Slow Start to 25-26 Season Could be Good for the Flames Long Term Future

Slow Start to 25-26 Season Could be Good for the Flames Long Term Future

Welcome back. All right, I want to talk about the Calgary Flames today. We are two weeks into the National Hockey League’s 2025 2026 season. And while it is far too early to rule a team out of a playoff race, uh the Flames, they’re looking like a team that’s going to have a very long season. Now, I’m not going to be negative in terms of the overall picture for the Calgary Flames and what this season means. In fact, I think this might be better for them than last season. And last season, they had a remarkable run. They got very close to the playoffs. However, they just fell short in the end, right? So, if they’d done that this season as well, I don’t think that would have helped. And considering this year’s draft class and this McKenna kid and how good he looks at Penn State, I think a Gavin McKenna and the Calgary Flames would probably do wonders to helping this team find ways to score and he could be that piece they build around cuz I don’t know that they have that. So, I want to look at their scoring so far this year and and kind of point this out. This is a team that works by committee. This is a team that works by hard work and and every single shift is more grinding than the last and that can wear you out. And also uh so far this season because they don’t have those top end skilled forwards, they’re they’re just not able to win those tight games. So Cadri leads the way in scoring, not a surprise, but he just has the four assists in seven games. So he’s on pace for about 50 points, which is not terrible, right? But for your leading scorer, it means that you’re going to need either a lot of guys who are scoring around 50 points, or you’re going to need your goalender and your defense to be absolutely fantastic. Coronado, two goals and an assist for three points in seven games. Coleman has two goals so far in seven games. Uh Rasmus Anderson, two assists in seven games, and we’ll talk about him again in a little bit here. Morgan Frost with a goal and an assist. Also has played all seven games. Farabby with two assists in those seven games. Klapka two assists in those seven games. Uh Hubido’s only played two games thus far, had a goal in those two games. Uh Griden with a goal in the four games that he has played thus far this season. Of course, him being sent down to uh the Wranglers probably great for his development. Uh Backland with one goal so far this season has played all seven games. Connor Zer one goal in the seven games as well. Sharon Govich with an assist in seven games. Uh Lombberg, that should be six games because he was a healthy scratch last night. So, I just got I got uh used to just writing seven for everybody. So, I’ll change that to a six. And I’m using the same kind of marker for that blue cuz that was a mistake. I got to make sure I I I point that out. Uh but yeah, Lombberg with an assist in seven games and Kevin Ball also has an assist in seven games. Now, none of these numbers are overly upsetting. I don’t think neither is the fact Hanzik has no points in five games. Perk has no points in five games. None of that’s upsetting. I would be a bit concerned about Coronado’s numbers that they’re not higher, but there’s just there’s a lot of malaise to go around when it comes to Calgary’s offense right now. Then you get to the goalending and Wolf has really not had a great start to the season. Though he played very well last night against the Jets, he’s 1 and5 with an 867 safe percentage. He’s not stealing the games this year. And as as much as they needed more goals last year, uh the goal scoring’s dropped this year. It’s dropped precipitously. Uh Koulie’s 0 and1 in the appearance he made with a 925 safe percentage. So I do think Koulie should play a little more. I know there’s been talk about whether or not Calgary is going to go out and get a backup, but at this point I think you ride it out. I do. I if if I was Craig Conroy, I’d kind of ride it out. Uh, their goal scoring is last in the league at 1.57 goals per game. Uh, their defense 30th at 3.86 goals per game. I promise I promise there is definitely uh going to be a lot of positivity in this video. I just need to get through the numbers first. Uh, their power play is 26th at 14.8%. Their penalty kill is 20th at 75%. They’re getting 25.4 shots per game and they’re allowing 29.6. And as I mentioned, their 1-6 record puts them at the very bottom of the National Hockey League standings, which would give them the best odds of winning the draft lottery. So, I think that’s a good thing. And if you look at their upcoming schedule, it doesn’t get a lot easier. So, we’ll look at that. Uh, they’re at home tomorrow against the Montreal Canadians. The Canadians are playing very well. Uh, then they go to Winnipeg on Friday. Maybe they can win in Winnipeg. Winnipeg won in Calgary, maybe. Uh then they’re at home on Sunday against the New York Rangers. Two teams desperate for a win. Might be some punching in that one. Uh then they go on the road for four. Uh first Tuesday the 28th in Toronto, then Thursday the 30th in Ottawa. And then on the 1st on the Saturday, uh they are in Nashville and the next day they are in Philadelphia. They come home and they play on Wednesday the 5th of November against Columbus and then Friday the 7th of November against Chicago. So these four games here, Nashville, Philly, Columbus, and Chicago feel like ones where they might be able to get some wins at least maybe three out of four or two out of four, right? But Montreal’s tough. Ottaw or uh Winnipeg’s tough. I think the Rangers are better than their record. Uh Toronto isn’t going to be easy and Ottawa, even though they’ve been slumping, I I still think Ottawa’s better than what their record is. So these are teams that are going to view the Calgary Flames as the team that they’re going to want to beat because they’re down at the bottom of the league. So uh it does get more difficult. The the good news though is that still this is a team with a lot of cap space and they’re going to be players once the the trade market heats up. So they have 11,416,715 in cap space. That is an excellent amount of cap space. It does mean that they’re going to be able to move players and retain. They’re also going to be able to bring in a maybe a contract from a team that that wants to be rid of a contract so they can bring somebody else in. Um they have Vegas’s first round draft pick next year. They also have Vancouver’s third round draft pick next year. So they’ve already got one extra first round draft pick. I will not be surprised if they look for another. The interesting thing being that Rasmus Anderson is likely, I would think at this point, you trend more towards moving the player than keeping him, considering the record and considering the kind of contract he’s going to want. Um maybe you get another first round draft pick back. So, if he goes to Vegas, well, they’ve already got this this season’s first round draft pick, the 2026 one. Maybe you go for the 2027 one, too. While you’re at it. Vegas is never shy about trading draft picks. They are one of the teams that do it all the time and I won’t question it because the results are there. They do have a Stanley Cup ring. Uh so looking at the contract situation with Calgary, when Hubardo signed that contract in Calgary, it was seen as risky. He has not lived up to that contract as of yet. It’s $10.5 million till 2031. I don’t think that contract gets moved. I don’t think it’s tradable at this point in time. And I think considering they have a bunch of cap space, it’s not hurting the Flames going forward. Not yet. Uh maybe towards the end of it it does, but the cap’s going up. Maybe by 2031 the cap’s what, $180 million? Who knows? Uh it just feels like it’s it’s insane how quickly it’s going up. Uh Cadri is a $7 million cap hit till 2029. I would not be surprised if this season continues to go this way. If we start hearing Cadre’s name for two reasons. One, it’s a name that will get clicks for people to click on said articles. And two, he is a veteran forward. And at a $7 million cap hit, that contract’s aging. okay with the salary cap going up to $113 million in a couple of years. Uh Coronado’s $6.5 million cap hit till 2032 is still fine even though Cornado is not producing the way that I think the Flames, their fans, their coaches would probably like for him to do. Uh Sharon Govich’s 5.75 million cap hit till 2030 is not looking great right now. Um Sharon Govich a healthy scratch last night and just the one assist so far. I like Sharon Govich a lot, but he’s got to work for it. He has to work, work, work. And if he’s being scratched by the flames, clearly they’re not seeing the work or they’re just not seeing the results of said work. And maybe Sharon Govich ends up on the block. But at a $5.75 million cap hit until 2030, that would be a difficult contract to move. Uh Far has a $5 million $5 million cap hit till 2028. He has not had the bounce back in Calgary that I kind of hope that he might even though he’d had his downtime in Philly and um yeah, so just the two assists in seven games. Fabe’s been prominent, but he’s also been snake bit. Um then you got Coleman at a $4.9 million cap hit till 2027. If the Flames make Coleman available this season for trade, teams will line up. you will get a lot of teams making offers for Coleman because it’s only one year past this for his cap hit of 4.9 million which teams are able to absorb a little better this year. It does feel like there’s more general managers that left themselves with some breathing room for the salary cap this year than usual and it might make it a little easier to move uh Blake Coleman who’s a good veteran veteran forward who probably play a third third line role on a contending team and can still produce 20 plus goals. So even though he’s only got the two goals so far in seven games and no assists, I still think there’s good market value if the Flames decide, hey, let’s go ahead and and move out Coleman. Uh Backland has a $3.25 million cap hit till 2028. That cap hit kicks in next year. This year is a $4.5 million cap hit. It is clear that Backland has no intention of playing anywhere else and the Flames have no intention of moving him. Uh, Frost has a $4.38 million cap hit till 2027. Similar storyline to Coleman. I think if the Flames made Frost available, I think there would be interest. Uh, Frost is definitely young enough that a team might take a swing at him. Uh, seeing, you know, maybe they can unlock a little more offense from him than what we’ve seen of him recently. Um, just the one goal, the one assist so far in seven games for Frost, of course. Uh Zerry $3.78 million cap hit until 2028. Uh Zerry just has the one goal so far. He has he has talent. He can play. Uh the good news being that that $3.78 million cap hit does end up being pretty good for him no matter what the production is because the Flames don’t have that cap crunch that some of the other teams do. U McKenzie Weaguer $6.25 million cap hit till 2031. What’s interesting is as high as that value is for the hubo contract and we can talk about that for sure. The weaguer contract is still aged really really well. So do they balance out? I would argue kind of. Uh to pay 16 million for the two I mean it’s it’s a lot for for Hubardo and weaguer I guess. But for the Flames it’s okay. Uh ball at 5.35 million till 2031. Uh Kevin Ball defensively is good. offense. You’re not going to get that offense there. Uh but his contract works for the Flames, doesn’t it? Anderson has just this season left on a contract. The cap hit being $4.55 million. I will not be surprised when Rasmus Anderson is officially on the trade block. I don’t think we’re far from that. I would think another few weeks of wins coming at a very, very slow pace and the losses piling up. And what the Flames should do, and I I I’m surprised teams don’t do this more often, is be the first be the first team to say, “Okay, these players are available.” And start fielding those those trade offers. Because the earlier you make players available for trade, uh the more you can get the market to maybe kind of, you know, debate over uh what the cost should be and all that, you might get more back is what I’m trying to say. If you open things up a little bit earlier, you can have a meeting with the team. We can have Craig Conroy sit the team down and go, “Look, this year the numbers are just not in our so if they go two and 12 to start the year.” You have Conroy sit down with the team and go, “This isn’t the way we wanted things to go, but hey, it happens.” And so, you know, and you you pull aside individual players and say, “We’re we’re looking at potentially making a move.” Um, now Wol’s contract, $7.5 million cap hit until 2033. He only has a cap hit of $850,000 this year. I’m not worried about Wolfe. I know his numbers aren’t great, but he’s a young goalender. Goalenders are voodoo is what’s always been always been said. And it’s true. Goalies will have very great years followed by mediocre years. It’s just you’re looking for the balance. I think with Wolfe, I think it’ll balance out that he’s a very good goalender. So for the Flames, I think they have a a good defense core there. I think Perk is going to be their their power play point man soon enough, even if this year his numbers don’t end up matching up to that. I think there are some good young forwards here and I think Wol’s that goalender. I don’t think the Flames are that far away from building a pretty good team. I I don’t think they’re that far off. And so if they won a draft lottery in 2026 and they ended up getting McKenna, that speeds things up that much more, right? And the fact that we’ve seen some players willing to stick around with Calgary like like Backland and willing to sign, I think definitely helps that perception that the Flames are still in this. They’re still a good team. uh at its heart right um even if the record this year is not fantastic now looking at their their points and how things have fluctuated. So they last made the playoffs in 2022. They had 93 points the year after where they missed the playoffs. Then they had 81 points in 23 24 and last year they had 96 points where they tied St. Louis but they lost on the tiebreaker to St. Louis who make the playoffs and Calgary doesn’t. Um, this year so far would seem to show that St. Louis is the better of the two teams and I I don’t anticipate the Flames necessarily going on a huge run. Could it happen? Yeah, I’ve done videos like this where a team’s in a slump and they turn it around and vice versa. I’ve talked about a team that’s on a hot streak and then they go into a bit of a slump cuz that that’s kind of the cyclical nature of a regular season. But I do think when everything when the smoke clears, the Flames are likely to still be one of the bottom teams in the league. But I I don’t think that’s disastrous as long as the young players like Coronado are still showing that growth and that that ability to play the game at that high level and as long as you know Wolfe gets things back together and they figure out what they’re going to do with guys like Hanzac and Perk and and how to best uh facilitate a strong season from them and a lot of development. Um, the Calgary Flames were very unlikely to make the playoffs this year anyways. So, I don’t think that this start of the season, as tough as it would be to watch for Flames fans, I don’t think it’s disastrous for the franchise because we’re looking at a very strong draft in 2026. They already have two first round draft picks in that draft and they could get more. So, yes, the Vegas draft pick could end up being 32nd overall if Vegas ends up winning the Stanley Cup. But if they add a couple more draft picks in this draft, uh we could be talking about the Flames next year as being an exciting young upand cominging team. Uh we’re seeing that now with Anaheim. We’re seeing that with Chicago. And I don’t think Calgary has to add that many young players to get into a similar position because of guys like Perk because I still think Zary’s going to be good. I still think Coronado is going to be a very good top six forward for them as well. So yeah, you add McKenna to that group, you might have something going there. And as this NCAA season goes along, we’re seeing more and more excitement for Gavin McKenna. Uh to the point where I’ve even ordered um decals for for Penn State because I know I’m going to need to put that on news boards often enough that I need Penn State magnets. But that’s where we’re at right now with the Flames. I think it’s been it’s been a tough start. I think it’s a little easier to take when you already knew that the Flames were unlikely to be a playoff team this year. And one of the hardest things to go through is just barely missing the playoffs, especially when the team’s not a contender and you’re like, well, we’re not going to get that top draft pick, but we didn’t make the playoffs either. So, it kind of makes that season feel like a loss. And I say that as a Canuck fan that has watched them do that multiple times. And I remember towards the end of again time in Calgary that happened a lot where the Flames were good enough to almost make the playoffs, not bad enough to get those top five draft picks. And it’s just it’s this mediocre mushy, you know, from 17th to 21st or 22nd in the standings. You don’t really want to be there if you’re the Flames. You kind of want to be at the bottom without saying you want to be at the bottom. So, I don’t think I don’t think Craig Conroy is going to be overly panicky about the record right now. Um I I think the panic would be if the young players are regressing, if we don’t see um any kind of advancement from them. That’s where I think you would be then looking at Ryan Huska, who I don’t think is in any danger either. Usually when a team starts at one and six, I’ll be standing here saying, “This coach could be in trouble.” I I don’t think Huska is in any danger. Um, I think the danger would be if we do see the young players playing worse than what they did last year. And so, season’s still young. There’s definitely a chance the Flames turn things around and get a winning streak going. Uh, as I mentioned, there’s this four-game stretch here where they they could get their share of wins, but Philly’s been better than expected. Nashville’s been a little bit better than expected. Um, and Columbus, I still think, is better than their record, and Chicago is a lot of fun to watch. So, even this this four-game stretch here, there’s no gimmies in there. There there just aren’t. So, let me know your thoughts in the comment section below regarding the state of the Calgary Flames. Um, I think this season is probably going to be a very rough one, but I think it could be to the benefit of the franchise long term. Let me know your thoughts. See, positive. I’m being even though they’re one and six and it’s it’s not all like all this negative. Yeah, because I I think this is probably what the team needs long term. But let me know your thoughts. Hit like and subscribe in the event that you may not have done so already. Thank you guys so much for all your support. I will talk to you again soon.

Last season they stayed in the hunt until the very end. This season is looking quite different for the Flames.

Join this channel to get access to perks:
https://www.youtube.com/channel/UC_AFyA9FqrZ57bb9QRH77wg/join

Join us on our discord to chat hockey, talk with others during the game, share pet pictures, and more.
https://discord.gg/thehockeyguy

Order jerseys from Ben H Sports while saving 10% off the listed eBay prices by sending him an email regarding jerseys you spot in his listings. ben.hoogenband@yahoo.ca Just tell him Shannon sent you.

Support The Hockey Guy via Patreon https://www.patreon.com/thehockeyguy

https://www.facebook.com/youtubehockeyguy/
Instagram: thgshannon and thg_cats
Spoutible: https://spoutible.com/TheHockeyGuy

TheHockeyGuy.yt@gmail.com

Contact me via snail mail at:
The Hockey Guy
PO Box 13063 RPO Highstreet
Abbotsford, BC
V2S 0C4
CANADA

In the USA: some times it takes us a few weeks to get items up to us
Shannon Skanes
1125 Fir Avenue
Suite 119
Blaine, WA 98230

Shop THG Store:
www.thgyt.ca