Most important rebound player in 2023-24?

[Bonded]

Markstrom. Even if Huberdeau gets back to being a PPG+ player they won't able to outscore league worst goaltending

[AustinL_NHL]

All Huberdeau (and post-ASG Kadri) for me.

Finished the season strong but biggest drop-off in points in NHL history is a big oof.

- Mangiapane had the only physical excuse (shoulder) of the bunch and his offensive struggles mostly stemmed from his SH% this season, which should be corrected both by natural correction and his shoulder surgery. Back to 25-30+ goals quite easily imo.

- Markstrom single-handedly cost the Flames their entire 2021-22 Playoffs and 2022-23 season, but now with Dustin Wolf and a coach who I don't think will be hesitant to go to Wolf if Markstrom continues to let the team hang dry, it won't be nearly as big an issue this season if Markstrom's performance continues (aside from the asset management perspective).

- Kylington I'm still not forming any opinions on other than he's an amazing talent and I'm a massive fan so hopes are high for him.

[TheScorpion]

Sharangovich is a big one for me. Needs to score 20+ again.

[Jason14h]

Most important has to be Markstrum , unless we are expecting / hoping him to lose his job

[robertsfanatic]

this is a very good poll question...i vote Marky

[chedder]

This team will go as Markstrom and Huberdeau go. Lindholm, too, if he's still here.

[FlamesAddiction]

Huberdeau. A $10.5 million cap player getting less than 90 points would be bad. Then again, hard not to pick Markstrom because a goalie can break the team even if everyone else has a good year.

[Roof-Daddy]

Markstrom without question in mind.

Well, it doesn't have to be him. Flames just need at least league average goaltending.

[gvitaly]

It's Markstrom for me, but it's more interesting when comparing the skaters.

I figured I'd weigh in on the discussion by looking at the numbers. Here are the players' numbers last season, compared to their career averages, their best season, and the previous 3 seasons(from 2019-22) excluding last season.



I was a little surprised that last season was essentially a career average for Kadri. That said he was 15pts below what he had as an Avs player over the previous 3 seasons.

Lindholm was also scoring at his career average rate, but I definitely want him to go back to the 35 goal rate / 82 games he had over the previous 3 seasons.

I was also surprised Mangipane averaged a 28 goal pace over the previous 3 seasons. Now that he's healthy he'll be back to that.

Huberdeau averaged over 100 points so his bounce back is the most important for the team, and will be the top priority for both the coaching staff and the GM.

[Textcritic]

Originally Posted by DeluxeMoustache

...Also Savard’s PP and their preparedness for and ability to get the extra point 3 on 3 will be important.

How crazy is it that the Flames ranked 12th in the League in regulation losses? They were the only team with fewer than 30 to not make the playoffs. This is a big part of why I think this team is a lot better than they played last year: despite absolutely awful performances from several key players, and from their powerplay/3-on-3 teams they were literally a couple bounces away from the post-season.


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[Bob Loblaw]

Originally Posted by Vinny01

Such a long list of candidates but here is how I rank the top 5

5. Kadri/Lindholm. I don’t think either guy had a horrible year last year. Lindholm had plenty of assists last year but a few more goals would have been nice. Kadri got off to a great start but completely coasted down the stretch. If both are on the team next year they need to be a stronger 1-2 center group

4. Mangiapane. This team needs scoring depth and Mangiapane has shown his ability to put the puck in the net but last year fell off significantly under the weight of a new deal. In order to have a strong top 6 Mangiapane needs to bounce back

3. Markstrom. If Markstrom bounces back this team will almost certainly be at worst on the bubble and at best a top 5-7 team in the league. The presence of Wolf is the only reason he is number 3 and not 2 on my list. That might be overhyping Wolf but I do believe he is the real deal.

2.Kylington. With Hanifin on his way out this team really only has 2 top 4 Dmen signed beyond next year. Kylington coming in and building off his 21/22 campaign would be critical in the long term assuming the Flames can get him signed. This team doesn’t have a ton of near NHL ready D prospects in the system so Kylington becoming a long term piece is critical moving forward.

1. Huberdeau. It has to be Huby considering he is starting the first year of a massive 8 year extension that pays him like a franchise player. Getting back to being a top player is critical to this team wanting any kind of success over the next several years. You simply can’t have a cap hit like that perform like he did last year. Huberdeau did it even live up to his $5.9M cap hit from last year so a huge bounce back is necessary to justify the 10.5 he is now making.

This list just underlines how incredible it was that this team missed the playoffs by only two points.

[ForeverFlameFan]

Markstrom picked it up a little bit post-birth of his child.

For me it’s Huberdeau. To have your points sliced almost in half hurt this team. We went from a season best to a season worst. A 90 point player, ideally what I expect, is an extra 30 goals. We likely have a lot more wins and a lot less OTL/SOLs with a +30 team goal production from assists/goals by Huberdeau.

[Paulie Walnuts]

Originally Posted by Textcritic

How crazy is it that the Flames ranked 12th in the League in regulation losses? They were the only team with fewer than 30 to not make the playoffs. This us a big part of why I think this team is a lot better than they played last year: despite absolutely awful performances from several key players, and from their powerplay/3-on-3 teams they were literally a couple bounces away from the post-season.


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The team has good players even star players people are way too down on them after last season.

It's been pretty clear throughout the season and afterwards what the main issue was.

It really sounds like Savard is going to be awesome for this team and powerplay.
A better PP anf even with everything that happened this would have been a playoff team.

Hearing Huska Savard and Conroy talk about Huberdeau has me excited. I think a better atmosphere alone is going to make a world of difference.

[Locke]

I thought we already had this thread?

But yeah, its Markstrom AINEC.

We had the worst starting goaltender in the NHL by miles. If he cant sort that out he's gonna have to retire.

[cannon7]

Markstrom has a backup and a top goalie prospect in the wings. If he doesn't bounce back out of the gate he's going to be riding the pine.

Huberdeau has no such backup. If he doesn't bounce back there isn't a star player like him who is going to fill that spot for the Flames.

[SilverKast]

Markstrom, Huberdeau, Mangiapane. Pretty telling that we have so many players that underperformed their contracts. If they play at or near what they're paid for we're in pretty decent shape. If not it'll be a repeat of last year.

Those 3 guys are the biggest question marks for me. Can they step it up and show they're worth what they're getting paid, or are they just a bunch of overpaid NG's.

[Macindoc]

Markstrom. Anyone else might win you an extra game or two, but Markstrom reverting to his previous form (even before the Vezina candidate season) would result in an extra 10+ wins (how many 1 or 1+ EN losses did we have last season?). Wolf will play but as a backup, he’s never played anywhere near 50-60 games and will probably get 20-25 starts.

[littlereddevil]

Markstrom, hands down.

The Oilers have shown that even though you can have the best offensive talent in the world to carry a team on his back (McJesus), goaltending makes all the difference between winning and losing games.

The Flames haven't had a franchise goaltender since the days of Kiprusoff, and Markstrom's abysmal season last year made us quickly forget about his Vezina-calibre performance the previous year. He has (and I hope he will have) every bit of motivation to bounce back and ensure that this team remains competitive.

Sure, Huberdeau has tons of room to bounce back, but again, he can't carry the team on his back and help them win games when our goaltending is poor.

[Snuffleupagus]

Originally Posted by Macindoc

Markstrom. Anyone else might win you an extra game or two, but Markstrom reverting to his previous form (even before the Vezina candidate season) would result in an extra 10+ wins (how many 1 or 1+ EN losses did we have last season?). Wolf will play but as a backup, he’s never played anywhere near 50-60 games and will probably get 20-25 starts.

Actually Wolf is a workhorse, he's played 125 games the last 2 seasons

[Kipper_3434]

Originally Posted by Macindoc

Markstrom. Anyone else might win you an extra game or two, but Markstrom reverting to his previous form (even before the Vezina candidate season) would result in an extra 10+ wins (how many 1 or 1+ EN losses did we have last season?). Wolf will play but as a backup, he’s never played anywhere near 50-60 games and will probably get 20-25 starts.

Wolf played 56 and 64 games in each of the last 2 seasons including playoffs.