The unofficial start of the 2024-25 Calgary Flames season took place on Tuesday, as their annual golf tournament benefiting the Flames Foundation was held. Players, local celebrities, dignitaries and foundation supports all hit the links to raise the curtain on the upcoming season.

Over at Sportsnet 960 The Fan, they had oodles of interviews on The Big Show and Flames Talk with Flames figures. One of the most illuminating was one George Rusic, Matt Rose and Brent Krahn conducted with Flames head coach Ryan Huska during The Big Show.

Here are some particularly interesting quotes and exchanges from Huska’s chat.

“Well, we have the… I guess you’d probably say the three that we know are legitimate centremen, and then we have guys like Zary, Sharnagovich, potentially Pospsiil…”

“Correct. Those are typically guys, and then you have Schwindt, guys like Bishop that are going to push for spots.”

“If you look at our team, one of the questions that people have is our goaltending. There’s unknown there. Neither guy… or, three of them… does neither work for three guys? There’s not a ton of experience at the NHL level. For me, as I mentioned earlier, when you talk about opportunity, guys just want to show that they can play. So I don’t think there’s a better situation for a young guy that’s trying to really prove himself or grab hold of that starting role than what we have in front of us right now. All of those guys are going to get opportunity. Danny, for sure, is going to get the opportunity to be our guy, and then our expectation is that Dustin and Cooley are going to really push.”

“We feel like we need to get a little bigger in that department, and it’s important for us to have that one, because one of our goaltenders is not as big as Dan Vladar or Devin Cooley, so we have to be able to keep people away from his sightline and away from the front of the net, having someone that size, a young guy that we can work with and help grow and develop his game is important for us.”

“I think what he’s going to get here in his first camp, starting with stuff in Penticton, there’s a different game that has to be played than what you can play in junior, especially when you’re that much better than everyone. So his skill set is off the charts, and as he grows and develops he’s got to learn to use the skill set the right way. And that’s what’s kind of going to be his path to being a successful NHL defenceman for us in the near future.

“There are most definitely spots and competition will be there if players want it, and that’s what it’s all about for me.”

The Flames will take part in the Young Stars Classic prospect tournament in Penticton, B.C. this coming weekend and begin main training camp next week.