If you’ve been following the National Hockey League this season, one of the bigger surprises in the league has been the Calgary Flames. Expected to be a pretty rough team – oddsmakers had them listed sixth-from-last in points in pre-season over/under betting – the Flames have hung around in and around the playoff picture through the first month and a half of the season.
A good amount of credit for the Flames’ success so far has to go to their goaltenders, Dan Vladar and Dustin Wolf. Heading into Monday’s games, the Flames are first in five-on-five save percentage (and sixth in all situations), with both goaltenders posting pretty impressive numbers given the circumstances.
Wolf’s emergence as not only a full-time NHL goaltender, but a pretty good one, has led to some buzz building about his potential contention for the Calder Memorial Trophy, awarded every year to the NHL’s top freshman. Heck, on Monday’s edition of Barn Burner (on the FlamesNation YouTube feed), Daily Faceoff’s Frank Seravalli declared that if he was voting today, Wolf would be top three on his Calder ballot. (Voting isn’t until mid-April.)
On Monday after Flames practice (via Flames TV), head coach Ryan Huska was asked about Wolf’s Calder bonifides and his answer was pretty simple: it’s still very early in the season.
“It’s November. [chuckles] I mean, I don’t think I would even go there yet. I mean, I love the guy, and I think he’s done an excellent job, and as I said… if you do enough and you earn it, people are going to recognize it, but we are way too early for any of that talk, in my opinion.”
Through 18 games, Wolf has started nine times, and has posted a 6-2-1 record with a 2.53 goals against average, .921 save percentage and one shutout. He’s not only the statistical leader in most categories among rookie goaltenders, he’s within a stone’s throw of the league’s overall leaders in some metrics, too.
Wolf is no stranger to awards. He was named the Western Hockey League’s top goaltender twice, the American Hockey League’s top goaltender twice, and was also named the AHL’s most valuable player. But like Huska, Wolf downplayed awards talk when the topic was broached.
“It doesn’t really matter,” said Wolf. “I mean, sure, it’s cool at the end of the day. But, you know, at the end of the day my job is to help our team get wins, help our team get to the playoffs. And, you know, if that sort of extra stuff comes along with it, then great.”
The Flames have 64 games remaining in the regular season. Their next game is on Tuesday night when they host the New York Islanders.
