The 2025 Offseason thread.

[SuperMatt18]

Originally Posted by Wolven

The easy answer is that Rooney comes out and you have a rotation of the younger guys in that #4C spot. At least until one of them can unseat Backlund and force him down the lineup.

I absolutely believe that the Flames need to figure out how to move out some wingers for help at C and LD. The logjam is going to build up even more if guys like Gridin, Suniev, or Basha demonstrate that they deserve a spot with the big club.

Honzek too who made the team out of camp this year and looked the best of the bunch in camp.

Sharangovich - 26 - LH
Farabee - 25 - LH
Pospisil - 25 - LH
Klapka - 24 - RH
Zary - 23 - LH
Kerins - 23 - LH
Coronato - 22 - RH
Stromgren - 21 - LH
Honzek - 20 - LH
Suniev - 20 - LH
Hoskin - 20 - RH
Gridin - 19 - LH
Basha - 19 - LH
Battaglia - 19 - LH

That's 14 U-26 wingers that have pretty good potential and at most you can dress 8.

[howard_the_duck]

Originally Posted by Wolven

They are trying to embrace the tank?!?

I think the plan was to tank this year and next as a part of the retool and so most of my armchair GM thoughts try to keep this in mind that we want to hit big in the 2025 & 2026 drafts. 2025 won't have the top end pick that we want but 2026 can still happen.

But for this to really happen, I think the Flames need to get a tiny bit worse and, probably more importantly, the Sharks, Blackhawks, Ducks all need to stop tanking and the Preds, Kraken, UHC, and Canucks all need to stop sucking (because I do not think the second batch of teams meant to tank). The West just had too many teams in the basement for there to be room for another.

I think the best way for the Flames to get worse is to
1) Trade Andersson but only for futures / prospects
2) Let our UFAs walk
3) Fill all of the spots from within the system
4) Stretch goal - Trade Coleman

Huberdeau-Kadri-Sharangovich
Zary-Frost-Coronato
Farabee-Backlund-Klapka
Lomberg-Kerins-Pospisil
Stromgren

Bahl - Weegar
Solovyov - Pachal
Kuznetsov - Parekh
Bean

Wolf
Cooley

I think this roster gets the tank going more successfully. However, I doubt Conroy goes down this path. I think Vladar is going to get another contract, I doubt Coleman gets dealt, and I would guess that the Flames sign a LD in July to avoid that group that I just typed out. I also hope that in either scenario that the offer sheet goes out to Bourque.

Huberdeau-Kadri-Sharangovich
Zary-Frost-Coronato
Farabee-Bourque*- Pospisil
Lomberg-Backlund-Coleman
Klapka

Bahl - Weegar
Provorov* - Pachal
Solovyov - Parekh
Bean

Wolf
Vladar

I think that roster would be a minor upgrade on this year's.

I think the Flames can get worse. But I also think we're going to see some other teams tumble down too because of the McKenna factor.

[dino7c]

Some teams always get better and some worse...point totals for playoffs are always in the same range. People scared about this team or that team is ridiculous. If SJ gets 20 points better all those points dont come against the Flames.

If I told you the Flames would finish higher than the Canucks last summer you would have laughed...here we are.

[Badgers Nose]

Originally Posted by SuperMatt18

Honzek too who made the team out of camp this year and looked the best of the bunch in camp.

Sharangovich - 26 - LH - NHLer (maybe centre?)
Farabee - 25 - LH - NHLer
Pospisil - 25 - LH - NHLer (maybe centre?)
Klapka - 24 - RH - NHLer
Zary - 23 - LH - NHLer (maybe centre?)
Kerins - 23 - LH - seems ready or very close
Coronato - 22 - RH - NHLer
Stromgren - 21 - LH - probably needs more time
Honzek - 20 - LH - probably needs more time
Suniev - 20 - LH - probably needs more time
Hoskin - 20 - RH - needs more time
Gridin - 19 - LH - needs more time
Basha - 19 - LH - needs more time
Battaglia - 19 - LH - needs more time

That's 14 U-26 wingers that have pretty good potential and at most you can dress 8.

I stuck my basic assessment of where they are in their development into your list of u26 wingers.

Looks like there might be space 1-2 that could force their way on to the team. That would mean 1-2 vets out, or in the press box. Plus a few guys could play at centre.

I really hope the bubble guys have monster off seasons prepping for next season and come to camp ready to take an NHL spot.

Of the vets on the team, maybe Lombo is the extra forward? Coleman says he is not going anywhere - but maybe if Dallas has their run ended early they’ll look for a guy like him to bolster the lineup? Maybe he waives to go home?

[SuperMatt18]

Originally Posted by Badgers Nose

I stuck my basic assessment of where they are in their development into your list of u26 wingers.

Looks like there might be space 1-2 that could force their way on to the team. That would mean 1-2 vets out, or in the press box. Plus a few guys could play at centre.

I really hope the bubble guys have monster off seasons prepping for next season and come to camp ready to take an NHL spot.

Of the vets on the team, maybe Lombo is the extra forward? Coleman says he is not going anywhere - but maybe if Dallas has their run ended early they’ll look for a guy like him to bolster the lineup? Maybe he waives to go home?

Yup if you look at the depth chart right now you have:

The veterans (3) :
Coleman - 33 - LH
Huberdeau - 31 - LH
Lomberg - 30 - LH

And then you have the younger NHLers (6):

Sharangovich - 26 - LH
Farabee - 25 - LH
Pospisil - 25 - LH
Klapka - 24 - RH
Zary - 23 - LH
Coronato - 22 - RH

So that's already 9 wingers for 8 spots.

And then you have these guys who could be pushing for spots as soon as next year (7).

Kerins - 23 - LH
Stromgren - 21 - LH
Honzek - 20 - LH
Suniev - 20 - LH
Gridin - 19 - LH
Basha - 19 - LH
Battaglia - 19 - LH

The other thing is only 2 of these 16 wingers are RH shots, so that still remains a gap in the organization as well. I know Coleman doesn't want to go but he's the guy that this team can afford to move on from the easiest at this point.

[Wolven]

Originally Posted by Badgers Nose

I stuck my basic assessment of where they are in their development into your list of u26 wingers.

Looks like there might be space 1-2 that could force their way on to the team. That would mean 1-2 vets out, or in the press box. Plus a few guys could play at centre.

I really hope the bubble guys have monster off seasons prepping for next season and come to camp ready to take an NHL spot.

Of the vets on the team, maybe Lombo is the extra forward? Coleman says he is not going anywhere - but maybe if Dallas has their run ended early they’ll look for a guy like him to bolster the lineup? Maybe he waives to go home?

I'm sure Dallas would love to add Coleman... but they can't fit him in their salary cap situation with all of the raises they have dolled out to their stars. It is the same reason that I believe Bourque is a good potential offer sheet target... they have only $6M in cap space for next season and they only have 8 forwards and 5 D under contract. Just to get to a full bench they need to sign 5 guys for league minimum and have very little room to retain their RFAs.

I hate just punchin holes in ideas. Instead of Dallas, if I were going shopping this summer then I would probably look at how we could possibly package up Andersson and Coleman to land a young C. I would want to target a team like the Red Wings (team that thinks they should be in the playoffs now) and try to make a deal for a prospect like Danielson.

[Roof-Daddy]

Originally Posted by GioforPM

Basha is still injured. What's the prognosis for him?

From what I understand he's skating again and could be back next round for the Tigers if all goes well, but fotze is the guy to ask about this. He's plugged in well when it comes to Bash.

[Badgers Nose]

Originally Posted by Wolven

I'm sure Dallas would love to add Coleman... but they can't fit him in their salary cap situation with all of the raises they have dolled out to their stars. It is the same reason that I believe Bourque is a good potential offer sheet target... they have only $6M in cap space for next season and they only have 8 forwards and 5 D under contract. Just to get to a full bench they need to sign 5 guys for league minimum and have very little room to retain their RFAs.

I think a retained Coleman to Dallas would be great for Dallas, and we have the slot. Probably worth Bourque right there (maybe condition is we can negotiate with Bourque in advance).

They’ll be done soon, so let the negotiations begin!

If I were Coleman’s folks I’d want to be close to my grandkids. Everyone wins!

[dustygoon]

Originally Posted by Jay Random

Everything I've read leads me to believe that Conroy has an asking price for Andersson and nobody came close to meeting it this year. If he has been playing on a broken foot, he may need to show he's healthy this fall before anybody meets that price.

Maybe. I'd hate to see him traded.

But if I'm a GM looking to trade for Ras, I wouldn't be turned off by this season.

Looking at split stats...

He had that great run of 10 points in 10 games to start the season.

But on the year, he was combined -14 against Dallas and Vegas in those 7 games.

He was -38 after the all star break.

And it was his worst corsi-for year of his career...bounce back on better team?

And played on a broken foot too?

A lot of GM's would love to add RA.

[dissentowner]

Originally Posted by dino7c

Some teams always get better and some worse...point totals for playoffs are always in the same range. People scared about this team or that team is ridiculous. If SJ gets 20 points better all those points dont come against the Flames.

If I told you the Flames would finish higher than the Canucks last summer you would have laughed...here we are.

Except me, I had them ahead of the Canucks. I had them as a wildcard team, just missed.

[taxbuster]

There was a lot of regular comment on CP about how Flames were "riding a hot goalie to overachieve", but I look at it somewhat differently. I think that the team discovered that they could rely on the hot goalie and "discovered belief and discipline" to play the way they needed to.


I'm not a stats guy but in looking briefly at the goalie stats it seems to me that, compared to other regular NHL goalies, Wolfie is middle of the pack...11th in wins, something similar in Save %. I think that was entirely unexpected by Conroy & Huska and actually caught them a bit off-guard. There wasn't really an ability to do more during this season...but there is for 25-26.


I suspect that they will use some of their cap space and picks to upgrade, hoping that with steady netminding they can reproduce and increase the results from 24-25.


How they'll get there I'll leave to folks smarter than me, but that's my impression, FWIW.


Bright spots were the emergence of a few players given time and space due to injury or opportunity: Klapka being top of the heap, surprisingly Hanley as a journeyman, Vladar standing tall when needed later on in the season, and Kadri as an outright stud with some of the most amazing goals scored. Fun season and I never would cheer for losses, notwithstanding some of the moaning and groaning in the first 200+ posts in this thread. (I almost added Monahammer to my ignore list, but there were too many people quoting him; PW is already there and is still annoying to read in quotes.)

[Macho0978]

Originally Posted by SuperMatt18

Yup if you look at the depth chart right now you have:

The veterans (3) :
Coleman - 33 - LH
Huberdeau - 31 - LH
Lomberg - 30 - LH

And then you have the younger NHLers (6):

Sharangovich - 26 - LH
Farabee - 25 - LH
Pospisil - 25 - LH
Klapka - 24 - RH
Zary - 23 - LH
Coronato - 22 - RH

So that's already 9 wingers for 8 spots.

And then you have these guys who could be pushing for spots as soon as next year (7).

Kerins - 23 - LH
Stromgren - 21 - LH
Honzek - 20 - LH
Suniev - 20 - LH
Gridin - 19 - LH
Basha - 19 - LH
Battaglia - 19 - LH

The other thing is only 2 of these 16 wingers are RH shots, so that still remains a gap in the organization as well. I know Coleman doesn't want to go but he's the guy that this team can afford to move on from the easiest at this point.

That is why I posted that Coleman must go. It's easy to list all these guys say wow we are loaded at wing for years. But Conroy has to make decisions and with this many players in the next few years, decision will be tough, and players and their agents might make decisions on their future based on what the team does with this log jam.

Klapka, Zary and Coronato are RFAs. 2 will want top 6 money. All could point to parts of the season where ice time and opportunity was not in their favour.

Coronato - if I was his agent I'm looking back at the start of the year where he was put on the 4th line with Lomberg and Kirkland/Rooney and he played his way to the top lines. Once he was there, his production went way up but most players of his caliber get more ice time.

Zary - at times he was 4th line, gets 15 a night and down 1 minute per game. What would he do with 18 a night? What's the plan to get me that ice?

Klapka - numbers don't say you are getting a huge raise but up and down all year and when he was in next to no ice and 4th line duties. He played his way up when injuries happened and played well.

Waivers and contracts could lead to Conroy making decisions on who to keep, he could make the wrong choices.

[Badgers Nose]

I think the stat that tells the real story with Wolf is saves above expected and save on high danger chances.

Flames were spectacularly bad at preventing high danger chances, heck it looked at times like they were intent on gifting them to teams.

In that context Wolf had an incredible season - especially as a new comer.

And, that is something we can fix next year by upgrading the defense and spreading the load better. Our core guys will get better by not having to play so many minutes in so mnay high dangers situations.

[The Cobra]

Originally Posted by dissentowner

Except me, I had them ahead of the Canucks. I had them as a wildcard team, just missed.

While you may have been less wrong than the rest of us, at the end of the day, we were all just wrong LOL

This is not horseshoes.

[Wolven]

Originally Posted by Badgers Nose

I think a retained Coleman to Dallas would be great for Dallas, and we have the slot. Probably worth Bourque right there (maybe condition is we can negotiate with Bourque in advance).

They’ll be done soon, so let the negotiations begin!

If I were Coleman’s folks I’d want to be close to my grandkids. Everyone wins!

It might work but I think the offer sheet route for Bourque and giving them a 2nd in compensation is better value. Coleman with 2 years of full retention should be worth more than a 2nd.

I wonder about the Red Wings, Rangers, or CBJs as teams who missed the playoffs this year but may think of themselves as playoff contention teams. Sending them Coleman and Andersson could help them now and each of them have C prospects that might be what the Flames are looking for.

[Jiri Hrdina]

Originally Posted by Wolven

It might work but I think the offer sheet route for Bourque and giving them a 2nd in compensation is better value. Coleman with 2 years of full retention should be worth more than a 2nd.

I wonder about the Red Wings, Rangers, or CBJs as teams who missed the playoffs this year but may think of themselves as playoff contention teams. Sending them Coleman and Andersson could help them now and each of them have C prospects that might be what the Flames are looking for.

At some point the pressure has to start to hit Yzerman.
I also like the idea around a package involving Andersson and Sillinger from CBJ. I don't think Sillinger has a ton of upside, but this team needs centres up and down the lineup, and he could be the heir apparent for the 3rd line pivot spot.

[dammage79]

I wouldn't mind Sillinger at all. But the name of the week for me is Filip Bystedt. Oilfan makes mention that if all else fails for SJ they're going to try and Acquire Andersson. I imagine with their center depth, they can afford to make him available to acquire Andersson.

Sillinger, Bourque, Bystedt. I like em all.

[Paulie Walnuts]

Originally Posted by Jiri Hrdina

At some point the pressure has to start to hit Yzerman.
I also like the idea around a package involving Andersson and Sillinger from CBJ. I don't think Sillinger has a ton of upside, but this team needs centres up and down the lineup, and he could be the heir apparent for the 3rd line pivot spot.

We have a big need for center, but building bottom up doesn't seem like a recipe for success.

Bringing in players that keep us spinning our wheels doesn't help us move forward.

[Jiri Hrdina]

Originally Posted by Paulie Walnuts

We have a big need for center, but building bottom up doesn't seem like a recipe for success.

Bringing in players that keep us spinning our wheels doesn't help us move forward.

You aren't spinning wheels. You are addressing long-term gaps.

[dissentowner]

Originally Posted by The Cobra

While you may have been less wrong than the rest of us, at the end of the day, we were all just wrong LOL

This is not horseshoes.

Or hand grenades for that matter.