2024/25 Calgary Flames roster discussion

[Aarongavey]

Originally Posted by HitterD

Does 90-100 points move the needle for Chicago if he's -50 at the same time?

I would be willing to take the under on -50. If the assumption is that elite players don’t make teams better the Flames rebuild will be a long long process. A healthy hawks team and a Flames team that has the same amount of injuries as the hawks did last year alone would put the Hawks above the Flames. The Flames played at a 57 point pace after the trade deadline,
One can expect a similar pace this year.

[Ba'alzamon]

Originally Posted by GreenLantern2814

San Jose is adding Celebrini, Will Smith, Toffoli and Wennberg.

They have $17M in cap space with 4 D signed.

They shouldn’t be historically awful if the goaltending has a better year than last.

They've improved, yes, but even if they get 10 more wins next season, they could still finish in last place. They're doing a good job rebuilding, but they have quite the trench to dig themselves out of now.

[InternationalVillager]

Originally Posted by Funkhouser

SJ was historically bad last year...they will likely remain firmly in last place.
I would also be surprised in CHI has more points than us.

I suspect CGY finishes 5th last in the league, ahead of SJ, CHI, PHI, CLB.

Why PHI? We finished behind them last season and that was before Michkov....

CGY is firmly a bottom 5 team with a shot at bottom 3 and even last place.

[Ped]

Originally Posted by DeluxeMoustache

Brodie played 78 games 21:48 and was 4th on the Leafs at +17

Brutal

What does plus-minus mean? Connor Timmins was a plus 9. Mark Giordano was a plus-10. Between the three of them, they played 1 playoff game.

[Bingo Jr.]

Originally Posted by Ped

What does plus-minus mean? Connor Timmins was a plus 9. Mark Giordano was a plus-10. Between the three of them, they played 1 playoff game.

He played close to 22 minutes per night though... that's the point.

[gvitaly]

Originally Posted by Goriders

Looking at and trying to piece together a lineup out of the current roster I seem to come up with the same questions.

- is Sharongovich a center now? Or will they try Zary?Zary. Huska said that he prefers Sharangovich as a winger.

- if mantha gets moved into the top line with huberdeau where does that bump kuzmenko and pospisil to?
Both stay on a line with Kadri. That was our best line at the end of last season. One of Sharangovich/Mantha will play on the Backlund line.

- if lomberg has taken Duehr’s spot who is starting in the minors out of Duehr, Pelletier and Coronato. Duehr and Coronato. With Coronato being the first callup 10 or so games into the season, similar to Zary.

- we have too many RWers. Moving one for a true center in the works?
No idea, but I could definitely see Coleman and/or Kuzmenko moving to a team that missed out in free agency.

- who gets bumped if one of the farm D make the roster? Guessing Hanley.
Most likely Hanley, but I think the performance at camp will dictate it.

[Ped]

Yet most people that watched the Leafs agreed he was not good. And he was healthy-scratched in all but one playoff game.


https://theleafsnation.com/news/repo...lay-in-2024-25


https://thehockeywriters.com/tj-brod...layoff-roster/


https://x.com/JFreshHockey/status/1808176945605091547

[Paulie Walnuts]

Originally Posted by Goriders

Looking at and trying to piece together a lineup out of the current roster I seem to come up with the same questions.

- is Sharongovich a center now? Or will they try Zary?
- if mantha gets moved into the top line with huberdeau where does that bump kuzmenko and pospisil to?
- if lomberg has taken Duehr’s spot who is starting in the minors out of Duehr, Pelletier and Coronato
- we have too many RWers. Moving one for a true center in the works?
- who gets bumped if one of the farm D make the roster? Guessing Hanley.

Sounds like they will try Zary, and Pospisil up the middle. They will experiment.

Sharangovich is a winger. Zary was a natural C in the juniours.

I think injuries have kind of derailed Pelletier career. He may end up being a good 4th liner who works hard.

Kuzmenko is getting pumped and dumped.

[Goriders]

Originally Posted by Toonage

^ They brought in Mantha to play with Huberdeau. My guess is that won't be the top line.

My best (all too early) guess at lines?

Sharangovich-Kadri-Kuzmenko
Coleman-Backlund-Coronato
Huberdeau-Zary-Mantha
Lomberg-Rooney-Pospisil
- Hunt
- Pelletier

Bean-Andersson
Hanley-Weegar
Bahl-Miromanov
- Pachal

Wolf-Vladar

I’m with you except for Coronato/Pospisil and your defensive pairings. I think Pachal in Hanley out.

[Goriders]

Originally Posted by Paulie Walnuts

Sounds like they will try Zary, and Pospisil up the middle. They will experiment.

Sharangovich is a winger. Zary was a natural C in the juniours.

I think injuries have kind of derailed Pelletier career. He may end up being a good 4th liner who works hard.

Kuzmenko is getting pumped and dumped.

I think Pospisil will be 2nd or 3rd line. He’s too impactful to stick on the 4th line in my opinion

[InternationalVillager]

Originally Posted by Ped

Yet most people that watched the Leafs agreed he was not good. And he was healthy-scratched in all but one playoff game.


https://theleafsnation.com/news/repo...lay-in-2024-25


https://thehockeywriters.com/tj-brod...layoff-roster/


https://x.com/JFreshHockey/status/1808176945605091547

Leafs - Cup or Bust
Hawks - Compete for a possibly playoff wildcard spot

Level set those expectations and you will evaluate players way differently.

[Goriders]

Originally Posted by Aarongavey

I would be willing to take the under on -50. If the assumption is that elite players don’t make teams better the Flames rebuild will be a long long process. A healthy hawks team and a Flames team that has the same amount of injuries as the hawks did last year alone would put the Hawks above the Flames. The Flames played at a 57 point pace after the trade deadline,
One can expect a similar pace this year.

So you’re saying I should ensure the off button works on my TV and tickets should be easy to get?

[SeanCharles]

Originally Posted by Goriders

I think Pospisil will be 2nd or 3rd line. He’s too impactful to stick on the 4th line in my opinion

I wonder how things will shake out cause I think Sharangovich, Kuzmenko, Coleman, Kadri, Pospisil, Huberdeau, Zary, Mantha, Backlund and Coronato should all play in the top 9.

Who is the odd man out? Will they make another move? Will they send Coronato down? What if he has another great camp and earns top 9 minutes?

[keratosis]

Originally Posted by SeanCharles

I wonder how things will shake out cause I think Sharangovich, Kuzmenko, Coleman, Kadri, Pospisil, Huberdeau, Zary, Mantha, Backlund and Coronato should all play in the top 9.



Who is the odd man out? Will they make another move? Will they send Coronato down? What if he has another great camp and earns top 9 minutes?

Good problems to have in my opinion.

[stemit14]

I do think that the current roster should be a bottom 5 team next season. At least on paper. There are a few variables that could make this team perform better than expected. And some of them aren’t that crazy to occur.

1. Goaltending - Wolf+Vladar may surprise and become a solid pairing quickly in the NHL. It’s doubtful behind the defence core the flames have but Wolf has surprised and adapted very quickly at every level of hockey he has ever played.
2. Powerplay - one of the biggest weaknesses on this team last year was its powerplay. If it improves to just be an average powerplay, that will make a big difference.
3. Kuzmenko - he could potentially keep being a ppg player like he was to finish the season. This will also be a big factor in keeping the powerplay numbers up.
4. Huberdeau - most of us have given up on Huberdeau ever returning to form… but he could surprise us all and become a 90+ point player again.
5. Defence - this will be, IMO, one of the toughest hurdles to overcome. The defence is an island of misfit toys. And the flames team defence as a whole took a nose dive once Lindholm, Hanifin and Tanev were gone so it’s tough to see this team being able to limit chances against. However, every time the flames have what appears to be a poor defence on paper, they seem to surprise us and end up being pretty solid. Multiple defencemen will be given opportunities higher in the lineup than they likely have in the past. One or two of them could turn out to be serviceable top four defencemen.

In all likelihood, none of those improvements occur this season and the flames end up finishing near the bottom of the league. If 3 out of 5 of those improvements occur (especially #1 and #5), then the team likely finishes somewhere in the mushy middle. If all 5 things happen (very unlikely), they could be fighting for a playoff spot late into the season.

Of course, those are just listing the things that went wrong for the flames last year that, if they improve, could lead to a better flames team this year. But you can also consider things that went right last year that could end up not repeating this year. Such as:

A) Injuries - the team was relatively healthy for most of last season. Few periods of having core players injured for long periods of time. That could change this season just by bad luck. Chicago lost virtually every veteran they signed to help Bedard within a month of the season starting.
B) Kadri - has one of the best seasons of his career at the age of 34. Could be asking a lot for him to keep that up. I’ll include Backlund and Weegar in this point as well. These 3 players are still playing great hockey into their 30s and they could all be due for a drop off.
C) Zary/Posposil - the dreaded softmore slump is pretty common and these two players had the benefit of playing wing on Kadri’s line for most of their rookie years. This season, they could both be playing on different lines and be tasked with playing center instead of wing.
D) Goaltending - I’m repeating this one on the flip side as something that went right last year. They had fantastic goaltending from Markstrom right up until February last year. He won them a lot of games they likely should have lost. If the flames don’t get that kind of goaltending this year, they could be out of the playoff hunt early.

[dissentowner]

Originally Posted by ComixZone

If you go look at Chicago's roster, it's not bad at all.

Hall - Bedard - Teravainen
Bertuzzi - Dickinson - Athanasiou
Mikheyev - Reichel - Nazar
Foligno - Donato - Philipp
Maroon, Smith

Vlasic - Jones
Martinez - Murphy
Korchinski - Brodie

Mrazek
Brossoit

I'd put that roster ahead of the Flames.

I wouldn't and it isn't close. Chicago is terrible.

[DeluxeMoustache]

Originally Posted by Ped

What does plus-minus mean? Connor Timmins was a plus 9. Mark Giordano was a plus-10. Between the three of them, they played 1 playoff game.

It means he was on the ice for 17 more goals scored at even strength than goals against

You do win hockey games by out scoring the opposition



Not sure if he was hurt or what, but it’s odd to play a guy nearly 22 min a game on average for 78 games then think you have a better idea … how’d the playoff results work out for that coach again?

[Paulie Walnuts]

San Jose and Chicago will be better next season. The Flames are on the downswing now.

We are going to be in a battle with Anaheim, Philly, Columbus, Ottawa and Montreal.

[Jay Random]

San Jose can be a whole lot better and still be in the hunt for last place overall.

[flambers]

Originally Posted by Paulie Walnuts

San Jose and Chicago will be better next season. The Flames are on the downswing now.

We are going to be in a battle with Anaheim, Philly, Columbus, Ottawa and Montreal.

Not sure about the Sharks, guessing they will be in last place.. Will be really bad, if their top pick decides to spend 1 more year in college.

Hawks will be improved, guessing they are still bottom 10.