Calgary Flames bringing an upside-down roster into 2024

Article content material

Earlier than the puck dropped on the 2023-24 season, the trio of Connor Zary, Martin Pospisil, and Nick DeSimone had appeared in a grand complete of 4 NHL video games.

Zary, at 22 years outdated, had by no means made the journey to the large membership, nor had 24-year-old Pospisil. Solely the 29-year-old journeyman DeSimone had donned the Flaming C beforehand (for a quartet of contests final yr).

Article content material

Article content material

Nonetheless, if you happen to had been to kind the Flames’ lively skaters by anticipated objectives for ratio (consider this as a measure of quantity and high quality of pictures whereas a participant is on the ice, for and in opposition to), you’d discover Pospisil, DeSimone, and Zary on prime (together with Mikael Backlund) on the 35-game mark. What’s extra attention-grabbing is that you simply’ll additionally discover 15 of the membership’s 23 skaters beneath the 50% p.c mark (that’s, they’ve been out-chanced in mixture).

Greater than half of Calgary gamers who’ve skated in at the very least 10 video games are within the pink when it comes to anticipated objectives for and in opposition to and solely seven of 23 boast a optimistic objective differential at five-on-five play. Of that small group, Nazem Kadri is the one member of the Flames’ ostensible top-six ahead rotation.

This sort of “inverted depth chart” is a sample repeated throughout different noteworthy efficiency metrics on the Flames roster. When you kind by manufacturing price per 60 minutes of ice time at even power, for example, you’ll see Zary leads the pack, adopted by the defensively reliable Blake Coleman, the uncommon vet on the workforce having a profession yr. Waiver pickup AJ Greer locations fifth, edging out each Elias Lindholm (seventh) and Jonathan Huberdeau (thirteenth).

Article content material

Article content material

It’s not essentially a nasty factor for teenagers and help gamers to place up good outcomes, however the membership’s predicament turns into clear everytime you take a look at its jumbled efficiency rankings. Rookies and function gamers lead the workforce in driving play and scoring price. Virtually to a person, the Flames’ established leaders and purported core gamers have been outplayed and outscored by the opposition. Calgary’s distinction makers de jure will not be their distinction makers defacto.

Huberdeau is essentially the most seen perpetrator, at present mired in a 12-game pointless streak. Nevertheless, the previous Panther is definitely not the one noteworthy veteran who has struggled thus far. Lindholm, Andrew Mangiapane, Chris Tanev, MacKenzie Weegar, Noah Hanifin, and Rasmus Andersson all have mediocre-to-poor underlying numbers relative to their paycheques and expectations. Even Kadri, who’s marginally within the black by pictures, possibilities, and objectives for (not like the remainder of this checklist) struggled till he was united with Zary and Pospisil. One wonders the place the workforce can be had the 2 kids not turned out to be revelations so far.

Article content material

The whole and chronic lack of chemistry among the many prime of the rotation (apart from Kadri and the children) leaves the membership with no true stars to anchor the assault, no prime line to confidently match in opposition to the opposition’s finest. It’s tempting to put this challenge on the toes of a small pattern of video games lower than midway by way of the season, however these struggles are an extension of what we noticed from the workforce within the wake of Johnny Gaudreau and Matthew Tkachuk’s departure going again to final season.

That is unhealthy information for anybody hoping Calgary would turn into a going concern within the West once more after Darryl Sutter’s departure. From one other angle, although, the Flames’ inverted depth chart is each clarifying and inspiring.

Clarifying, in that the trail ahead is turning into more and more apparent. Popping out of the Christmas break, the membership has no established prime line, an atomized, disorganized “core” of veteran performs, and maybe a one-in-five likelihood at a wild-card spot. Promoting key pending unrestricted free brokers on the commerce deadline has gone from a query mark in the beginning of the yr to a close to certainty lower than 40 video games in.

Article content material

Encouraging as a result of the play of children like Zary and Pospisil provides hope and type to the membership’s subsequent chapter. One of many advantages of a transitional part just like the one the workforce is getting into now’s the liberty to experiment on the NHL degree — to find out what inexperienced shoots at present lurk within the rubble of failed ambitions.

In one other, parallel actuality, there’s a Flames workforce scrapping for a playoff spot whereas Zary and firm plug away within the AHL, too younger and inexperienced to gamble a roster spot on given the circumstances. Calgary has not discovered its subsequent, era-defining expertise but, however there are diamonds within the tough showing because the fog of the earlier regime lifts. The group’s decision-makers can take solace in the truth that even when they’re sellers on the deadline, the fanbase may have contemporary faces to cheer for, a brand new hope materializing on the emergent horizon.

Article content material