Team Outlook: Calgary Flames

Heading into the 2022-23 NHL season, I’m going to look at every team to see how they are looking going into the season.

(Photo by Christopher Mast/NHLI via Getty Images) From: thehockeywriters.com

2021-22:

The Flames went 50-21-11 to finish with 111 points and 1st in the Pacific Division. They were in the top 8 in both goals for and goals against the NHL. They won the 1st round of the playoffs in 7 games against the Stars, but lost the 2nd round in 5 against the Oilers.

Draft:

The flames only had 3 draft picks the entire draft. They used their 2nd rounder to pick up from U20 in Finland named Topi Rönni. Rönni finished with 29 points in 30 games in the Finland U20 league and also got 4 points in 6 games at the U18 WJC. They got Parker Bell from the WHL in the 5th round where he got 49 points in 64 games in his 3rd WHL season. Finally they picked up Cade Littler from the BCHL in the last round.

Additions:

The Flames probably got one of the best trades of the offseason. They traded Matthew Tkachuk and a pick to the Panthers for Jonathan Huberdeau (2nd in the league in points with 115), MacKenzie Weegar (44 points in 80 games; both career highs), and Cole Schwindt (40 points in 72 AHL games) and a 1st round pick for next season. But other than that, they didn’t really do much else.

Losses:

Now here’s where things get bad for the Flames. The Flames ended up losing both Johnny Gaudreau and Erik Gudbranson to the Blue Jackets. Gaudreau was tied for second in points this season with Huberdeau at 115. Gudbranson had a 50.6 CF% as a D and finished with a career high 15 points in 78 games. As I mentioned before, they did lose Matthew Tkachuk to the Panthers. He had 104 points in 82 games, both career highs. And a 65.2 CF%, which is also a career high.

Who to look for:

Jakob Pelletier was drafted in 2019 and just had his first AHL season last season, where he had 62 points in 66 games.

Goalie Dustin Wolf was also drafted in 2019, and had his second ever AHL season. He finished 33-9-5 with a .924 SV%. He also had a .929 SV% in the Playoffs.

Adam Ruzicka is a forward who was drafted in 2017. He finished with 10 points in 28 games with the Flames in his second season, if you can even call it that (he played 3 games the season before). He also finished with 20 points in 16 games in the AHL.

Prediction:

The Flames will probably get a little worse and will have to get used to not having their stars. But they still have the goaltending and could use them wisely.

Stats from: eliteprospects.com, capfriendly.com, hockey-reference.com