[Cali Panthers Fan]

Black: Current signed players
Blue: Current RFAs re-signed
Red: Signed UFAs
Green: Traded at some point during the season
*Traded at draft/off-season: Markstrom

Zary-Kadri-Sharangovich
Huberdeau-Wennberg-Kuzmenko
Pospisil-Backlund-Coleman
Mangiapane-Rooney-Coronato/Pelletier

Extra: Klapka/Duehr

Weegar-Andersson
Kylington-Tanev
Miromanov-Pachal

Extra: any of Okhotiuk, Solovyov, Kuznetsov, Poirier etc.

Vladar
Wolf

Reasoning: The team desperately needs a middle 6 center. Kadri is passable as the top line center on a rebuilding team. Sharangovich is a stop gap at center. He doesn't have the faceoff prowess or defensive acumen to handle top 6 center duties. He's a much more effective winger.

The Flames have cap space to add someone like Alexander Wennberg on a 3-4 year deal at about $5-6 million per year. Sound defensively and can cover for the warts of guys like Huberdeau and Kuzmenko in their own end, adds some adequate offense, has decent size. I watched him over the years on different teams (including the Panthers), and he's really solid and dependable, just not that flashy. He'd be a nice stabilizing presence in the middle of the ice. The Flames do NOT have any prospects capable of playing middle 6 center ice at the NHL level. This will have to be a void filled by UFA. You can't go into the season with only 3 legitimate NHL centers. You still have to be somewhat competitive.

I think both Kuzmenko and Mangiapane are traded at some point in the season. Neither are in the team's long term plans, or are a guy you really are dying to keep for a future build based on skills and age. That will open up spots for Coronato, Pelletier, and whoever else that looks like they're ready to make the jump.

The defense is a work in progress. There are a lot of similar age and skillset prospects in the organization now, and I would imagine that 1 or 2 will show they could be ready for NHL duty in the Fall, but I'm not so sure of it at the present moment. Pachal is the only one that looks passable defensively, and even he has warts. They seem committed to giving Miromanov every opportunity to stick full time, but I could easily see Poirier taking his job as an offensive d-man/PP quarterback while playing 3rd pair 5 on 5. My guess is they sign a veteran defenseman to play on the 2nd pair with Kylington, who they will sign to a 1-2 year deal, only because his future is still pretty uncertain. I put in Chris Tanev because there are rumors he'd be open to coming back to Calgary. Again, maybe only a 1-2 year deal because of age, but with the promise of trading him to a contender again at the deadline.

I think there's still far too much smoke around Markstrom being traded to a contending team needing goaltending. I also think he'd happily move to a better team for a chance to win as he's getting older. Look for him to be traded at the draft or at some point in the off-season. I don't expect him to start with us next year at all. He seems to be a guy that wants to control the timing of a move, and I don't think he wants to move in the middle of the season when he's too busy to set up his private life in a new location.

Wolf and Vladar will be a 1A/1B scenario, probably splitting the games down the middle or based on whoever is performing better. It will likely be a downgrade without Markstrom, but maybe they surprise. All I know is that Wolf needs to play NHL games at this point in his development. He won't learn anything staying in the AHL.