Friends, the 2024-25 Calgary Flames season has concluded – and unfortunately without a trip to the Stanley Cup playoffs. As we begin the post-mortem process here at the site, let’s dive into the mailbag to kick things off.
Axel Hurtig made his WHL debut this season after several years in Europe, including getting into some lower-tier Swedish pro games, and I really thought he was effective when I saw him this season. He’s not the most dynamic offensive player in the world, but he’s big, sturdy and isn’t afraid to use his frame to crush guys along the boards. We’ll have to see if he can keep working on his skating – he’ll need to be able to keep up with the pace of the North American pro game – but he’s gotten a lot of positive reviews for his work with the Hitmen this season.
The first 16 picks in the draft are given to the teams that missed the playoffs, so the Flames’ allocated pick is before New Jersey’s because New Jersey made the playoffs and the Flames missed them.
We have a detailed breakdown on the site.
I suspect the Flames will prioritize centres. I’m biased, but I’m a big fan of Calgary Hitmen centre Ben Kindel. He’s not a huge kid, listed by the WHL at 5’10” and 175 pounds, but he’s a really smart, savvy, play-driving forward. He’s good on face-offs, he makes plays, and he can score clutch goals. If he was a little bigger, there’s no way that he would possibly be available when the Flames select – tentatively at 18th overall, with New Jersey’s pick. But right now, Kindel seems like a great fit.
There are other promising centres available in the first round, too, but I’m a big Kindel fan.
The 2024 draft class has drawn really positive reviews, and the Flames added a really nice combination of scoring, size and positional versatility. I would suspect that we see the Flames employ a similar draft strategy in 2025, looking for offensive ceiling supplemented by other skill sets.
Disclaimer: I don’t think you find what you really want or need via free agency.
That said, the top defenders available look to be Ivan Provorov, Ryan Lindgren or Vladislav Gavrikov, and centres like Sam Bennett, Robby Fabbri or Jack Roslovic. Most free agent centres or defenders, least this year, trend towards being over 30, and the Flames may not want to delve into that marketplace too much.
I think the Flames got a lot of positive contributions from a lot of different players, but I’d probably be parting ways with Anthony Mantha, Kevin Rooney and Joel Hanley. It’s nothing against those players, but I’d try to open up a handful of players where younger players could be integrated into the lineup.
Got a question for a future mailbag? Contact Ryan on Twitter/BlueSky at @RyanNPike or e-mail him at Ryan.Pike [at] BetterCollective.com! (Make sure you put Mailbag in the subject line!)
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