Flames sign Matt Bartkowski to PTO

The Calgary Flames made a minor announcement this morning, singing former Providence Bruin Matt Bartkowski to a PTO with the team. Bartkowski isn’t a household name by any stretch but that’s not stopping the Flames from trying to solve some of the depth issues impacting the team’s blueline.

It’s hard to discern what actual value Bartkowski offers at the NHL level at this point, but he’s in town for now at least and Glen Gulutzan has some understanding of what he can offer from Gulutzan’s time with Vancouver.

After his tenure with the Boston Bruins, Bartkowski signed in Vancouver for the 2015-16 season. He posted some passable numbers on what would be regarded as a mediocre Canucks roster with six goals and 12 assists in 80 games. That was good enough for third in defensemen scoring with the team.

In those 80 games with the Canucks, Bartkowski had a 45.75% CF at 5v5. Relative to his peers in 2015-16, his Rel.CF60 (relative Corsi For per 60) of 1.57 was good for third in defenseman. The other side of that is Bartkowski’s limited impact on suppression. His Rel.CA60 (relative Corsi Against per 60) was dead last on the team at 6.06. So the team, with Bartkowski on the ice, saw more shots/shot attempts against.

As his tenure in Vancouver ended, he signed a PTO prior to the start of the 2016-17 season with Ottawa. Nothing culiminated for him in Ottawa so he  rejoined Providence (the Bruins’ AHL affiliate) on a PTO, which ended today. 

In that time with the Provdience Bruins Bartkowski put up two goals and eight assists through 34 games.

During his tenure with Boston it looked that Bartkowski had shown some level of promise floating into the belief he could be an NHL regular. In his time with Boston, Bartkowski’s primary partners in order of TOI together were Johnny Boychuk (526.64), Dennis Seidenberg (327.76), and Kevan Miller (201.75). With Boychuk, the pairing did sport a 54.37% CF through 2013-14. 

That said, it’s more likely Boychuk was a contributing factor to that over Bartkowski.

Since then he’s regressed more into a fringe third party/seventh defenseman role, something that doesn’t inherently benefit the Calgary Flames right this minute. Because really, what this team needs is someone to play on the second pairing for the rest of the season, and someone who can create a level of parity that the top pairing can generate.

It’s extremely unlikely unless he becomes a David Schlemko-esque third pairing guy who can jump up occasionally. It’s very likely that he might get some looks in practice, but at the end of the day does he inherently offer more than the existing roster players? Further to that it’s incredibly questionable that he can contribute more than Brett Kulak, who has struggled to get consistent playing time.

Right now he’s a warm body for practices and he might help push some of the team who are chomping at the bit. It’s not a sexy move by management to bring a guy in on a PTO when they’re struggling for consistency across their defensive pairings, but they’re appearing to look around which is something.

Keep in mind that Bartkowsk also qualifies for exposure in the expansion draft which is coming up. If the Flames do decide to sign him, this could spell the end of Jyrki Jokipakka in Calgary. At this point, perhaps the only reason one could argue to keep Jokipakka around would be to meet expansion draft requirements.

(All data via Corsica.Hockey – 5v5 and min. 500 minutes played)