Building The 2018/19 Flames Roster

[Bunk]

Originally Posted by Icon

Gaudreau-Monahan-Tkachuk
Bennett-Backlund-Lindholm
Maroon-Jankowski-Czarnik
Brouwer-Ryan-Lazar

Hard to find a spot for everyone... Frolik, Foo, Mangiapane...

Presume we're in for some trades

We are not in Stanley Cup contender territory with his lineup, I don’t think. If several things go right, we could be a very good team. But as such, I hope Tre can pull off a move either in free agency or trade that gives us more goals, because I think we’re light on elite scorers now.

[Enoch Root]

Originally Posted by Bunk

We are not in Stanley Cup contender territory with his lineup, I don’t think. If several things go right, we could be a very good team. But as such, I hope Tre can pull off a move either in free agency or trade that gives us more goals, because I think we’re light on elite scorers now.

A scoring winger for the top line solidifies the lineup from top to bottom.

[djsFlames]

Originally Posted by Bunk

We are not in Stanley Cup contender territory with his lineup, I don’t think. If several things go right, we could be a very good team. But as such, I hope Tre can pull off a move either in free agency or trade that gives us more goals, because I think we’re light on elite scorers now.

But we've made moves since the draft that make us more similar today to the defending western champs of this year past, who weren't even expected to be 'very good'.

Another weapon that can score would go a long way though. Meaning someone a cut above Maroon.

[Nelson]

If the Flames sign Maroon, I'd do the lines like this:
Gaudreau - Monahan - Maroon
Tkachuk - Backlund - Lindholm
Bennett - Ryan - Czarnik
Mangiapane - Jankowski - Frolik
- - Brouwer
- - Foo

Also, resign Shore for depth at centre!

[Bunk]

Originally Posted by djsFlames

But we've made moves since the draft that make us more similar today to the defending western champs of this year past, who weren't even expected to be 'very good'.

Another weapon that can score would go a long way though. Meaning someone a cut above Maroon.

The model seems to be the Vegas one - a lot of things have to go pretty well from the top to bottom of the lineup. They have to play extremely cohesively for the whole to be better than the sum. Just never know how that will gel. But looking at the reasonable potential goal scoring of this current group, here’s how goals could stack up:

Gaudreau 25
Monahan 35
Lindholm 20
Tkachuk 25
Backlund 15
Frolik 10
Jankowski 20
Bennett 15
Ryan 15
Czarnik 15
Mangiapane 10
Other? 10

Gio 15
Brodie 10
Hanifin 10
Hamonic 5
Kulak 5
Stone or Andersson 5

265 total puts us in good territory. Much more than last year, but slightly lower than say VGK.

[DazzlinDino]

Originally Posted by Bunk

So if the Ryan and Czarnik rumours are true:

Gaudreau-Monahan-Lindholm
Bennett-Jankowski-Tkachuk
Frolik-Backlund-Czarnik
Mangiapane-Ryan-Foo/Lazar

??

This years 4th line is going to be dog fight. if you don't show up there is no room!

[djsFlames]

They mentioned trying Bennett at RW too.
A little different idea..

Gaudreau - Monahan - Foo/Maroon?
Tkachuk - Lindholm - Bennett
Jankowski - Backlund - Frolik
Czarnik - Ryan - Brouwer
Lazar, Shore/Dube?

[JurassicTunga12]

Hard to say, man. My guess(with no additional trades/signings):

Johnny Gaudreau - Sean Monahan - Elias Lindholm
Matthew Tkachuk - Mikael Backlund - Sam Bennett
Michael Frolik - Mark Jankowski - Austin Czarnik
Curtis Lazar/Spencer Foo - Derek Ryan - Troy Brouwer

Mark Giordano - T.J. Brodie
Noah Hanifin - Travis Hamonic
Brett Kulak - Michael Stone

Mike Smith
Jon Gillies

[iloveicedhockey]

Originally Posted by djsFlames

They mentioned trying Bennett at RW too.
A little different idea..

Gaudreau - Monahan - Foo/Maroon?
Tkachuk - Lindholm - Bennett
Jankowski - Backlund - Frolik
Czarnik - Shore - Brouwer
Lazar, Dube?

Shore in, Ryan out?

[djsFlames]

Originally Posted by iloveicedhockey

Shore in, Ryan out?

Woops, I meant Ryan there not shore.

[djsFlames]

I think Foo and Czarnik could be poised to break out in a huge way. Foo generated multiple scoring chances every night in his stint to finish the season, lets not forget that silver lining that came from the awful finish.

[JurassicTunga12]

If we get Maroon, maybe something like this:

Gaudreau - Monahan - Tkachuk
Maroon - Lindholm - Czarnik
Bennett - Backlund - Frolik
Jankowski - Ryan - Brouwer
Foo/Lazar

[DazzlinDino]

Originally Posted by djsFlames

They mentioned trying Bennett at RW too.
A little different idea..

Gaudreau - Monahan - Foo/Maroon?
Tkachuk - Lindholm - Bennett
Jankowski - Backlund - Frolik
Czarnik - Ryan - Brouwer
Lazar, Shore/Dube?

My guess is the focus will be on skill and speed.
Interesting to see who makes the team and who doesn't.

[Fire]

A lot of people putting Ryan on the 4th line. I don't think they signed him to play with Brouwer.

Johnny Gaudreau - Sean Monahan - Elias Lindholm
Sam Bennett - Mikael Backlund - Michael Frolik
Matthew Tkachuk - Derek Ryan - Austin Czarnik
Spencer Foo - Mark Jankowski - Troy Brouwer
Garnett Hathaway

Mark Giordano - T.J. Brodie
Noah Hanifin - Travis Hamonic
Rasmus Andersson - Michael Stone
Brett Kulak - Dalton Prout

Mike Smith
Jon Gillies

Maybe put Lindholm with Tkachuk and Ryan and give Czarnik a chance on the 1st line, but that would probably be a reach.

[Badgers Nose]

There are interesting combinations here, lots of creative tweaking. The more I look at the lines the more this roster is a head scratcher.

We keep our stars (execpt Hamilton) acquire some question marks (that are cap friendly to be fair) and keep a pile of meh on the 4th line.

We are weaker in defense and lighter on offence.

Even with a so so roster, Vegas showed what a great coach and committed team can accomplish (sort of like Hartley). So maybe there is hope.

But layer Peters (who does not coach that style of hockey, or if he did the team did not commit) on top of BT's adds/deletes and I think you really have to be wearing homer glasses to think the team is better so far for this coming season. Maybe there is still a surprise to come.

If not, I think we missed in coach and roster changes but I look forward to being wrong.

[Flames Draft Watcher]

With all the versatility up front it seems almost impossible to figure out where everything will shake out. I'm guessing the coaches don't know exactly where everybody will slot and that camp will be huge.

This is actually a big things for the Flames. Right now with everybody we have signed we actually have HUGE competition for roles in camp. Its not hoping young player A excels and then when he doesn't we sign a PTO guy. Instead we legitimately have 19 forwards competing for 12 starting spots. We have Gaudreau, Monahan, Lindholm, Tkachuk, Bennett, Backlund, Frolik, Jankowski, Ryan, Brouwer, Mangiapane, Hathaway, Lazar, Dube, Czarnik, Foo, Quine, Klimchuk, Graovac all arguably competing for spots. Obviously a few of those are longer shots but it seems like we have more than 14 NHL capable forwards. That's great for competition, for depth and for camp.

Gaudreau-Monahan-Lindholm
Tkachuk-Jankowski-Czarnik/Ryan
Bennett-Backlund-Frolik

A big help to the PP will be the addition of three new right shot PP players in Lindholm, Czarnik and Ryan.

Even if we don't add anything significant I feel like there's enough options for the coaches to assemble a solid top 9. We have a boatload of young players who could break out in guys like Jankowski, Lindholm, Bennett, Czarnik, Mangiapane, Foo. At least one or two should break out if not more. Very intriguing lineup that may have some surprising depth.

[Jason14h]

Originally Posted by Bunk

The model seems to be the Vegas one - a lot of things have to go pretty well from the top to bottom of the lineup. They have to play extremely cohesively for the whole to be better than the sum. Just never know how that will gel. But looking at the reasonable potential goal scoring of this current group, here’s how goals could stack up:

Gaudreau 25
Monahan 35
Lindholm 20
Tkachuk 25
Backlund 15
Frolik 10
Jankowski 20
Bennett 15
Ryan 15
Czarnik 15
Mangiapane 10
Other? 10

Gio 15
Brodie 10
Hanifin 10
Hamonic 5
Kulak 5
Stone or Andersson 5

265 total puts us in good territory. Much more than last year, but slightly lower than say VGK.

The problem is almost everyone is having a fantastic season in that model, and we only get to 265.

If Ryan and Czar get a combined 30 goals I would be beyond surprised, and we will almost certainly win our division

That is more goals then the entire 3rd and 4th lines scored last season when playing on those lines !

Brodie and Hamonic 15 goals ? Again we probably are looking at 10. Kulak? Prob 2.

Frolik is the only guy you are would think “He can probably do better”

And again, it only get us to 265!

We really need one more big scorer / pure goal scorer I believe

[Flames Draft Watcher]

Originally Posted by Badgers Nose

We keep our stars (execpt Hamilton) acquire some question marks (that are cap friendly to be fair) and keep a pile of meh on the 4th line.

We are weaker in defense and lighter on offence.

Well we didn't really keep the 4th line. Stajan is gone. There's a decent chance only one of Lazar/Hathaway/Brouwer makes the 4th line. We just added Ryan/Czarnik which may push some people down which would improve the 4th line.

As for lighter on offence I think that's a pessimistic take. Look at the ages of guys like Lindholm, Bennett, Czarnik, Jankowski. It would be optimistic to assume all of them have breakout years. But it would also be extremely pessimistic to assume none of them will have breakout years. Look at their skill and upside, how can anyone be a fan and think all 4 will disappoint? Ferland's offence is mostly replaced by Ryan if you wanna focus on proven numbers.

The Flames have bet on youngsters with high skill and high upside to break out at some point. Personally I think its a good bet if your coach knows how to utilize them. I feel a lot more confident about a couple of them breaking out under BP than under GG. I understand that some like to be pessimistic but that's your choice. There's a heck of a lot of young offensive skill on the roster right now.

[Bunk]

Originally Posted by Jason14h

The problem is almost everyone is having a fantastic season in that model, and we only get to 265.

If Ryan and Czar get a combined 30 goals I would be beyond surprised, and we will almost certainly win our division

That is more goals then the entire 3rd and 4th lines scored last season when playing on those lines !

Brodie and Hamonic 15 goals ? Again we probably are looking at 10. Kulak? Prob 2.

Frolik is the only guy you are would think “He can probably do better”

And again, it only get us to 265!

We really need one more big scorer / pure goal scorer I believe

I tried to make it so most had good years, not necessarily career years. Gaudreau has scored 30 before, Monahan was on pace for 45 before injury, Tkachuk just scored 24 with missing 14 games and didn't get on the PP until the second half. Lindholm presumably will play on 1 RW. Jankowski only needs to improve by 3 over his rookie year. Bennett only 4 over last year. Backlund had a bit of a down year and this is on pace with that, Frolik status quo.

On D, not a huge leap either, I don't think. Moderate bounce back from Brodie, which a lot of our season rides on. Pretty much status quo on Hanifin and Gio. Career average roughly for Hamonic.

The big difference is the bottom of our lineup was abysmal last year, and this free agency and off season is all about improving that. So it's taking into account a balanced offense approach and a bump in offense from the bottom 6.


Monahan could easily score 45, whereas Ryan might only score 10.

[Jason14h]

Originally Posted by Bunk

I tried to make it so most had good years, not necessarily career years. Gaudreau has scored 30 before, Monahan was on pace for 45 before injury, Tkachuk just scored 24 with missing 14 games and didn't get on the PP until the second half. Lindholm presumably will play on 1 RW. Jankowski only needs to improve by 3 over his rookie year. Bennett only 4 over last year. Backlund had a bit of a down year and this is on pace with that, Frolik status quo.

On D, not a huge leap either, I don't think. Moderate bounce back from Brodie, which a lot of our season rides on. Pretty much status quo on Hanifin and Gio. Career average roughly for Hamonic.

The big difference is the bottom of our lineup was abysmal last year, and this free agency and off season is all about improving that. So it's taking into account a balanced offense approach and a bump in offense from the bottom 6.


Monahan could easily score 45, whereas Ryan might only score 10.

Again everyone is basically having a good to great year .

Monahan could “easily” score 45.... one player in the entire NHL scored 45 or more goals last year, and he may be the greatest goal scorer the game has ever seen.

I am not saying it’s impossible for the above to happen, just very very unlikely.

They need 1 more bonafide 25-30 goal scorer. Not sure where they will find it, but right now I don’t see a team that will be in the top 15 in league goals .