Thoughts on the Calgary Flames?

[Zegs2sendhelp]

There's a reason why Smith is only here for 2 years... Because we believe that one of Gillies or Parsons can take the reins by then. We also have Rittich who is a real wild card. Lack is only here for a year, so I will not be surprised if one of those 3 goalie prospects becomes the backup next year and really pushing for the #1 spot from Smith.

Ah okay gillies was the other guy I couldn't think of his name... but ya they have done a good job filing up their system with some good goalies for the future. Honestly I felt like if they had a better goalie last year that ducks and flames series could have easily been a 7 game series.

 

[Aceboogie]

Don't know where this perception of the Flames being "top heavy" up front is coming from. If anything we're exactly the opposite. We have JG as a potential PPG player and then a bunch of depth. In order to make any noise, the Flames will obviously need to put together all of their scoring depth at once, which was something they couldn't do for lengths of time last year. However, when they do they have:

Gaudreau
Monahan
Ferland
Backlund
Frolik
Tkachuk
Versteeg
Brouwer
Bennett

All of these guys will need to produce at around a .5 ppg pace. That means big increases from Brouwer, Bennett, and Ferland. Brouwer will hopefully rebound. Bennett needs to put his total game together. Ferland showed the potential to score once in an expanded role. The rest were actually a .5 ppg pace or higher.

That's potentially one of the deepest groups in the NHL and far from top heavy.

Whole bunch of "maybes". Your essentially saying you need to have big increases from Brower, Bennett and Ferland to be deep. Well any team could have incredible depth if they get big increases from 3 different players. Brouwer looked horrible this year and no sane person is expecting him to rebound in a big way. I mean the guys career high is 43 points (or .5 ppg) and coming off a 25 point year at 32 years old. Career high production from a regressing player? Pretty pie in the sky idea there

Bennett, well who the hells knows. He has nothing to rebound from because he hasnt really shown that much. Maybe he gets to .5 ppg if he breaks out this year, thats a big if. Ferland is a sub 30 point player too, so your asking for a massive improvement statistically from a depth player

The Flames have 5 good forwards in JG, Monahan, Tkachuk, Backlund, Frolik and then some poor depth behind that. Sure the depth could be good if 3 players all explode for career years, but Vancouver could also be great if Sbisa wins the norris

 

[Sol]

If you guys had a player like McDavid on your team, you'd bet hed be average 21 mins+ a night. Can't believe that's an argument. Can tell you right now that Calgary needs McDavid more than Edmonton does.

 

[tfong]

Just for fun; because these Flames threads always get a good laugh from the Flames board:
From the first three pages:

9 Flames fans saying something positive about the team.
18 Neutral fans saying something positive about the team.
2 Oiler fans saying something borderline positive about the team.
12 Oiler fans saying something negative about the team.
4 Neutral, mostly Leaf, fans saying something negative about the team.
A bunch of random posts, or double posts saying the same thing (and not counted twice).

On a Flames related thread, there are more Oiler fans getting their hands dirty than Calgary

This was probably the most interesting post in this entire thread for me to read.

 

[Haatley]

If you guys had a player like McDavid on your team, you'd bet hed be average 21 mins+ a night. Can't believe that's an argument. Can tell you right now that Calgary needs McDavid more than Edmonton does.

What?
Without Mcdavid, the Oilers are a lottery team still.

 

[The Winter Soldier]

They are a good young team that I see becoming a force out west. Also some of their younger players are fun to follow. Burke and Treliving are doing a good job.

 

[Zegs2sendhelp]

If you guys had a player like McDavid on your team, you'd bet hed be average 21 mins+ a night. Can't believe that's an argument. Can tell you right now that Calgary needs McDavid more than Edmonton does.

Huh.. without McDavid you guys were a consistent lottery team.... and I assume without McDavid you guys are likely looking at a top 10 pick. Without McDavid flames are still a playoff team.

I don't even get what you are saying.

 

[Sol]

Huh.. without McDavid you guys were a consistent lottery team.... and I assume without McDavid you guys are likely looking at a top 10 pick. Without McDavid flames are still a playoff team.

I don't even get what you are saying.

Didn't Draisaitl and McDavid make the team at the same time? Not an Oilers fan btw.

 

[tfong]

Aren't we talking about the Flames? Why we discussing McDavid and Drai?

Think solid pieces all around honestly, but I definitely need maturity and someone to step it up.

 

[ManofSteel55]

Very good defense. I agree with most who say that their blueline is overrated, but it is still good. I think they have issues with their forwards. I'd be happy with their second line if I were them, but there are question marks everywhere else. And I'm not a Smith fan and don't think he is much of an upgrade on Elliot at this point. I think they are fighting for a wildcard spot this year.

 

[Cassano]

I think the acquisation of Hamonic was overrated. He was brutal last year for the Isles and has generally been overrated throughout his career. They have pretty horrible center depth and goaltending - the most important positions to construct a hockey team, so I think they're 1st round exit material once again.

 

[Zegs2sendhelp]

Didn't Draisaitl and McDavid make the team at the same time? Not an Oilers fan btw.

Draisaitl played half a season the year before mcdaivd came.... but either way I don't get your point. The flames don't have McDavid and are a playoff team... if you took McDavid off the oilers id have a hard time putting them as a playoff team. Unless I misunderstood your original post.

 

[blankall]

Whole bunch of "maybes". Your essentially saying you need to have big increases from Brower, Bennett and Ferland to be deep. Well any team could have incredible depth if they get big increases from 3 different players. Brouwer looked horrible this year and no sane person is expecting him to rebound in a big way. I mean the guys career high is 43 points (or .5 ppg) and coming off a 25 point year at 32 years old. Career high production from a regressing player? Pretty pie in the sky idea there

Bennett, well who the hells knows. He has nothing to rebound from because he hasnt really shown that much. Maybe he gets to .5 ppg if he breaks out this year, thats a big if. Ferland is a sub 30 point player too, so your asking for a massive improvement statistically from a depth player

The Flames have 5 good forwards in JG, Monahan, Tkachuk, Backlund, Frolik and then some poor depth behind that. Sure the depth could be good if 3 players all explode for career years, but Vancouver could also be great if Sbisa wins the norris

I'm saying that if we get big increases from those players we have elite level depth. The Flames already have good depth, and are far from a front loaded team. That's without taking into account the offensive contributions we get from many of our d-men.

Behind JG, Monahan, Tkachuk, Backlund, and Frolik, we arleady have Ferland and Versteeg. If we can get contributions from 2 or more forwards, all of a sudden we are one of the deepest teams in the league. I don't see how the Flames are top heavy team at all. Especially as the 2nd line (which actually started as the 3rd line) was the best line for the team last year.

 

[DJJones]

I'm saying that if we get big increases from those players we have elite level depth. The Flames already have good depth, and are far from a front loaded team. That's without taking into account the offensive contributions we get from many of our d-men.

Behind JG, Monahan, Tkachuk, Backlund, and Frolik, we arleady have Ferland and Versteeg. If we can get contributions from 2 or more forwards, all of a sudden we are one of the deepest teams in the league. I don't see how the Flames are top heavy team at all. Especially as the 2nd line (which actually started as the 3rd line) was the best line for the team last year.

Ya if we can get Bennett's line going we can say we have good depth. Obviously that didn't work last year.

Hoping Jankowski or moving Tkachuk to the 3rd solves that problem.

 

[OvermanKingGainer]

Ah okay gillies was the other guy I couldn't think of his name... but ya they have done a good job filing up their system with some good goalies for the future. Honestly I felt like if they had a better goalie last year that ducks and flames series could have easily been a 7 game series.

The timing wasn't great. Johnson got injured a few days before the season ended and it would have been a wild dart to throw one of the prospects in. Gillies had a game in the NHL against an offensivly challenged Kings team and Rittich had a lone period in relief of Elliott. Add in that Elliott was okay in Game 1 and the first two periods of Game 3 and it just worked out badly. Elliott makes a save in period 3 or that Jompson high stick is deemed a no-goal and Elliott probably gets his confidence back with a blowout win game 3.

 

[belair]

In all seriousness, they may be a bit tougher to play against with the addition of Hamonic, if he stays healthy. But they went from Brian Elliott to Mike Smith in net, which isn't exactly the most exciting upgrade, if it is at all. And as a middle-of-the-pack scoring team last season, they added nothing in terms of scoring depth.

If the West is an arms race next season in terms of goal production, the Flames lost some ground.

 

[blankall]

In all seriousness, they may be a bit tougher to play against with the addition of Hamonic, if he stays healthy. But they went from Brian Elliott to Mike Smith in net, which isn't exactly the most exciting upgrade, if it is at all. And as a middle-of-the-pack scoring team last season, they added nothing in terms of scoring depth.

If the West is an arms race next season in terms of goal production, the Flames lost some ground.

The Flames team is young enough that it should get better. Their highest producing forward, Gaudreau, was also injured last year. The Flames also got off to an abysmal star last year. Through the 2nd half of the season they were a top scoring team.

Basically, the Flames don't really need to address scoring. Their biggest issues were defensive depth and goaltending.

 

[Aceboogie]

I'm saying that if we get big increases from those players we have elite level depth. The Flames already have good depth, and are far from a front loaded team. That's without taking into account the offensive contributions we get from many of our d-men.

Behind JG, Monahan, Tkachuk, Backlund, and Frolik, we arleady have Ferland and Versteeg. If we can get contributions from 2 or more forwards, all of a sudden we are one of the deepest teams in the league. I don't see how the Flames are top heavy team at all. Especially as the 2nd line (which actually started as the 3rd line) was the best line for the team last year.

Any team would have elite depth if they get a 40% production increase from 3 depth players and have no forward take a step back. Thats just a casual increase of 20 goals combined, which is like crazy good

As it stands the Flames have a good first line and the 3M line is good. The rest is meh

 

[X66]

What?
Without Mcdavid, the Oilers are a lottery team still.

And that is what probably kills you the most, LOL.

 

[NeutralFan88]

nope.

Oilers had a 37-26 record in regulation
Flames were 32-33 in regulation

the only reason the Flames were close to the Oilers was due to 3-on-3 OT and SOs

I have seen this posted so many times and never a rebuttal. This is a good thing to look at for long term success.

 

[CraigsList]

I think the acquisation of Hamonic was overrated. He was brutal last year for the Isles and has generally been overrated throughout his career. They have pretty horrible center depth and goaltending - the most important positions to construct a hockey team, so I think they're 1st round exit material once again.

Well if we were expecting Hamonic to be our #1D, yeah it's probably an overrated trade. But, he'll be our #4, he's happy to be close to home, and he's that defensive defenseman we haven't had since Regehr.

 

[NeutralFan88]

Huh.. without McDavid you guys were a consistent lottery team.... and I assume without McDavid you guys are likely looking at a top 10 pick. Without McDavid flames are still a playoff team.

I don't even get what you are saying.

Such unintelligent comments like this. Maybe having Lrsson, A healthy Klefbom, and a better back end helped?

The laziest and dumbest arguments are the one's that say "Derp you are a lotery team without McDavid"

Drai must be garbage too.

Carry on

 

[Mobiandi]

People need to realize that Hamonic was acquired to let Brodie play his natural game without as much fear of being compromised defensively. It gives us much needed defensive stability and also a very valuable offensive piece, which was hampered last season, for the 3M line.

 

[blankall]

Any team would have elite depth if they get a 40% production increase from 3 depth players and have no forward take a step back. Thats just a casual increase of 20 goals combined, which is like crazy good

As it stands the Flames have a good first line and the 3M line is good. The rest is meh

The Flames are in a better position to do it than most teams though. Ferland is already showing increased production with more opportunity. Bennett has high end talent. And Brouwer, up until this year, was very consistent.

You're also ignoring Versteeg, who put up 37 point in 69 games. The Flames also get well above average scoring from their d-men. The 3M line is also much better than "good". It's one of the highest scoring non-first lines in the league.

So basically, already the Flames have good depth and have the potential for elite depth. I was responding to posters stating that the Flames have poor depth, which simply is not true.

 

[OvermanKingGainer]

Such unintelligent comments like this. Maybe having Lrsson, A healthy Klefbom, and a better back end helped?

The laziest and dumbest arguments are the one's that say "Derp you are a lotery team without McDavid"

Drai must be garbage too.

Carry on

Without McDavid on the ice last year, the Oilers were:

48.92% Corsi For % SVA
45.25% Scoring Chance % SVA
45.46% High Danger Chance % SVA
48.99% Goals For % SVA

And that is with Talbot providing what an Oilers fan argued was top 5 in NHL goaltending.