The Calgary Flames looks like he's going to fall head first into a full-scale restructuring. CEO Craig Conroy and Head Office completely destroyed it over the past calendar year, trading all of Nikita Zadorov, Elias Lindholm, Noah Hanifin, Chris Tanev, Jacob Markstrom and Andrew Mangiapane since November 2023. Each of the aforementioned players are true NHL regulars who will be — or already are — contributing to their new franchises.
With all those subtractions and not too many additions to plug the holes, it stands to reason that the roster will look a lot different in 2024-25. And a lot worse. In fact, Mike Gould of the Daily Faceoff on Wednesday named the Flames one of five teams that may finish last in the NHL this season.
“The Flames have some good young players, including 2024 first-round picks Zane Parekh and Matvei Gridin, but they still don’t have anything resembling an NHL-caliber core,” Gould wrote. “Their current roster is an uneven mix of departing veterans, rebuilding projects, and middling youth. They still need to finish near the bottom of the league for a few more years before they can start moving up in any meaningful way.”
That's somewhat surprising given that the franchise is just three seasons removed from a 50-win, Pacific Division-leading 2021-22 campaign. It's missed the Stanley Cup playoffs back-to-back Since then Flame, and things, oddly enough, are not improving in Alberta.
While there are still some great players on this roster, there are also some significant candidates for regression. If these three players can’t develop strong seasons in 2023-24 — and even if they do — it could be a very, very long season in Cowtown.
Blake Coleman is having a surprisingly excellent year.
Blake Coleman just had the best season of his career, which is surprising considering he's 32 years old. Still, the Plano, Texas native was a bright spot on a slowly declining Flames team in 2023-24, scoring 30 goals for the first time and adding 24 assists for 54 points.
That was third on the team behind Nazem Kadri and Yegor Sharangovich — one of those who will be mentioned later in this article — but it was accomplished on 15.7 percent of his shots. That’s well above his career average of 10.4 percent and ranks in the top 50 in the league. Coleman has scored in the 15-20 goal range in his career, and impressively, only three of his 30 have come with a point advantage in 2023-24.
Despite a great campaign, the Flames are noticeably worse than they were last year, and Coleman is unlikely to score again at nearly 16 percent. If he made 10 percent of his 191 shots, he would only have scored 19 goals. It doesn't help that the Daily Faceoff projects him being left aside Both units play in the majority.
While he was a consistent scorer last season, given his age and career averages, there's a good chance Coleman will regress in 2024-25.
Egor Sharangovich Takes Lead in 2023-24 Season
Along with Coleman, Sharangovich was a pleasant surprise last year and one of the Flames' best players, period. After being acquired from the New Jersey Devils in the trade that sent Tyler Toffoli to Newark, the 26-year-old quickly emerged as one of Calgary's best offensive options.
Over 82 games in Alberta, the Russian set career highs with 31 goals and 59 points. Unfortunately, he was a minus-29, a terrible plus/minus that was matched only by Jonathan Huberdeau. Sharangovich also had one of the highest shooting percentages in the league at 17.3 percent, something he will likely never achieve again.
Along with Kadri, Sharangovich is expected to be the team’s top offensive option in 2024-25, and is expected to center the second line and play on the top power play alongside Kadri, Huberdeau, Andrei Kuzmenko and Mackenzie Weegar. While his defensive game needs some work, Sharangovich should be able to put together a great offensive campaign.
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But that percentage isn't sustainable at all, and even if he manages to get into the 50-60 range, it's unlikely he'll score more than 30 goals again. He's certainly a candidate for regression, but now A five-year contract worth $28.75 million was signedHe must be motivated to improve his game in the 2024-25 season and beyond.
Anthony Mantha had a suspiciously high shooting percentage
The only player on this list who didn't play for the Flames last season, Anthony Mantha signed a one-year deal with Calgary after being traded from the Washington Capitals to the Vegas Golden Knights midway through the campaign. The 29-year-old had a solid year between the nation's capital and the Strip, scoring 23 goals and 44 points in 74 games.
“What was even more impressive about his 23-goal season was that he did it while averaging fewer than 15 minutes per game, one of only two seasons in his career that he's done that (not counting the 10 games he played in 2015-16), giving him the 18th-most 5-on-5 goals per 60 minutes among full-time players in the league,” wrote Scott Maxwell of The Daily Faceoff. at the end of July.
The problem is that Mantha's shooting percentage was 7.9% higher than his career average. In fact, it was the third-highest in the entire National Hockey League at 20.4%, behind only Sam Reinhart of the Florida Panthers and Dakota Joshua of the Vancouver Canucks.
While Mantha should be a good fit in Calgary and likely play a top-six role, he likely won't put up the same stats with a weak Flames team in 2024-25. For a player who has struggled mightily with injuries, the goal should be to have a fully healthy season as he looks to either take advantage of a midseason trade or a better contract elsewhere next summer.