Making the playoffs or keeping our top-10 first round pick 2025?

[Rutuu]

Originally Posted by Jay Random

People keep talking as if Edwards were the sole owner. He isn't. He's not even the majority owner. The team would not be run the way it is without the approval of the whole group.

This is why we need the megathread!

Edwards has been stated in the past as majority owner and chairman of the Calgary Sports and Entertainment Corporation, who own 100% of the Calgary Flames.

This entity took over in 2018, after Clay Riddell passed. The details of the exact ownership % of each member is not publicly known, but the register consists of:

Murray Edwards (Chairman)
Alvin Libin
Allan Markin
Jefferey McCaig

For me, everything I've read has Edwards in control, but I'd love to hear any updates.

[Jay Random]

Persons more in the know than I have said that the four owners have approximately equal shares. Edwards is the managing partner, but not the majority owner.

[Rutuu]

Originally Posted by Jay Random

Persons more in the know than I have said that the four owners have approximately equal shares. Edwards is the managing partner, but not the majority owner.

That doesn't surprise me. I view Edwards and Markin as a block, and always have as they're both CNRL.

Libin is 93yrs old now.

McCaig is the head of a family business. His father bought the share in the Flames, and Jeffrey seems more interested in the philanthropy angle, which is his right.

Looking at our ownership group...I reiterate my point. Our best hope is to convince them to run it with young guys on the cheap, sell off expensive vets, push for playoff revenue, keeping us neutral on the P&L, and build through the draft.

New building means that they're revenue positive without having to reach into their own pockets.

[Jay Random]

Your point does stand, Rutuu. I'm just saying Edwards isn't running the show without the consent of the other owners, and it's rather odd to paint him as the sole villain as if the team were his personal property.

[CliffFletcher]

Originally Posted by Jay Random

We've heard from multiple sources how Conroy approaches trades. If he had received an offer that met his requirements, he would have given other teams a chance to raise, then made the trade. It happened fast once the Canucks met his price on Lindholm. For Markstrom, he held on until he got what he wanted, which was considerably more than the rumoured Holtz + 2nd..

Fitzgerald has commented that he wasn’t going to pay the excessive price that was asked for Markstrom last spring, but he was happy with the price he wound up paying. And word was that Conroy thought he had a deal in the spring, but brass higher up the chain of command nixed it.

So the sequence seems to have been:

1) Conroy and Fitzgerald reach a deal in principle.
2) Flames brass step in and raise the price.
3) Fitzgerald walks away.
4) Conroy comes back in June with a deal Fitzgerald likes better.

Whether the final cost for Markstrom was less than the price demanded by Flames brass, or also less than Conroy’s initial ask, isn’t clear.

[CliffFletcher]

Edwards is the principle owner of the Flames and represents the team in the NHL Board of Governors, where he’s regarded as one of the most active owners and strongest voices. Whatever the financial stakes various people have, Edwards steers the ship.

[CliffFletcher]

Originally Posted by Bonded

The Flames were only three points out of a playoff spot at the midway point last year


https://media.nhl.com/public/news/17585

I don’t see the team’s morale and goaltending cratering in the final third of the season the way they did last year.

[Wolven]

Originally Posted by Rhett44

I don't think we are going to keep dropping. It is going to be the usual, win one then lose one which is the Flames way.

Looking at the schedule coming up, it looks fairly easy as well.

I am not sure we are looking at the same schedule. The rest of January doesn't look that easy to me. Not only is it a lot of road games, it also has 3 back-to-back road games with the tougher opponent on the second night.

Breaking it down:

• We beat the Ducks!
• Now is the second half of a back to back with this game being start of a home and home against the Kings. It would be good to win our home game but I wouldn't bet on winning either game.
• The Blackhawks should be a win for us.
• After the game in Chicago we do a back-to-back into St.Louis for a super rare double-away games against the Blues. The Blues will want those 4 points (potential 8 point swing) to try to launch themselves over us and the Canucks.
• The last 3 road games this month are Jets and a back-to-back Wild and Jets. I would expect to lose them all.
• But our last 3 home games of the month are Sabres, Capitals, Ducks. That should get us a couple of wins.

My guess is that January ends up around 4-8-2 after losing the first two home games and I feel that might be a bit optimistic.

Feb should be better as it is mostly home games but the opponents are 4 playoff teams, 3 bubble teams, and 1 bottom feeder. 3-4-1 would be a safe expectation for the month (but maybe we go 6-2 on the power of home ice advantage).

Then the start of March is the 4 remaining games of the 6 game road trip where I would really only expect 1 win against the Flyers on the whole road trip.

In short, I think our schedule from now to the Trade Deadline will be challenging and it wouldn't surprise me if we went 8-15-3.

[Bonded]

Originally Posted by CliffFletcher

I don’t see the team’s morale and goaltending cratering in the final third of the season the way they did last year.

We will see. They are only winning games through good goaltending and sheer effort. One of those falters and they will start to lose a lot.

[Rhett44]

We really need to start losing some games.

This win one, lose one thing is not enough to tank in the standings.

[Inferno]

Originally Posted by CliffFletcher

I don’t see the team’s morale and goaltending cratering in the final third of the season the way they did last year.

They won't be gutting the team as bad as they did last year either. Once they traded guys like Hanifin and Tanev things really fell apart. Maybe Andersson gets moved if the right offer is made but probably not.

Other than that you have Vladar and Kuzmenko and moving either doesn't really have a huge effect unless Cooley comes in and is so bad they need to ride Wolf so hard he can't handle it.

[Paulie Walnuts]

ME has been part of the CBA negotiating team, I don't know many minority owners that take part in that.

[The Cobra]

Originally Posted by Wolven

[*]The Blackhawks should be a win for us.

Yes, but consider that any road game is tough. The Hawks at home have about the same record as the flames on the road. The a flames have an additional point.

[Enoch Root]

Originally Posted by Inferno

They won't be gutting the team as bad as they did last year either. Once they traded guys like Hanifin and Tanev things really fell apart. Maybe Andersson gets moved if the right offer is made but probably not.

Other than that you have Vladar and Kuzmenko and moving either doesn't really have a huge effect unless Cooley comes in and is so bad they need to ride Wolf so hard he can't handle it.

They don't have to, it was already gutted before they started.

And if Zary is done for the season, that is a pretty big gutting right there, because they are so thin on C.

Take Zary and Andersson out of this lineup, and replace them with Kerins and Barrie (and then maybe Solovyov after the deadline), and I think you've got pretty close to a bottom 5 lineup for the remainder of the games.

[Inferno]

Originally Posted by Enoch Root

They don't have to, it was already gutted before they started.

And if Zary is done for the season, that is a pretty big gutting right there, because they are so thin on C.

Take Zary and Andersson out of this lineup, and replace them with Kerins and Barrie (and then maybe Solovyov after the deadline), and I think you've got pretty close to a bottom 5 lineup for the remainder of the games.

I'm talking about during the season. There won't be a major gutting like there was last year that changed the makeup of the team.

As far as Zary goes, until we know how serious his injury is I'm not going to factor that in. Like others have mentioned. Sometimes injuries that look serious aren't as bad and injuries that don't look serious end up being serious.

[Winsor_Pilates]

Originally Posted by Wolven

I am not sure we are looking at the same schedule. The rest of January doesn't look that easy to me. Not only is it a lot of road games, it also has 3 back-to-back road games with the tougher opponent on the second night.

Breaking it down:

• We beat the Ducks!
• Now is the second half of a back to back with this game being start of a home and home against the Kings. It would be good to win our home game but I wouldn't bet on winning either game.
• The Blackhawks should be a win for us.
• After the game in Chicago we do a back-to-back into St.Louis for a super rare double-away games against the Blues. The Blues will want those 4 points (potential 8 point swing) to try to launch themselves over us and the Canucks.
• The last 3 road games this month are Jets and a back-to-back Wild and Jets. I would expect to lose them all.
• But our last 3 home games of the month are Sabres, Capitals, Ducks. That should get us a couple of wins.

My guess is that January ends up around 4-8-2 after losing the first two home games and I feel that might be a bit optimistic.

Feb should be better as it is mostly home games but the opponents are 4 playoff teams, 3 bubble teams, and 1 bottom feeder. 3-4-1 would be a safe expectation for the month (but maybe we go 6-2 on the power of home ice advantage).

Then the start of March is the 4 remaining games of the 6 game road trip where I would really only expect 1 win against the Flyers on the whole road trip.

In short, I think our schedule from now to the Trade Deadline will be challenging and it wouldn't surprise me if we went 8-15-3.

Wouldn't surprise you if this team played at a 0.365% win percentage prior to the trade deadline?
You realize only 1 team in the NHL is that bad right now, right?

The Flames have 12 points in the last 10 games.
Of the 18 teams currently below us, only 2 had more points in their last 10 and 1 team equal to us with 12. The Flames increased their lead on the other 15.

It will take an absolute miracle for things to go the way you're speculating. It's not based in realty whatsoever.

[Wolven]

Originally Posted by Winsor_Pilates

Wouldn't surprise you if this team played at a 0.365% win percentage prior to the trade deadline?
You realize only 1 team in the NHL is that bad right now, right?

The Flames have 12 points in the last 10 games.
Of the 18 teams currently below us, only 2 had more points in their last 10 and 1 team equal to us with 12. The Flames increased their lead on the other 15.

It will take an absolute miracle for things to go the way you're speculating. It's not based in realty whatsoever.

The surprise for me is that the Flames are playing as well as they have and it is great that success is primarily at home where our fans can enjoy it. This has been a joyous surprise, but it hasn't raised my expectations for the season.

The "reality" of the current situation is that the Flames are not good on the road and have more road games than home games between now and the deadline (8H vs. 13A) and 15 of those 21 games are against playoff teams or competitive bubble teams. We also have more back-to-back games in January than anywhere else in the season (although tonight's postponement helps ease the schedule).

Compare that to December where we had 8 home games and only 4 road games and zero back-to-back games.... December was about as soft a schedule as the Flames could ever hope for.

November was a harder schedule with 7 home games and 8 road games and only 1 back-to-back but still not as tough as January or March.

[Goriders]

Originally Posted by Inferno

I'm talking about during the season. There won't be a major gutting like there was last year that changed the makeup of the team.

As far as Zary goes, until we know how serious his injury is I'm not going to factor that in. Like others have mentioned. Sometimes injuries that look serious aren't as bad and injuries that don't look serious end up being serious.

Like Mantha

[GreenLantern2814]

Originally Posted by Rhett44

We really need to start losing some games.

This win one, lose one thing is not enough to tank in the standings.

They’re a win-one-lose-one sort of team, and they’re not tanking.

They’re icing the lowest payroll team in the league and giving it their best shot.

That it’s actually working is a bonus - as long as we’re not spending assets to
help Nazem Kadri get a second ring, I’ll take it as a positive that the Calgary Flames run a baseline-competent NHL organization.

[Calgary4LIfe]

You never know with teams. St. Louis was awful and dead last, and they go on a run and win a cup.


When the Flames started faltering last season, Arizona was in a playoff spot if IIRC. Then they had a huge free-fall, and they end up drafting Tij.



If I had to bet money, I am betting that Calgary finishes comfortably in the bottom 10. I am not sure I want to bet money, but if I had to, that would be my bet. I think one losing skid can snowball here. That snowball can grow fairly big fairly quick, and a few players might get trapped in it (Andersson, Kadri, Vladar, whom else?), and end up getting traded, sending the Flames into a free-fall to the bottom of the standings.


I just wouldn't be so worried about it one way or the other. This is no longer a veteran-heavy team that is designed to make the playoffs, right? They are punching way over expectations, and that's fun. I am enjoying it while it lasts. I bet with this added rest, they have a great shot at winning the next game too.


With that being said, I feel it is certainly more likely that this team loses 7 or 8 in a row than win 7 or 8 in a row in the back half of this season. I think it is more likely that this team goes the way or Arizona last season rather than the way of St. Louis 6 or 7 seasons ago. For some reason, it seems more likely that they fall than simply tread water too for some reason. I guess we will see. Top 5 is not out of the picture yet - at least not for me.