The 2025 Offseason thread.

[dino7c]

Originally Posted by Macho0978

I went through the 2004-2018 drafts and assigned the follow to every player taken:

Elite
1st Liner
2nd Liner
Not top 2 lines or #1 goalie

Lots of good players taken that I did not assign in the top 3 categories.

End results have not a huge difference in picks 6-10 vs 11-20. Really if you aren't picking top 5, a 1st anywhere in the rest of the round are close in value.

Things fall off fast after the 1st and top 8 picks in the 2nd vs the rest of the 2nd, vs every other round is very similar.

People may not agree with my % but this is how it ened up.

1OV - 46.67% Elite - 80% 1st liner - 6.67% Bust
2OV - 33.33% Elite - 60% 1st liner - 20% Bust
3OV - 13.33% Elite - 33.33% 1st liner - 53.33% Bust
4OV - 13.33% Elite - 33.33% 1st liner - 37.50% Bust
5OV - 6.67% Elite - 33.33% 1st Liner - 40% Bust
6-10 OV - 2.67% Elite - 13.33% 1st Liner - 61.33% Bust
11-20 OV - 2% Elite - 9.33% 1st Liner - 78% Bust
21-30/31 = 1.32% Elite - 5.96% 1st Liner - 83.44% Bust
Top 8 2nd Round - 0 Elite - 1.67% 1st Liner 92.50% Bust
Rest of 2nd - 0.6% Elite - 0.91% 1st Liner - 92.45% Bust
3rd - 0.89% Elite - 1.77% 1st Liner - 95.79% Bust
4th - 0% Elite - 1.11% 1st Liner - 97.34% Bust
5th - 0.44% Elite - 0.89% 1st Liner - 97.78% Bust
6th = 0% Elite - 0.44% 1st liner - 99.11% Bust
7th = 0% Elite - 0.22% 1st Liner - 99.56% Bust

6-10 vs 11-20 favors 6-10, but the difference isn't that much. Winning and having young players play well and gain experience is more valuable than picking top 10, unless you pick top 5 and then it's worth losing.

It's still spin to say the Flames are short on picks which was my point...I would rather have one less late round pick and two firsts than 3 more late round picks and 1 first. So would everyone.

[PaperBagger'14]

It was a really weird year. In some ways you could call this season a success, the team did way better than most would have predicted. Some younger players are really turning into good every day NHLers (Wolf, Coronato, Zary) and we acquired Frost who looked great at times even if his point totals didn’t reflect that.

This year also showed that these guys care an absolute ton and are filled to the brim with pride. There is some value in that.

This season is a double edged sword though. Yes they were better than expected, but did this season set up the team to improve next year? Are the major issues (almost league worst goal scoring) able to be addressed with a poor prospect pool of forwards and no high draft picks? Are we going to overpay some UFA to fill the need?

While I’m proud of how well they did given the lack of talent, this season only added more questions about the future of the flames.

[Caged Great]

The Flames need to look to move out some veteran players. There simply is no room on the forward side except for Rooney moving on. On defense, assuming that Parekh makes the team next year and potentially, Solovyov, Kuznetzov, Grushnikov, Poirier and Brzustewicz all close, there isn't really much room back there either. The Flames need to have a couple spots available. Realistically, moving Andersson is necessary just to create space more than anything. Parekh takes his roster spot. Then you shift the 4/5/6 accordingly to allow potentially more youth to come in, or have quality place holders like Hanley, Bean, Pachal take those spots.

[saillias]

The Flames should do their due diligence on exploring how to get out of Huberdeau's contract at least once a year for the remainder of that contract until they find something that causes minimum pain if not slight benefit. You never know

[Bingo]

Originally Posted by jiri hrdina

i would give him next year to re-establish himself. I think there is a player there. Wouldn't sell low on him.

https://twitter.com/user/status/1912585109938794577

[Caged Great]

Realistically the Flames massively over performed this year. Regression to the mean is going to happen regardless. The team will slide down in the standings into the bottom 10. It is inevitable.

Making some additions to improve the talent might mitigate the decline, but I don't see any realistic way this team finishes next year as good.

In fact, if the Flames swung for the fences and got a couple guys like Marner etc the Flames probably would finish in the same neighbourhood points wise, but still likely miss the playoffs and damage the ability to get a legitimately good player.

[TheIronMaiden]

Originally Posted by Caged Great

The Flames need to look to move out some veteran players. There simply is no room on the forward side except for Rooney moving on. On defense, assuming that Parekh makes the team next year and potentially, Solovyov, Kuznetzov, Grushnikov, Poirier and Brzustewicz all close, there isn't really much room back there either. The Flames need to have a couple spots available. Realistically, moving Andersson is necessary just to create space more than anything. Parekh takes his roster spot. Then you shift the 4/5/6 accordingly to allow potentially more youth to come in, or have quality place holders like Hanley, Bean, Pachal take those spots.

The Flames will make room if a young player can prove that they are better.

[GioforPM]

Originally Posted by Wastedyouth

Coleman is as impactful, if not more than, Backlund.

Nah. He's not a centre and I think has slipped in his overall game a lot more than Backlund this year. He was forcing okays a lot more this year. And he is a bit slower, and speed was one of his assets.

[Bingo]

Originally Posted by Monahammer

Please point out where i said or made reference to either of these things. I thought it was a bummer of a season, but it was YOU who made reference to people having fun, and I agreed and said they did. You are now making the implication that I think that was wrong of them? All I said was "for some reason" which does not carry any such implication.

Could it be, again, that you are reading an agenda into my posts that doesnt exist?

You said this ...

Originally Posted by Monahammer

Literally what happened this season fella. I think plenty around here found it fun, for some reason.

My sarcastic response was directly to the bolded line.

No agenda needed oh pessimistic one.

[Bingo]

Originally Posted by IamNotKenKing

The season's result was determined on April 15, 2025.
That is a long way after Christmas.

Careful you're bringing an agenda to your responses ...

[Jay Random]

Originally Posted by Caged Great

The Flames need to look to move out some veteran players. There simply is no room on the forward side except for Rooney moving on.

What forwards do they have in the system that are pushing for a job? They already promoted everyone they could this season, to the point where the Wranglers were beating the bushes for players on ATOs just to fill the roster.

Kerins is the only forward in the system I can think of who might be ready, and he needs to improve his skating. If he comes back faster in training camp, he can take the roster spot vacated by Rooney. I don't see any need to open up more spots than that.

[dino7c]

Imagine enjoying hockey games! how dare you!

[Jiri Hrdina]

Originally Posted by Caged Great

Realistically the Flames massively over performed this year. Regression to the mean is going to happen regardless. The team will slide down in the standings into the bottom 10. It is inevitable.

I generally agree though I also thought this was a bottom five team at the start of the year.

This isn't a bad year to be better than expected. I think this draft is quite poor overall. If they are going to bottom out: 2026 and 2027 are the years!

[dino7c]

Originally Posted by Bingo

https://twitter.com/user/status/1912585109938794577

NHL review didn't help, welcome to Calgary

[Caged Great]

Originally Posted by TheIronMaiden

The Flames will make room if a young player can prove that they are better.

I hope so, I just don't like the idea of basically all the forward and defense spots called for before we even get to free agency.

Something has to give, even if it's only a couple small spots and have some competition in training camp.

For example as the default for next year on the blue line

Weegar-Parekh
Bahl-Hanley
Bean-Pachal

But having the option to moving any of the bottom three to the #7 hole if any of the young D perform as well and take a spot.

[Macho0978]

Originally Posted by dino7c

It's still spin to say the Flames are short on picks which was my point...I would rather have one less late round pick and two firsts than 3 more late round picks and 1 first. So would everyone.

But it does show that the Flames are positioned very well. 6-10 spot isn't that valuable. The difference between a 2nd and a 4th isn't much. Once you get to those rounds it's all about preference of who you like vs other teams.

I would love to see the Flames keep their 2 1sts and add 3rds and 4ths, but trade 2nds.

Trading a 2nd for Frost and Farabee was worth the risk as the odds drop fast outside the 1st round to get players as good as they are.

They can be traded later to recover picks too if you decide to move on. Not sure why some say players aren't assets and only view picks and prospects as assets

[Jay Random]

Originally Posted by Macho0978

I would love to see the Flames keep their 2 1sts and add 3rds and 4ths, but trade 2nds.

The nice thing about that is that often in the 2nd round, you get teams eyeing each other, both wanting to draft a particular player and getting their testosterone in a wad lest the other guy get him first. Nearly every year, somebody overpays to move up and snag a particular player (who often busts anyway).

If the opportunity is there, this could be one of those years where the Flames trade down within the 2nd round and pick up an extra 3rd or 4th. Or trade their 2nd outright for multiple picks.

[Caged Great]

Originally Posted by Jiri Hrdina

I generally agree though I also thought this was a bottom five team at the start of the year.

This isn't a bad year to be better than expected. I think this draft is quite poor overall. If they are going to bottom out: 2026 and 2027 are the years!

Same here. I did not expect the team to have this hard a work ethic, which I absolutely cannot complain about. This draft, even with picking where we are at, are going to be lucky to get a pair of Gridin level prospects, which would have been end of the first rounders last year. I don't mind giving up #16. It feels like the level of player that would have been say last year or next year would be a guy around 24-26 in those drafts. Not ideal, but not earth shattering.

I just don't see how guys like Kadri, Huberdeau, Coleman, and Backlund can keep up when they are hitting the mid 30's range and having only Coronato establish himself as a legit top 6 forward among the young group.

I would be very happy if the Flames kind of intentionally unintentionally tanked the next two years.

[dino7c]

Its true...posters thought signing Markstom and Tanev were total wastes and bad contracts (we have post history)

Both were traded for assets after good/great service. Picking up a player in a player in trade that is an obvious win or via UFA does not mean that player is just here for the duration of the contract. There is never a bad time to upgrade on assets IMO.

[FlamesAddiction]

That Farabee stat confirms my personal eye test. I am pretty happy with how he has played in general, he just seems to be unlucky or barely missing at times. A lot situations come down to metaphorical coin flips and luck. Over time you expect puck luck to even out, but sometimes players can just go through a spell of bad luck. It's true that highly skilled players negate that to a degree, but it still impacts most players.