Buds, welcome to the month of September!

Sadly, this means summer is coming to an end. Happily, this means that hockey is almost back. So, the days of summer wind down… let’s get into the mail bag as we count down the days until prospect training camp!

I like the forward depth; they might not have any true forward aces, but there’s not a ton of drop-off from Nazem Kadri and Jonathan Huberdeau to the third line guys, and that means you can mix and match without really diluting any lines. I like Dustin Wolf as the undisputed starter and they have some interesting blueline projects behind the top duo of MacKenzie Weegar and Rasmus Andersson.

Man, you’d really like to have a forward ace the way the Flames have with Wolf in net, wouldn’t you? (I would argue that Weegar is close to getting to that level for the blueline group, but that’s a topic for another day.) And the defensive group gets a bit lean in terms of NHL-tested blueliners once Rasmus Andersson is wearing another team’s jersey. Kevin Bahl, who’s their third man up, is heading into his third full NHL season and is arguably still a work in progress. And the entire blueline group is kinda like that, in the aggregate.

Here is how I would roll things out on Oct. 8 against Edmonton, assuming Connor Zary is signed to a new deal by then:

Jonathan Huberdeau – Nazem Kadri – Yegor Sharangovich
Connor Zary – Morgan Frost – Matt Coronato
Joel Farabee – Mikael Backlund – Blake Coleman
Ryan Lomberg – Justin Kirkland – Martin Pospisil

Joel Hanley – MacKenzie Weegar
Kevin Bahl – Rasmus Andersson
Brayden Pachal – Zayne Parekh

Dustin Wolf in net.

The extras would be Ivan Prosvetov, Jake Bean and Adam Klapka.

Jarome Iginla remains as special assistant to Flames general manager Craig Conroy, as of this writing, and this would be his third season in that role. Jarome’s youngest son, Joe, is 17 and heading into his draft-eligible season with the Western League’s Edmonton Oil Kings. I would suspect that once all of Jarome’s kids are out of junior hockey, perhaps then we see his role changed. But for now, it seems like they’ve found a nice spot for him and given the ample respect for Iginla in the organization, he’ll be allowed to keep developing in that role unless he wants to be doing something else.

The Flames have a dollar figure they feel comfortable giving to Connor Zary based on his experience level and production. I would suspect the Flames have some comparable players in mind for Zary, and that currently the two sides simply have a difference of opinion on Zary’s number. It happens, especially with players like Zary that have really unique skill sets and factors that complicate their development, such as rough injury luck.

Hopefully they can hammer out something, probably a short-term deal, and then Zary has a chance to have a full season and show what he can do.

I will not be replacing Ryan Leslie on Flames broadcasts on Sportsnet. But there are a lot of talented people probably in the running for the role. Leslie will be missed around the rink, but Sportsnet will definitely find somebody good to fill his big shoes.