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Four Burning Questions Surrounding the Calgary Flames Prior to 2024-2025 |
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With all signs pointing towards a quiet end to the offseason for the Calgary Flames, we have a minute to examine the roster and look at a few questions that surround the team. Let’s start with a projection of the forward group.
Pospisil-Kadri-Kuzmenko
Sharangovich-Backlund-Coleman
Huberdeau-Zary-Mantha
Lomberg-Rooney-Coronato
Much can happen over training camp and preseason, but it’s fair to assume the following.
Anthony Mantha will likely start on a line with the perpetually snakebitten Jonathan Huberdeau. The two play summer hockey together and the big ticket Flames forward could use someone on his line with a bit of size.
Ryan Lomberg will be one of the few bottom six forwards with a defined roster spot. He didn’t have that luxury in Florida, but a two-year, $4,000,000 deal implies that Craig Conroy and the Flames are prepared to provide him a permanent place as long as he’s healthy enough to live up to his contract.
With that said, let’s get to a few burning questions.
Anthony or Andrew?
You have to wonder if Mantha, who notched 23 goals and 21 assists for 44 points with the Capitals and Golden Knights will be an able replacement of Andrew Mangiapane, who was dealt to the Capitals in early July for Colorado’s second round pick in 2025.
Mangiapane recorded 14 goals and 26 assists for 40 points in 76 games in 2023-2024, but appeared to be a far cry from the player that scored 35 goals in 21-22. A shoulder injury prior to the 2022-2023 season appears to have haunted him up to this point.
One solace is that, regardless of performance, Mantha’s cap hit is a mere $3,000,000 compared to Mangiapane’s $5,900,000. Both are set to become unrestricted free agents as of July 1, 2025.
Speaking of health.
How broke is the Berg?
It’s been four long years since Ryan Lomberg signed a four-year, $4,000,000 deal with the Florida Panthers as an unrestricted free agent.
In that time, the now 29 year old spark plug has played 246 regular season games and a whopping 32 playoff games.
Experiencing a drop from 20 points to just seven season over season in the past two years, there is a chance that the term “damaged goods” may be used among the fanbase in the near future. While the fire still burns bright for the 5-foot-9, 184-pound forward between whistles, his breakneck speed has become a rarity.
Who steals the starting role?
You have to feel a little bad for goaltender Daniel Vladar.
2022-2023 really could have gone differently if it weren’t for the stubborn nature of head coach Darryl Sutter. Despite posting a respectable 14-6-5 record and outplaying resident starter Jacob Markstrom for multiple extended stretches, Darryl stood by his man. Markstrom started a whopping 59 games and went a miserable 23-21-12.
Perhaps there is another universe where Vladar was given the reigns, the Flames made the playoffs, and Darryl Sutter remained the head coach of the Calgary Flames.
What we do know is that Vladar’s luck hasn’t gotten better in our current timeline. Hip issues and an eventual surgery to address the matter held Vladar to only 20 games last season. In his absence, the now 23 year old Dustin Wolf made a strong case to move forward as the team’s #1. A 6-4-0 record in March and April last season far outshone the soon-to-depart Jacob Markstrom, who went 3-8-0 over that span.
Will Vladar shock the fanbase and outplay Dustin Wolf in camp? Time will tell.
Will we see a sophomore slump?
Dustin Wolf joins an exclusive group of second year NHLers on the team that will seek to build on encouraging results in 2023-2024.
Connor Zary and Martin Pospisil played major parts in rocketing the Flames out of the basement following a dismal 2-6-1 October. Both scored goals in their first games in early November and their high tempo transition game set an example for the rest of the team.
By the end of November, the Flames were back in their happy place: .500.
A 10-10-3 record brought hope and ironically allowed management to hold on to the message that the team didn’t necessarily need to rebuild just yet.
Zary finished the year with 14 goals and 20 assists for 34 points. The Saskatoon Sniper quickly established a place on the powerplay and provided unparalleled poise with the puck at 5v4.
Pospisil, meanwhile, hit a lower point total, eight goals, 16 assists, 24 points, but made arguably a greater impact than Zary. His hardline speed and edge-of-the-knife forechecking resulted in a 34-25-4 record with the feisty Slovak in the lineup.
Without Pospisil? The team went 4-14-1.
With a major step forward from any combination of the three, a top ten pick might start to appear less realistic than many fans expect.
Trevor Neufeld
Stats courtesy of nhl.com, naturalstattrick.com and puckpedia.com.
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