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For the past few seasons, the answer to “Who’s starting in net for the Calgary Flames?” has usually been a simple one: Jacob Markstrom.
Well, Markstrom’s now playing with the New Jersey Devils, and so the answer to that question is a bit less defined. And that’s created some uncertainty regarding both which players will be manning the Flames’ net for the 2024-25 season, and how they can be expected to perform.
Over at Daily Faceoff, our pal Matt Larkin has ranked all 32 projected goaltending tandems across the National Hockey League. The Flames’ goaltending placed 30th on Larkin’s list, only beating out the Columbus Blue Jackets and the Philadelphia Flyers.
Here’s Larkin’s rundown of Calgary’s goaltending, which he projected as being incumbent backup Dan Vladar (coming back from hip surgery) and former American Hockey League most valuable player Dustin Wolf:
Will we rank the Flames significantly higher a year from now? It all depends on what Wolf shows. He owned major junior. He owned the AHL. Finally, the highly regarded prospect gets an open runway with Markstrom traded. But Wolf, undersized at six-foot, didn’t perform great in his 17-game look last season. With the Flames in rebuild mode, he isn’t going to get a ton of help. Given backup Vladar is also coming off a terrible year in which he ranked dead last in the NHL in goals saved above expected per 60, this duo has a lot to prove in 2024-25. And yet: betting against Wolf, who has defied expectations at every level, doesn’t usually end well.
Could Flames goaltending turn out great? Sure! Vladar’s playing pain-free for the first time in a couple seasons. Wolf has built a frankly spectacular resume for a seventh-round draft pick. (If we’re being honest, his accomplishments would be impressive for a goaltender drafted in any round.) And Devin Cooley, the wild-card in this situation, has shown flashes of brilliance in the past year or so.
But all three goaltenders, while promising, have done far, far less at the NHL level than Markstrom has. And as a result, it’s probably reasonable to have a few doubts about how the club’s new goaltending group can do this season – and that’s not even factoring in the new-look defensive group, who’ll need to build chemistry and develop familiarity with each other.
We’ll see who ends up as the Flames’ netminding tandem at the end of camp, and how they perform in the upcoming season.
