starts as well.
Jonathan Huberdeau
Everybody who follows this team knows about the struggles Jonathan Huberdeau has endured during his time in Calgary. It’s been disappointing to see a player who recorded over 100 points in the season right before he was traded here have two of his worst seasons production-wise since his rookie year.
The last game against the Golden Knights was a rough one for Huberdeau but other than that he’s looked much better than he has over the last couple of seasons. Through nine games played Huberdeau has collected four goals and seven points. He’s already scored a third of the goals he scored last season. It’s important to note that Huberdeau’s shooting percentage is at 33.3% right now which is ridiculously high and in the 96th percentile league-wide. That number is going to come down as games go by but what’s interesting about Huberdeau’s goals is that all four of them have come from directly in front of the net. Huberdeau is putting himself in good positions to score goals and it’s working for him. If he can stay consistent in the way he’s started the season, his production levels are going to be the best they have ever been for him as a Flame.
Production aside, Huberdeau has looked more like the player he was in South Florida. It’s clear he has more confidence with the puck with the creativity he has showcased early. He’s connecting on those ridiculous pass attempts and he’s pulling off those nifty dekes.
If there is one knock on Huberdeau that has stayed consistent with him throughout his career it’s that he doesn’t shoot the puck enough. There are times when he has a prime opportunity to get the puck on net but will just not pull the trigger. He ranks below the 50th percentile on shots on goal and with his shooting percentage so high, he needs to shoot the puck more if he wants to continue to score at this rate because right now he’s projected to finish with the most goals he has ever had in a single season.
Rasmus Andersson
No one has been a better Flame than Rasmus Andersson to start this season, so much so, that he leads the team in points with 10 and is tied with Huberdeau and Nazem Kadri for the most goals on the team (he is also tied for first in the NHL for most goals as a defenceman). Andersson is contributing more than he’s expected to and it’s been a huge part of the early success the Flames have had. He’s looked more dialed in than he has over the last couple of years and he’s carrying this mojo that you can see after he scores goals, staring down fans of the opposing teams. Most importantly he looks like he is enjoying playing hockey for Calgary right now.
Along with leading the team in points, Andersson leads all Flames in time on ice with 216 minutes, blocked shots with 32, and goals above expected with 2.5. He’s one of the most reliable defencemen in the defensive zone as he and Bahl have started more shifts in their own end than any other pair. For a player that eats up the amount of minutes that he does, and is matched up with the opposing team’s top lines it’s a positive to see his on-ice goal differential in the positives as well as his plus/minus rating currently at a plus-3. He’s doing his job in the defensive zone and is contributing offensively, and the Flames could not ask for anything more from him right now.
Dustin Wolf & Dan Vladar
Goaltending was a huge question mark for the Flames coming into the 2024-25 season with Dustin Wolf about to start his first full season in the NHL and Dan Vladar beside him. So far it looks like the Flames have opted to run a 1A/1B system with their two goaltenders and both of them have been playing great. Last game’s 5-0 loss to the Golden Knights hurt Vladar’s numbers and the .895 save percentage and 3.18 goals against average he currently carries, is not relative to the overall performance he has had to start this season.
Wolf on the other hand has been everything the Flames hoped he would be. After dominating the AHL for multiple years he finally got his chance to prove he could translate that to the NHL and so far he has passed that test with flying colours. Through four games played, Wolf has an outstanding SV% at .924 and a 2.74 GAA.
The Flames have been outshot in seven of their nine games and have given up an average of 33.22 shots a game which is the fifth most out of any team in the NHL. No team in the top six of this category has a winning record except the Flames. In other words, the Flames’ early success has been mostly because both their goaltenders have been shutting the door. There have been stretches throughout games where this group has been hemmed in their zone giving up shot after shot but it hasn’t been much of a struggle for Wolf or Vladar and their ability to stop those pucks has allowed the Flames to stay in games and pull out five wins so far.
With Devin Cooley lighting up the AHL right now with a .946 SV% the Flames could even look to move Vladar come trade deadline and gain some more draft capital if he keeps on performing like this.
Connor Zary
Connor Zary is a player who the Flames need to continue to develop and improve as the hope is that he becomes an important piece to this franchise’s forward group down the road. With how he played last year in his first season in the NHL and how he has looked so far this year, he already is an important piece to this team.
Zary has two goals and seven points in nine games which is tied for the second most on the team with Huberdeau and Kuzmenko. He’s creating more offensive chances than most right now and has been able to drive the play, and it’s evident throughout his advanced metrics. Zary is second on the Flames in CF% (percentage of any shot attempt, goals, shots on net, misses, and blocks outside of the shootout) at 57.10%. He also has the second highest SF% (percentage of total shots while that player is on the ice that are for that player’s team) on the Flames with 56.05%. When Zary is on the ice positive things are happening for the Flames. Along with all the offensive chances and opportunities he creates when on the ice, the puck is in the offensive zone 45.6% of the time when Zary is on the ice which ranks in the 89 percentile league-wide.
For a young player who has played less than 82 games in the NHL, he has been phenomenal. Improvement is something that Zary clearly did over the off-season and the best part for the Flames is that if he’s already playing like this on a consistent basis, there is no telling how good or dominant he can be.
This team works and they don’t give up. Although they have entered a bit of a rough patch lately playing some of the top teams in the league, Flames hockey is more fun right now than most expected it to be heading into the season and they have a chance to get back into the win column on Wednesday night as they take their first trip to the Delta Center to take on the struggling Utah Hockey Club.
