The Calgary Flames begin their final season at the Saddledome with a roster designed to create more questions than guarantees.
Can Matt Coronato become a dependable top scorer? Can Zayne Parekh and Simon Nemec grow into cornerstone defencemen? Can Dustin Wolf provide enough saves to keep a young team competitive while it learns on NHL ice?
And, perhaps most importantly, can development and winning coexist?
The Flames finished last season 34-39-9, placing seventh in the Pacific Division with 77 points. Their 208 goals ranked last in the NHL. Veterans Rasmus Andersson, Blake Coleman, Nazem Kadri and MacKenzie Weegar have since departed, leaving captain Mikael Backlund to lead a younger and dramatically reshaped group.
Nobody outside Calgary is likely pencilling the Flames into a playoff position. The more realistic expectation is a season measured by the progress of Coronato, Parekh, Nemec, Matvei Gridin, Sam Honzek, Connor Zary and the other players expected to form the next competitive core.
“We have a lot of players we believe in,” head coach Ryan Huska said to reporters.
That belief will be tested over 82 games.
The Flames need to score more, establish a dangerous power play and reduce the burden on Wolf. They also need to identify which young players can handle larger roles rather than simply filling them until reinforcements arrive.
There should be enough youth to make Calgary interesting, especially if Coronato builds on his team-leading 45 points, Gridin takes another step and Parekh settles into a permanent role. There is also enough inexperience to make difficult nights unavoidable.
Jonathan Huberdeau will begin the season on injured reserve while recovering from hip surgery, creating another immediate test for an offence already short on proven finishers.
The Saddledome farewell adds emotion, but nostalgia cannot become the season’s only selling point. Fans will want memorable nights in the old building. Management will want evidence that the rebuild is moving forward.
A playoff chase would accelerate the fun. A lottery finish would not necessarily mean the season failed.
For these Flames, success will be found somewhere between the standings and the team’s growth.
Offence
Calgary’s offensive challenge can be explained without advanced analytics, a video session or a colourful telestrator.
The Flames finished last in the NHL with 208 goals.
Kadri and Coleman are gone, while Huberdeau will not be available at the start of the season. That leaves a group of young forwards and complementary veterans needing to produce more with fewer established scorers around them.
Coronato becomes the most obvious candidate to lead that effort. The 23-year-old topped Calgary with 45 points last season and owns the sort of quick release that could eventually make him a consistent 30-goal threat. The Flames need eventually to arrive immediately.
After Calgary’s preseason victory over the Vancouver Canucks, Coronato pointed to structure rather than individual scoring.
“I thought we were sticking with it and doing things the right way,” Matt Coronato said to reporters.
Doing things properly will help, but somebody must finish those possessions.
Morgan Frost scored a career-best 22 goals last season and enters the final year of his contract with an opportunity to centre the top line. Ryan Strome supplied 12 points in 19 games after arriving from the Anaheim Ducks at the trade deadline, giving Calgary another veteran option down the middle or on the wing.
Gridin may be the most intriguing forward in the group. He produced six goals and 20 points in 37 games as a teenager and showed enough creativity to suggest his offensive ceiling is significantly higher. Calgary can give him opportunities, but it cannot expect him to carry a rebuilding offence by himself.
The same principle applies to Honzek, Zary and Brennan Othmann. Development does not always move in a straight line, and the Flames cannot respond to every mistake by burying a young player on the fourth line.
Honzek earned his opening roster position with a strong camp. Othmann stayed partly because he would have required waivers to reach the minors. Aydar Suniev, meanwhile, was assigned to the AHL’s Calgary Wranglers despite leading the Flames with four preseason goals.
Suniev’s demotion illustrates the balance Calgary is trying to strike. The organization wants young talent in the NHL, but only when management believes each player is ready for a meaningful role.
Backlund remains the conscience of the forward group. He will handle difficult defensive minutes, mentor younger linemates and help keep the team connected when inevitable losing stretches arrive.
Yegor Sharangovich, Joel Farabee and Maxim Tsyplakov must supply secondary scoring. Martin Pospisil and Adam Klapka offer size and disruption, but their effectiveness will depend on spending more time pressuring opponents than sitting in the penalty box.
Calgary does not have one forward who can replace all the production and responsibility that left town.
The only possible answer is by committee.
Forwards
Mikael Backlund
Matt Coronato
Joel Farabee
Morgan Frost
Matvei Gridin
Sam Honzek
Adam Klapka
Brennan Othmann
Martin Pospisil
Yegor Sharangovich
Ryan Strome
Maxim Tsyplakov
Connor Zary
Injured reserve: Jonathan Huberdeau
Defence
Calgary’s blue line is where the rebuild becomes impossible to miss.
Andersson and Weegar are gone. In their place is a group built around potential, puck movement and the hope that several young defencemen can mature together.
Nemec is the largest investment. Calgary acquired the former second-overall pick from New Jersey with Tsyplakov, then signed the Slovakian defender to a five-year contract. He arrives with enough NHL experience to accept a major role but enough unfinished business to make this season pivotal.
Parekh offers the most obvious offensive upside. He finished his rookie season with four goals and five assists in 37 games, becoming increasingly involved on the power play over the final weeks.
“I feel comfortable and confident,” Zayne Parekh said to reporters.
The Flames need him to remain confident when mistakes happen.
Creative young defencemen occasionally force plays that are not available, lose battles or get caught below the puck. Calgary must decide which errors are part of Parekh’s education and which habits require immediate correction.
The early pairings place Kevin Bahl with Nemec, Yan Kuznetsov with Zach Whitecloud and Jake Middleton with Parekh. That structure gives each young puck-mover a more defensively established partner.
Bahl brings reach and a physical element. Middleton provides experience and edge. Whitecloud has played meaningful playoff hockey and should help stabilize a third pairing that could face difficult matchups.
Kuznetsov enters with an opportunity to prove he belongs in the NHL full-time. Joel Hanley and Brayden Pachal supply depth, experience and internal competition.
The largest question is whether Calgary’s defence can move the puck without becoming easy to play against. Nemec and Parekh can help improve a power play that desperately needs creativity, but both will also be asked to survive stronger competition at even strength.
There will be evenings when Calgary’s blue line looks fast, skilled and full of possibility.
There will be others when missed assignments and failed exits make the rebuild look every bit as young as it is.
The Flames are betting that the first type of night becomes more common by spring.
That would represent progress even if the standings remain unforgiving.
Defencemen
Kevin Bahl
Joel Hanley
Yan Kuznetsov
Jake Middleton
Simon Nemec
Brayden Pachal
Zayne Parekh
Zach Whitecloud
Goaltending
The Flames may be rebuilding everywhere else, but they are not searching for their starting goaltender.
Dustin Wolf owns the crease.
Calgary’s commitment became official when Wolf signed a seven-year, $52.5-million extension. The contract reflects what the organization believes he can become, but it also increases expectations after a more difficult second full NHL season.
Wolf will play behind a younger defence and for a team that may struggle to score. That combination creates little room for ordinary goaltending. Calgary will need him to steal games, shorten losing streaks and give its developing roster time to find its footing.
“Every day you try to go out there and get better,” Dustin Wolf said to reporters.
The Flames cannot ask him to solve everything.
Devin Cooley proved last season that the backup job does not have to be a source of concern. He appeared in 31 games and finished 10-10-6 with a 2.69 goals-against average and .909 save percentage, impressive numbers on a team that finished near the bottom of the standings.
Cooley’s emergence gives Huska a legitimate tandem rather than a starter and an emergency option. It should also allow Calgary to manage Wolf’s workload instead of repeatedly sending him back out when the schedule becomes congested.
If Wolf rebounds and Cooley maintains last season’s form, goaltending could keep the Flames more competitive than their roster suggests.
If either slips, Calgary does not possess enough proven offence to cover many poor nights.
The rebuild may be focused on youth, but its nightly credibility starts in the crease.
Goaltenders
Devin Cooley
Dustin Wolf