Of note, they are changing their name this year to the Kansas City Mavericks. Last year they were known as the Missouri Mavericks.
http://www.echl.com/missouri-maveric...ericks-2017-18
Interesting that Matt Finn played for them last season. Flames were very high on him during his draft year. His contract does expire this off-season, and I doubt that the Islanders will re-sign him. He just didn't seem to develop. He is lucky that the Flames are taking over the team (though who knows if he will be back with them next season), as at least it is a team that has a 'book' on him and liked him years ago at least.
One thing that I was interested in seeing is what their goaltending situation is like. They used 5 goalies last season, all aged 21-26, with the oldest goalie getting the majority of starts. The 2nd most and 4th most games played were goalies belonging to the Islanders, so I assume both of these will be gone.
Josh Robinson seemed like the starter last year with 38 games played, but his stats were not at all impressive having a .897 SV%. However, he was there for the last few years, and registered a .912 and .931 SV% the previous seasons. I wonder if the Mavericks are moving on from Robinson, and would be ok with running a tandem of MacDonald and Parsons? If not, it makes it more difficult to find a spot for the existing goalies. Ideally, this is what I would want to see next season:
NHL:
Starter X
Backup Y
(or tandem 1a/1b)
AHL:
Gillies
Rittich
ECHL:
Parsons
MacDonald
Rittich is a legitimate prospect with seemingly good upside. It would be a waste to just get rid of him to free up room. I don't think the Flames are ready to cut-bait with MacDonald yet - though loaning him to another ECHL or even maybe an AHL team is not out of the question. MacDonald equaled the starting goalies' save percentage (.897) last season.
I am not sure that the Mavericks - especially with reading the above press release about developing but also winning and having roster continuity - would be very eager to roll with a Parsons (rookie pro) and MacDonald (2nd year pro, without a strong season to start off).
Flames will be hard-pressed to fit their goalies in next season. Either they find a home for MacDonald by loaning him out, or they end up including one of the goalies in a trade. This does not even included McCollum who has a contract for next season, and who will more than likely not get selected by Vegas in the expansion draft. Brad Pascal is keen to mention McCollum and praise him with almost every interview I hear with him, but the Flames are probably not really interested in retaining McCollum long term, or even worried about developing him.
That's a lot of goalies in the pro ranks. I am not sure that the Flames will be able to find a home for 2 of their goalies. Maybe the Mavericks would be happy with McCollum as their vet (he had a worse SV% in the ECHL than Robinson did - .894 vs .897 - but he had a pretty decent .926 SV% in the AHL last season.
With the Raanta rumors (and every week brings a new goalie rumor it seems), I am not sure that he Flames would want either Rittich or Gillies to backup someone like Raanta who has never been a starter. If it was a Mike Smith or MAF, this perhaps could be solved with just alternating between Gillies and Rittich as backups at the NHL level (not the most terrible idea).
The Mavericks really hold some power here with what they are willing to do in net. I just can't see them willing to run with a Parsons/MacDonald tandem to start the season. Maybe Parsons is a strong enough prospect that they would feel comfortable with? I don't know, but I do think that MacDonald will be more difficult to loan out.
A trade may end up happening (or Rittich may not be re-signed). Lots of questions in net all the way down to the ECHL level.
Flames name new ECHL affiliate - Kansas City Mavericks
