Gang, we’re halfway through the 4 Nations Face-Off break in the National Hockey League’s schedule. The Calgary Flames return to the practice ice on Tuesday afternoon and they’ll conduct a mini training camp before starting the homestretch of their schedule on Sunday, Feb. 23 against the San Jose Sharks.
As we get ready for the last week of the break, let’s dive into the mailbag!
For those who aren’t familiar, Wranglers interim head coach Joe Cirella noted that Jeremie Poirier and William Strömgren were held out of Saturday’s matinee against the Ontario Reign as a “developmental decision.” We don’t want to speculate what led to that decision, but regardless, the Wranglers had a few veteran players available from the Flames that they usually don’t – Ilya Solovyov, Dryden Hunt and Adam Klapka were sent down by the Flames for the break – and whether sitting them was meant as punishment or as a “hey, take a breather and watch to learn a bit,” this was probably a good time to do it.
I think it depends on what you want player roles to be and what kind of mix you want in terms of age group. I like Sam Bennett and Nazem Kadri because they both play with some snarl and attitude, and they can combine that with high skill levels. But they’re both really different types of players, and Kadri is 34 with a $7 million cap hit while Bennett is 28… and will probably be pricier than Kadri.
Anyway, I’ve learned to never rule anything out. But I don’t really have a sense right now that either move is very likely.
Love this question.
My all-time Flames Team Canada:
- Goalie: Mike Vernon
- Defencemen: Al MacInnis and Robyn Regehr
- Forwards: Theo Fleury, Joe Nieuwendyk and Jarome Iginla
My all-time Flames Team World:
- Goalie: Miikka Kiprusoff
- Defencemen: Gary Suter and Rasmus Andersson
- Forwards: Johnny Gaudreau, Kent Nilsson and Mikael Backlund
Right now, I would argue that the Flames have found a high-end goaltender in Dustin Wolf. But they probably need a high-end blueliner – it could end up being Zayne Parekh – along with a couple high-end forwards, especially a centre. Right now, they have a lot of pretty good forwards in their system and emerging on their NHL roster, but time will tell if any of them can become high-end NHLers.
To contend, you need multiple difference-making players. Right now the Flames have a goaltender that can steal them games. But they still need skaters that can score those key goals at key moments.
Matt Coronato’s emergence as a really good young NHLer has been one of the more fun stories to follow this season with the Flames. Fun fact: Coronato is actually
the leader among Flames forwards in average game score – as in, he’s had the largest average impact on games of any forward on the team.
Via Natural Stat Trick, he’s third among Flames forwards in expected goals percentage – only Mikael Backlund and Blake Coleman have better metrics – and that’s with playing on the tough minutes line most of the season and starting most of his shifts in the defensive zone – only Ryan Lomberg, Kevin Rooney and Backlund have a lower offensive zone face-off rate than Coronato.
Long story short: Coronato’s been excellent this season.
Here’s what I would look at, assuming that there are no major roster changes – e.g., I’m not trading anybody or sending anybody established to the AHL:
Huberdeau – Kadri – Sharangovich
Coleman – Backlund – Coronato
Zary – Frost – Farabee
Lomberg – Rooney – Pospisil
Bahl – Andersson
Weegar – Miromanov
Bean – Pachal
I’m of the mindset that the Flames should roll with what’s worked this season during the next little bit, especially considering they have a six game road trip immediately after the San Jose game. So I go back to the “classic” top two lines and then add Zary to the third group. The defensive pairings go back to the status quo, and you ride Dustin Wolf as much as you can.
The Athletic has the West playoff cutline at 96 points, HockeyViz has it at 91 points, MoneyPuck has it at 92 points, and Evolving-Hockey has it at 96 points.
The Flames currently have 60 points, so they probably need around 35 or 36 more points to make it – or at least to be close.
The red jersey with the black C that the Flames wore during the 2004 Stanley Cup Final run rules. I would love to see the Flames bust out some retro looks either during the Saddledome’s final years or Scotia Place’s first few years.
If anybody’s headed to the Flames/Flyers game in Philadelphia on Mar. 4, connect with Al on his socials! If there’s one thing I’ve learned doing this job for the past decade and change, it’s that there are Flames fans everywhere.
From David via e-mail: Two questions around both Parekh and Gridin. Can they play for the Wranglers once their teams have been eliminated from the playoffs? Or could they play for the Flames less than 9 regular season games and not impact their ELC? Do playoff games count against their ELCs?
For junior players under contract, the Flames can assign them to the Wranglers OR the Flames after their junior seasons are complete. However, calling up a junior-aged player under contract – such as Zayne Parekh, Matvei Gridin, Andrew Basha or Etienne Morin – would count against their four non-emergency recalls they’re limited to after the trade deadline. Assigning them to the Wranglers wouldn’t count against that limit, and neither would adding unsigned drafted players on amateur try-out deals at the end of their junior seasons.
Regular season and playoff games both count against the nine games a player on a contract slide year can play before their deal kicks in. (We don’t need to get too far down the rabbit hole in terms of slide years, but if you’re a teenager who’s signed an NHL contract, the deal likely slides unless you’re playing full-time in the NHL.)
Got a question for a future mailbag? Contact Ryan on Twitter/BlueSky at @RyanNPike or e-mail him at Ryan [at] TheNationNetwork.com! (Make sure you put Mailbag in the subject line!)
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