Flames Prepare for long season

[Flickered Flame]

Calgary-After a very busy off season the Calgary Flames have announced its season opening lineup (barring any trades). The summer started with GM Axmann stepped down; the club hired Mike Walsh as its new GM. Walsh had a very difficult task ahead of him, as he attempted to dump older players with ridiculous contracts, however, for the most part that was not accomplished. Instead Walsh traded top goalie prospect Justin Pogge to the Kings (who Walsh still feels is overrated) and was blasted by the Calgary media for the deal. With little cap room and some key UFAs to bring back, Walsh has finally filled out the roster but it is a roster that is probably going to be hard pressed to make the playoffs.

Lineup:

Kovalev-Walker-Sullivan
Halpern-Weight-O’Neill
Primeau-Hinote-Hlinka
Lundqvist-Kalus-Artukhin

Foote-Brewer
Morrisonn-Murray/Erskine
Klein-Erskine/Murray

Kipper
Cloutier

Strengths:

On paper, the Flames should have one good scoring line, one good defensive pairing, and of course, Kipper.

Weaknesses:

Lack of scoring depth up front, the Flames only have 3 CPHL capable defensemen, and several outrageous contracts.

Top Prospects:

Ryan Jones-LW: Jones maybe a late bloomer and has a very good chance of making the Preds this fall.

Matt Pelech-D: A big defenseman who should continue to develop with the baby Flames.

Riku Helenius-G: A big butterfly goalie who GM Walsh feels will be in the NHL sooner rather than later.

All that is left all Walsh's to do list is to hire a coach, an announcement is expected in a day or 2. Possibly more

[HelloHockeyFans]

Good job friend

[Flickered Flame]

Well noob, at least I can say that I am the only one of the 2 of us to make the playoffs.

[HelloHockeyFans]

game, set, match for you friend

[Sylvanfan]

I just can't wait to see which one of you makes a worse trade with your top 2 pick in this years draft!

[Flickered Flame]

No message.

[JiriHrdina]

Flames are reaching a tipping point here - the good players on the team are aging - I would look to flip as many of them as possible.

I'd hold off on flipping Kipper and hope he has a hot start, wait for Ravi to get all hot 'n heavy for him and then take him to the cleaners.

[I wanna be like Miikka]

Originally Posted by JiriHrdina

Flames are reaching a tipping point here - the good players on the team are aging - I would look to flip as many of them as possible.

I'd hold off on flipping Kipper and hope he has a hot start, wait for Ravi to get all hot 'n heavy for him and then take him to the cleaners.

I'm always hot 'n heavy for Kipper Grant, I'll gladly be taken to the cleaners if given the chance to acquire a Flame!

[Slava]

Originally Posted by I wanna be like Miikka

I'm always hot 'n heavy for any Flame or player rumoured to be a Flame Grant, I'll gladly be taken to the cleaners if given the chance to acquire a Flame!

Fixed.

[nyrcrisfer]

The Flames definitely had their faults when you took over. You tried to make some moves this summer but like you said, you had a lot of bad contracts and little cap, so that makes it tough to improve. But there's a lot of experience in that lineup and Kipper in goal, so the Flames could be better in the sim than they might look.

[Flickered Flame]

The Flames are happy to announce that the club has hired Craig Hartsburg as the team's new head coach.



Craig has a 12 years of coaching experience during which he has averaged 34 wins a season.

[cphlblackhawks]

great hire, absolutely fantastic couch, no bias here at all