Post by Calgary Flames on Oct 4, 2022 9:19:06 GMT -6
The Flames have continued to be pretty quiet this off-season, which was perhaps not a surprise given that the vast majority of players were under contract. Here us a look at some of the new faces in Calgary:
The Starting Goalie: The biggest hole to fill was definitely in goal where starting goalie, Mike Smith, retired. Smith was one of the better rated goalies in the league so Kuemper has some big holes to fill. The former Red Deer Rebel has an improved team in front of him compared to Smith (more on that later) so the hope is there will not be much of a drop off in net.
The Promotions: The promotions from the AHL have had a significant impact on the roster. Alex Nylander has turned into a bonafide top line player, Connor Timmins is currently on the 2nd pairing and the 2nd PP unit, and Mikhael Maltsev provides some low cost punch to the 3rd line. Having Nylander on the top line and having Maltsev has dradstically improved the teams depth where as the 3rd line was previous mostly junk, it now features Krejci between Maltsev and Fabbri at an average rating a little better than 73.
The Depth Adds: The Flames traded away some of their previous depth pieces in Galchenyuk and Kahun while losing Nosek to free agency. The bigger losses where on the back end where the team traded away key defenders in Matheson and Maatta. On the back end Timmins is filling a big role but the team also added Russell and Ruhwedel through trade who will battle it out for the third pair spot open. The team also traded for Derek Ryan who is expected to be their 4th line centre and a main penalty killer and made a sneaky waiver pick up for depth forward Ryan Dzingel after being in trade talks for the player. Dzingel is versatile and is expected to be the 13th forward.
Conclusion: Although the Flames did not make any splashy trades, they were largely able to improve their roster through internal promotions. Moving Matheson and Maatta could hurt a bit but they were necessary casualties of the salary cap and allowed the Flames to re-stock the youth pipeline which was necessary in a thin talent pool. The price in the Darcy Kuemper deal was not prohibitive but time will tell if the Flames should have been more aggressive there. The big win is upfront where the team now has 3 good lines and the 4th line boasts two of the teams best penalty killers which is generally a good way to construct the roster. Overall the Flames look to have improved on a team that was very close to winning two play-off rounds but the Pacific is ultra-competitive. Will the moves prove to be enough to win one more game make it to the conference finals? Only time will tell.
The Starting Goalie: The biggest hole to fill was definitely in goal where starting goalie, Mike Smith, retired. Smith was one of the better rated goalies in the league so Kuemper has some big holes to fill. The former Red Deer Rebel has an improved team in front of him compared to Smith (more on that later) so the hope is there will not be much of a drop off in net.
The Promotions: The promotions from the AHL have had a significant impact on the roster. Alex Nylander has turned into a bonafide top line player, Connor Timmins is currently on the 2nd pairing and the 2nd PP unit, and Mikhael Maltsev provides some low cost punch to the 3rd line. Having Nylander on the top line and having Maltsev has dradstically improved the teams depth where as the 3rd line was previous mostly junk, it now features Krejci between Maltsev and Fabbri at an average rating a little better than 73.
The Depth Adds: The Flames traded away some of their previous depth pieces in Galchenyuk and Kahun while losing Nosek to free agency. The bigger losses where on the back end where the team traded away key defenders in Matheson and Maatta. On the back end Timmins is filling a big role but the team also added Russell and Ruhwedel through trade who will battle it out for the third pair spot open. The team also traded for Derek Ryan who is expected to be their 4th line centre and a main penalty killer and made a sneaky waiver pick up for depth forward Ryan Dzingel after being in trade talks for the player. Dzingel is versatile and is expected to be the 13th forward.
Conclusion: Although the Flames did not make any splashy trades, they were largely able to improve their roster through internal promotions. Moving Matheson and Maatta could hurt a bit but they were necessary casualties of the salary cap and allowed the Flames to re-stock the youth pipeline which was necessary in a thin talent pool. The price in the Darcy Kuemper deal was not prohibitive but time will tell if the Flames should have been more aggressive there. The big win is upfront where the team now has 3 good lines and the 4th line boasts two of the teams best penalty killers which is generally a good way to construct the roster. Overall the Flames look to have improved on a team that was very close to winning two play-off rounds but the Pacific is ultra-competitive. Will the moves prove to be enough to win one more game make it to the conference finals? Only time will tell.
