What are you most excited about for 2015/2016 Flames?

[YYC in LAX]

I want to see Ferland put McDavid through the boards with absolutely no repercussions because Edmonton is soft. There is gonna be some kinda rivalry this year.

EDIT: Ference will probably fight Ferland and the results will be glorious.

[Igster]

Originally Posted by dying4acup

If Bennett isn't one of the top 4 centers on this team, but one of the top 9 forwards.... Then what?

I'm not sure the answer. If Bennett goes back to Junior does his ELC keep rolling?

He's not going back to junior.

[Vinny01]

I am excited to be entering the season where playoffs are the expectation not the hope for the first time since 2009-10 when we first missed.

I am excited to see how our young core co rubies to develop and who from the farm is going to push for spots.

Obviously I am extremely excited to see how Hamilton fits the style of play and the team as I could see him exploding offensively playing in this system

[Vinny01]

Originally Posted by spuzzum

I hope Calgary does not have a season like Colorado did, reverting back into a top 5 to 10 draft position. Being in the western conference, it is like rolling dice.

The big difference between the Avs and Flames is Calgary vastly improved in the offseason after their "fluke" year where Colorado arguably got worse.

Flames add Bennett, Hamilton, Frolik, and get Gio back and have not lost anyone of significance
Colorado swapped Stastny for Iginla, Parenteau for Briere, and brought in a 34 year old Brad Stuart

[Moneyhands23]

Beating the ducks in the honda centre!!!!!!!!!

[flambers]

Lots of stuff already covered...

Another item that always interests me, who is the next Josh Jooris.... or the player that no one really thinks of that comes into training camp and pushes // wins a spot on the roster...

[heep223]

Originally Posted by Vinny01

The big difference between the Avs and Flames is Calgary vastly improved in the offseason after their "fluke" year where Colorado arguably got worse.



Flames add Bennett, Hamilton, Frolik, and get Gio back and have not lost anyone of significance

Colorado swapped Stastny for Iginla, Parenteau for Briere, and brought in a 34 year old Brad Stuart

And the Avs had elite goaltending all year.

[Fire of the Phoenix]

Originally Posted by Gaudfather

Flames can't be excited about this - having to travel an additional 10,000 air miles this year!

http://sports.yahoo.com/blogs/nhl-pu...medium=twitter

Hmmm interesting. I was about to get outraged then I clicked the link for context. It looks like last year we benefited from a really low amount of travel miles and 45k-48k is more the norm for western teams. I mean, we were, only 5k-ish away from some eastern teams last year, which I found really surprising.

I wonder if there is some correlation between our favorable schedule last year and our success? 10k in extra miles seems like a lot, hopefully it's not the difference between making the playoffs or not.

[Enoch Root]

Originally Posted by dammage79

Hamilton, Shore, Bennett, Brodie continuing his rise to stardom. What black magic the Hudler-Monahan-Gaudreau line can come up with next year, Ortio putting his foot down on a roster spot.

Billy Arnold making a push for Stajans job. Wotherspoon making a push for someones job.
Phase 1 went exceedingly well for this rebuild. Phase 2 is key and Bennett leads the next pack of hungry talents.

Bennett and Ortio are key for a huge push next year like Gaudreau, Monny and Brodie provided.

This is exactly what I wanted to mention: phase 1 of the rebuild went absolutely perfectly - Monahan and Gaudreau were homeruns, Brodie took a huge step as did Russell, the leadership from Giordano, Hudler, Stajan, Jones and others was fantastic, and Hartley did an incredible job.

Great. Now the harder phase begins: transitioning from a team of solid vets and kids to the next generation where the vets have been replaced and the kids have become the team.

Wideman, Jones, Stajan, Raymond, Bollig, Engelland, Smid, Hiller, Ramo, possibly Russell, and maybe even Hudler won't be part of this team in 3 or 4 years (when we all hope and assume it is a legitimate contender).

I am not saying dump them all today and run with the kids. But over the next 2 to 4 years, they are all going to be replaced. The questions are when and by who? That will be fun to watch.

Roster changes from last year...

Out:
Glencross
Setoguchi
McGrattan
Diaz
Potter
Schlemko?

In:
Bennett
Hamilton
Frolik
Ferland

Possibles:
Ortio
Poirier
Wotherspoon
Morrison
Nakladal
and probably a surprise or two.

Pretty safe to say that the talent level is substantially improved from opening day last year.

What I will be watching this year is how the new players assimilate, and how/if any of the kids start forcing changes. Will we be sellers at the deadline again? (I think so) And most importantly: can Treliving do as good of a job over the next couple years developing the kids and turning them into a contending team as the Flames have done over the past couple years with the first phase of the rebuild?

[dammage79]

Good post Enoch. You definitely provided more depth to the post you quoted.

Drew Shore sticks out to me as one who will be the next Jooris but with a better upside.

I also feel like Arnold will walk into camp and supplant Stajan for some reason and tat is my guess as to where the rotation of vets for kids begins.

And the Frolik signing still has me giddy. How in the? Teliving has done a fantastic...nay...miraculous job of adding the best possible talent available this off season.

That D corps... my mind is still blown that we have Hamilton in there. Depending on Nakladal, Morrisson, Wotherspoon we could also see some early season movement of vets out of the top 6 too.

I' still hoping there's a goaltending upgrade for the next two years yet to go down before camp starts. But I also have a ton of confidence that Ortio is going to own camp.

[Rick M.]

I'm looking forward to the intense competition in training camp as prospects push for roster spots.