The playoff roster is taking shape

Thursday afternoon was a relatively normal day of practice for the Calgary Flames. In one of their last on-ice sessions of Phase 3 training camp, their lines began to resemble what we’ve seen during the regular season (and what we’ll likely see in Game 1 against Winnipeg on Aug. 1).

Lines from Thursday’s main group:

Johnny Gaudreau – Sean Monahan – Elias Lindholm
Andrew Mangiapane – Mikael Backlund – Matthew Tkachuk
Milan Lucic – Derek Ryan – Dillon Dube
Tobias Rieder/Zac Rinaldo – Mark Jankowski – Sam Bennett

Mark Giordano – TJ Brodie
Noah Hanifin – Rasmus Andersson
Derek Forbort – Erik Gustafsson
Oliver Kylington – Michael Stone

David Rittich
Cam Talbot

These 23 players look awfully familiar because this is basically the established NHL group in their most common deployments. The first two lines are the post-Frolik status quo. The third line is the usual third line, which it has been all season aside from when Derek Ryan got sick mid-season. The fourth line is basically the same jumble of four players it has been virtually for the past 70-ish games.

This is the logical, safe deployment, especially considering the Flames are facing an evenly-matched foe in Winnipeg but have the advantage of home ice (and last change) at their disposal. With a short camp to get up to speed, the lack of shuffling of lines makes a lot of sense.

From Thursday’s skate, it appears that Rinaldo, Kylington and Stone would be scratches when the real games start. It’s still unclear which goaltender would be the Game 1 starter, though.

With a 31 player roster limit for Phase 4, four of the 35 players invited to camp won’t be coming to the bubble. So eight players will join the core group.

Two questions likely drive the decisions:

Who’s probably going? Defender Juuso Valimaki and forwards Austin Czarnik, Alan Quine, Buddy Robinson and Byron Froese. That leaves three spots.

If I’m the GM, I bring the goalie the Flames have signed for next season (Artyom Zagidulin) and whoever’s healthy between Gawdin and Phillips. If they’re both healthy, they both go. If just one, then Alexander Yelelsin also goes.

The players I would leave behind are pending UFA goalie Jon Gillies, defender Connor Mackey (who can’t play in the playoffs anyway), rookie forward Adam Ruzicka (who is super raw but benefited from camp) and Alexander Yelelsin (the least experienced defenseman in camp) in favour of forward depth. But again, if either Gawdin or Phillips aren’t good to make the trip to Edmonton, Yelesin goes instead.

The key to my decision-making is lineup flexibility and having players around that you’d feel comfortable throwing into the deep end at short notice.

Phase 4 technically begins on Sunday when the Flames head into the bubble, so we should be getting final Phase 4 rosters quite soon.