Analyst Mike Gould made a terribly brutal observation about the Calgary Flames on Wednesday. And unfortunately he is not wrong, no offense to the team’s supporters.
“The Flames have no core,” he wrote on the dailyfaceoff.com website. They have some solid veterans, some promising prospects, but they lack the foundations on which teams aspiring to the Stanley Cup rely. »
The end of the season is brutal in Calgary. The Flames painfully beat the poor San Jose Sharks in overtime on Tuesday, their second victory in ten games, their fourth in their fifteen most recent meetings.
The first center, Nazem Kadri, 68 points in 77 games, will be 34 years old at the start of next season. He will receive 7 million per year for another five years. Jonathan Huberdeau, 31 years old in June, under contract for another seven years at an annual salary of 10.5 million, obtained 49 points, including 11 goals this season. Blake Coleman is having the best season of his career with 29 goals, but he is 32 years old.
There is Yegor Sharangovich, obtained for Tyler Toffoli. He has scored 30 goals so far and obtained 57 points. But at almost 26 years old, his ceiling is now known. Andrei Kuzmenko, acquired from the Flames in the trade for Elias Lindholm, has 19 points in 24 games since arriving in Calgary, but he is 28 years old and will be an unrestricted free agent in a year.
On defense, MacKenzie Weegar has regained the momentum of his good days, but he is 30 years old, will earn 6.2 million for another seven years and he cannot be confused with the best defensemen in the NHL. Rasmus Andersson will be an unrestricted free agent in two years.
Goaltender Jakob Markstrom has repeatedly expressed his desire to leave Calgary. His runner-up Dustin Wolf, 23 in five days, is smoking hot in the American League, but ordinary so far in Calgary. Let’s give it time.
2020 first-round pick, 24e In total, Connor Zary, 23 years old in September, is having a good rookie season with 30 points in 58 games, but he was scratched from the lineup recently. We don’t see him as an elite center, at least not for the moment.
Newest first-round pick, winger Samuel Honzek, 16e in total in 2023, doesn’t even have a point per game in the junior ranks at 19 years old. He was limited to two points in five playoff games with Vancouver, eliminated in the first round.
In short, not only do the Flames not have a Suzuki, Slafkovsky, or Caufield to hold on to on the team, but the first foundation piece likely isn’t even in the organization yet.
The Flames would draft eighth overall based on their current rankings. They have no room for error. They also hold the Canucks’ choice for Lindholm, but cannot hope to draft before the 26th.e rank with this one.
If they are bad enough next year and get a pick in the top 10they will be able to keep it and give to the Canadian the first round choice obtained from the Florida Panthers in the exchange of Matthew Tkachuk in the infamous Monahan transaction.
We have often mentioned it here: the current scenario was predictable. Former general manager Brad Treliving, under the recommendation of the owners or not, tried to save face when Johnny Gaudreau left two years ago and Tkachuk’s desire to do the same. He paid top dollar for Kadri, Huberdeau and Weegar and also sacrificed a first-round pick to get rid of Sean Monahan and his contract in order to comply with the cap.
Treliving pushed themselves when the roof was falling in and inherited an already well-built club in Toronto. Just goes to show that the hockey gods don’t always reward the top of the class.
Lane Hutson begins the Frozen Four
PHOTO JOSH JURGENS, CANADIAN PRESS ARCHIVES
Lane Hutson
Lane Hutson and the Boston University Terriers face Denver in the semi-final of the NCAA Frozen Four starting at 5 p.m. Thursday. Boston University remains favorite to win over the Pioneers. These nevertheless include a possible choice in the top 15, defenseman Zeev Buium, a revelation at the World Junior Championship, and Jake Levine, 20, a seventh-round pick of the Florida Panthers in 2022, 56 points in 42 games this season. A Canadian prospect, Sam Harris, productive at the end of the season, also plays for Denver.
Hutson is not alone at Boston University. Their best attacker, Macklin Celebrini, 64 points in just 37 games, at only 17 years old, is there, and another CH hope, the colossus Luke Tuch.
If the Terriers were to lose, Hutson’s season would end and he could sign a contract with the Canadian to play the last three games of the season, in Ottawa on Saturday, in Detroit on Monday and the next day against these same Red Wings at the Bell Centre. If Boston University wins, the team will advance to the final on Saturday. There will be two matches remaining for the Canadian. Kent Hughes is on site in Minnesota, we learn from colleague Renaud Lavoie. The contract is probably well in place in the briefcase of the GM of the Canadiens…