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FlamesNation mailbag: Centering the focus
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christian tiberi
Sep 25, 2017, 10:00 EDTUpdated: Sep 25, 2017, 12:19 EDT
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So it’s been a week since the preseason has begun, and we’ve come even less close to answering some of the big questions.
In fact, there’s probably more questions to answer now. Some have underperformed, some have overperformed. Some have kicked the door down while others haven’t put their skates on. The winger spots, thought to be the spot of healthy competition, have looked less certain. The center position, probably the surest spot, has a few more competitors.
Naturally, a lot of you were curious about these position battles.
As we discussed in our Slack Sunday, Dube has probably been the most impressive player at training camp relative to the expectations placed on him. He’s been one of the better role players, something made more impressive given that his linemates have been Ryan Lomberg, Garnet Hathaway, Luke Gazdic, and Tanner Glass. I don’t think anyone expected anything of Dube, so just having this conversation is an extremely positive sign.
I think he gets one more preseason game as a sort of final interview, and if he does well, he’ll get his nine game cup of coffee. He also plays on the wing for Canada and Kelowna, so he has a fit. However, I don’t think he gets past nine games. The Flames have one more slide year with Dube, so sending him down makes sense from a contract perspective. It’s not a Matt Tkachuk situation where he’ll be critical to their success this year.
If Dube surprises us all and makes a major impact in this hypothetical nine game stint, it would be exciting. But until he does, might as well stow him away for later.
There’s a lot of interesting ways to approach this, but I really think that the best option is to keep it the same. The PP1 last year worked very well, especially when they subbed out Brouwer for Ferland. The PP2, or just the 3M line and Giordano + Hamilton also worked well.
Bennett seems like he would work on the PP, but his results thus far have not been promising. Last year, he only saw 98 minutes of PP time, but among the 13 Flames who played 50 minutes on the PP, he finished dead last in CF/60, FF/60, SF/60, and GF/60, and second last in SCF/60. Versteeg, for comparison, is fifth, third, second, ninth, and second in those categories respectively.
Not good all around. You have to bank on Bennett making a massive improvement to put him on PP1. He’s looked good in the preseason, but the regular season is a different monster.
I can’t see Jankowski on the wing. Sure, it’s theoretically an easy convert from centre, but it’s a position he hasn’t exclusively played since his first year of college four years ago. His physical tools and playing style are better for centre than wing, too. The team seems pretty set on keeping him at centre and it would be strange if they suddenly threw that out the window now that he’s actually in the NHL. They’d probably move Stajan first (either to the wing or to the press box), and then Bennett if it comes to that.
As for Tanner Glass, I’m skeptical. The longer he’s here, the more concerned I am. He’s been a good story this preseason but it’s hard to imagine that the Flames will actually sign him beyond an AHL deal. There’s nearly 10 years of evidence that point to Glass being bad at NHL hockey. He’s a hired goon who can’t provide much beyond that. It’s unlikely he’s turned a corner now. The team would be uncharacteristically blind to sign him just because of these few games.
Besides, the Flames have a bunch of young kids who are all fighting for the one or two spots available. It’s backwards thinking – not to mention, a slap in the face to said kids – to go for the 33-year-old dancing bear just because he scored a goal in the preseason instead of players who could be helpful night-in, night-out.
Looking unlikely. He was impressive in Edmonton, but not great against Vancouver. One of the things going for him is that no other potential RW solution has especially stepped up, so he still has a chance at cracking the roster. Then again, given that he’s waiver exempt and the Flames have two years to figure him out, they might feel less inclined to give him a spot versus someone who might require waivers.
For Pribyl, he tore his ACL again and is likely out for a long time. There’s a very strong chance we never see him in the NHL, unfortunately.
For Valimaki, I’m not convinced. He was outstanding in Penticton, but has cooled off a bit (as expected) in the preseason. I’m not sure you could make an argument for him as the 6D out of the gate, but then again, I’m not sure you could make an argument for any of the players battling for that position. Kulak has been disappointing, Bartkowski comes as advertised, and Wotherspoon has been just a bit above those levels. Giving Valimaki one more shot in an NHL look can’t hurt, but I don’t see him as the solution for the season.
Valimaki is not eligible for the AHL anyways, as he’s technically from the CHL. They can get two slide years out of him: this season and next. Given what they have in Stockton, I can’t see them burning a year.
Certainly a big picture question, but we’ll tackle it nonetheless.
Backlund seems like the most immediate trade candidate given his pending extension and his status as the second oldest centre on the roster. The pessimistic outlook is that he’s going to be at his most expensive just at the time when he’s exiting his prime, so let someone else take that time bomb. He might be worth it for the next two years, but his performance is likely to decline after that.
The realistic side however is that the Flames are unlikely to want to trade him. He’s a loyal soldier, a reliable player, and one of the more consistent and all around Flames over the past few years. Plus the optics of trading one of your best centres while entering your contention window are terrible. I think they take the risk on the contract.
Anything else is just blind guessing. They aren’t going to trade Monahan. If Bennett doesn’t improve at any point during this contract, I’d imagine they could trade him, but there’s likely little value left if he continues struggling. If Jankowski doesn’t stick it as a 4C (or if Dube steals his job), who would trade for him?
Besides, is it bad if not all of these guys get top six spots? You can only have two top six centres (duh), and being deep at centre doesn’t sound like much of a problem to me.
The crease question is the more interesting one that we haven’t covered in some way or another in recent mailbags, so let’s go with that one.
Right now, we have Mason McDonald and Tyler Parsons in Stockton’s camp. We can surely expect David Rittich and Jon Gillies to join them soonish, unless something disastrous happens in the next week. That’s four goalies competing for two jobs.
Given that McDonald couldn’t even get into a preseason game (and given his career results), you’d think he’s the odd man out. That leaves Parsons, Rittich, and Gillies. You feel they keep Gillies close by just in case something happens in the NHL crease, so now it’s Rittich and Parsons. Rittich is arguably around the same level as Gillies, so you feel they keep him nearby too, then leaving Parsons as the odd man out.
But is it so simple? Rittich is 25 now and unlikely to be a long term solution. Parsons just turned 20 last week and has the potential to be a blue chipper. The Flames could really speed up his development by playing him the AHL, which is a major step above the competition that he’ll see in the ECHL. Of course, the deal they signed Rittich to prevents them from putting him in the ECHL without approval from Rittich (the answer is almost always no).
So it may not be ideal, but Parsons is in the ECHL for the time being.
What else are we going to freak out about?
[Hi, this is Ari. I’ve taken over answering this last question because I’m tired.]
I strongly doubt it will because hockey is predominantly a rich, white sport and rich white men have proven time and time again they don’t care for fighting to protect the rights of others; not when they benefit from the systemic oppression that keeps them rooted in power.
Sidney Crosby’s remarks are exactly what Martin Luther King, Jr. was talking about in Letter From Birmingham Jail:
I have almost reached the regrettable conclusion that the Negro’s great stumbling block in his stride toward freedom is not the White Citizen’s Counciler or the Ku Klux Klanner, but the white moderate, who is more devoted to “order” than to justice; who prefers a negative peace which is the absence of tension to a positive peace which is the presence of justice; who constantly says: “I agree with you in the goal you seek, but I cannot agree with your methods of direct action”; who paternalistically believes he can set the timetable for another man’s freedom; who lives by a mythical concept of time and who constantly advises the Negro to wait for a “more convenient season.” Shallow understanding from people of good will is more frustrating than absolute misunderstanding from people of ill will. Lukewarm acceptance is much more bewildering than outright rejection.
Hockey is a culture of shutting down individualism and maintaining the status quo at all costs. The NHL attempts to placate with soulless PR stunts such as You Can Play and their “Declaration of Principles” so they can say they aren’t the bad guys, but they are. They absolutely are. Empty statements will never mean anything in the face of actual action while this sport and culture continues to do its absolute best to appeal to white men and only white men. I know far too many who do not fit that description who have felt so shunned by the NHL that they have dropped out of hockey fandom all together and have never looked back, and I find myself struggling more often than I would like to justify my fandom. It is not fun. Nobody wants to feel unwelcome. Nobody goes looking for it. Hockey is a truly beautiful game ruled by toxicity.
That said, there is the chance a select few may bring it to the forefront. Blake Wheeler had some good tweets when all of this started; J.T. Brown (who, it has to be noted, is one of the few non-white players in the league) has spoken out in the past back when people remembered Kaepernick’s goal was to bring light to the state-sanctioned police killings of people of colour and not just a blanket protest against Trump, particularly when John Tortorella shoved his foot in his mouth when asked about it a year ago.
But the way hockey operates I suspect anyone who wants to bring it to light will be shut down quickly. If we see players sitting or kneeling during the American anthem I will be shocked. If we see players with their arms linked together I will be shocked. If we see any displays like Bruce Maxwell and Mark Canha’s I will be shocked.
At a time when the NBA, NFL, and MLB joined together, the predominantly white sport stood separate from them and said, “The current state of affairs is acceptable.” Because to white people, it is.
This is a predominantly white sport for predominantly white people. And white people predominantly don’t like to be confronted with the ugly history that has led to today’s society. Hence, you end up with the white moderate. Hence, you end up with the racists for whom no form of protesting will ever be good enough, no matter how respectful and nonviolent.
I strongly recommend reading Ta-Nehisi Coates’ The First White President in The Atlantic and watching Ava DuVernay’s 13th on Netflix. It is not an accident how we got here.

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