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FlamesNation Mailbag: Taking your questions on the captaincy, training camp and goaltending
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Photo credit: Mike Gould
Ryan Pike
Aug 26, 2024, 14:00 EDTUpdated: Aug 26, 2024, 00:26 EDT
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Friends, this is the last mailbag edition of the summer. August is winding down, and next week’s edition of the mailbag will be taking place in September… as we begin the run-up to prospects reporting for training camp.
As we wind down August, let’s delve into the mailbag!
In terms of Mikael Backlund, I don’t think he plays a single game for the Flames between now and the rest of his career as anything but captain. He’s very respected in the locker room (and around the league), and he was basically captain for two years before they actually made him captain. I don’t think there’s any appetite to remove that C from his jersey, and so I suspect he’ll be captain until he retires.
In terms of MacKenzie Weegar, he may be the heir apparent. He’s signed through 2030-31 – the projected fourth season in the new building – and he’s been pretty adamant about wanting to be a big part of what the Flames are building with their re-(verb) process. He emerged as a heck of a defender on the ice over the past couple of seasons, and he’s a very eloquent, engaging speaker when he chats with the media.
When Chris Tanev and Elias Lindholm were traded, their alternate captain spots (they wore As at home) went to a rotation of Blake Coleman, Nazem Kadri and Weegar. I would imagine we see some sort of alternate rotation continue in 2024-25, undoubtedly with Weegar wearing an A for a good chunk of the time.
Backlund’s one of the longest-serving, most-respected Flames ever. Weegar’s just getting started and he’s already carving out a very positive reputation for himself.
Assuming everybody’s healthy all year, I would predict that Dustin Wolf gets 45 games and Dan Vladar gets 37. However, I would suspect the Flames will try to work Devin Cooley into the mix – they’ll have oodles of cap space and probably some roster and waiver flexibility – so my official educated guess is 45 games for Wolf, 30 games for Vladar and seven games for Cooley.
Now that I’ve put it out into the universe, I guarantee that my numbers will be off of what actually happens.
For the sake of this discussion, I’m limiting this to players that were eligible for our prospect rankings. So I’m not counting Jakob Pelletier or Matt Coronato – for the record, I think both of them break camp with the Flames and the team carries 14 forwards for a little while as they figure out roles and line chemistry throughout their forward group. I don’t think any other forwards have much of a shot at making the team out of camp if only because there are so many incumbent players, particularly on the wings.
On the blueline, keep an eye on Ilya Solovyov. Yes, on paper it feels like the starting seven are set – Weegar, Andersson, Bean, Miromanov, Pachal, Bahl and Hanley – but Solovyov was up for a good chunk of the late part of the 2023-24 season and fit in really well on the third pairing and penalty kill. I wouldn’t rule out Solovyov challenging for a depth spot in camp.
And if we’re still considering him a prospect, Dustin Wolf is a lock to make the team in my mind.
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Do you think the team is locked into drafting a center, assuming they bottom out? There are some guys in the upcoming draft like McQueen and Martone who really intriguing. I’m not sure that the org has wingers quite as skilled as those two.

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I think the Flames need young centres like they need air in their lungs. But I also think they’re aware of the potential folly of chasing particular positions at the draft over just taking the best players available at each draft slot. So if they’re anything like they’ve operated for the past decade, they’ll create their list and then draft their list. It’s better for their team long-term if they draft the best players rather than step over those best players to load up on centres.
If the best available players are centres, though, that would be ideal for them.
Got a question for a future mailbag? Contact Ryan on Twitter/X at @RyanNPike or e-mail him at Ryan [at] TheNationNetwork.com! (Make sure you put Mailbag in the subject line!)

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