cross16

Rare defensive miscue from Mang there but it was a bit of a breakdown all the way around. Still Rakell was his guy.

Im a bit biased because I wasn’t a fan prior to the trade but Zadorov has done nothing to change my mind. Rough, rough start to the year. Only game 2, although he wasn’t good in the preseason either, but I’m not sure how much time you can give that pairing

Big positive so far has to be Rasmus Anderson. He looks excellent so far after his poor year last year. Hopefully a positive sign last year was just an off year.

Flames looked awesome to start the second but now they are really struggling with zone exits. Not getting out of the zone cleanly and some really poor turnovers

They are down to 4 goalies now. Andrew Shortridge was assigned to the ECHL.

Wolf through 2 games has stopped 66 of 69 shots for a 95.7 save %. he had a rough pro debut but in his 4 games since he has a 95.5% Save %. Good start.

Bit late on this, but wanted a central place to discuss things related to the Heat. Stockton so far is 1-1 on the season but their first lost was a 1-0 OT loss. Once they get Zary back this look to me to be the best collection of talent the Flames farm team has had in some time, probably since 16-17. I'm intrigued with what Mitch Love could do with this club. Certainly been some time since they had a goalie as promising as Wolf. Roster as of opening day. Ryan Francis signed an PTO with the Heat. Can last up to 25 games and he is still eligible for Junior this year. GOALIES 31 – Andrew Shortridge 32 – Dustin Wolf 35 – Adam Werner 40 – Matt Greenfield 50 – Daniil Chechelev DEFENSEMEN 2 – Connor Mackey 3 – Greg Moro 4 – Kevin Gravel 5 – Colton Poolman 6 – Ilya Solovyov 7 – Nick DeSimone 10 – Alec McRea 37 – Yan Kuznetsov 45 – Andy Welinski FORWARDS 9 – Ryan Olsen 11 – Matthew Phillips 16 – Mark Simpson 17 – Dmitry Zavgorodniy 18 – Byron Froese 20 – Alex Gallant 23 – Justin Kirkland 24 – Martin Pospisil 25 – Eetu Tuulola 26 – Reid Perepeluk 27 – Ryan Francis 29 – Adam Ruzicka 34 – Walker Duehr 39 – Luke Philp 46 – Emilio Pettersen 49 – Jakob Pelletier

Taking about the trade down is misleading analysis. I think there is no question the Flames we’re taking Zary at 19 had they stayed but they felt they could get him later, which is typically why a team would trade down. So whether they were right about Zary over Schneider, Lapierre etc is fair to analyze and critique although too soon imo, but the trade down really has nothing to do with that. anytime you can get the player you want end pick up additional assets is a win. Even if they are wrong about Zary the decision to trade down will still be a win. They really are separate decisions. just like Jankowski. The decision to trade down was good, the decision to rank Jankowski over the likes of Hertl, Teuvo or Vasilivsky is what went wrong .

Hat trick for Poirier last night. pretty good shot for a dman.

Who makes the NHL first is not a very good gauge of prospect quality. Especially after only 2 years. if healthy I have no doubt Zary would have pushed to make the team and he’ll show that in the A this year.

I didn’t catch the full game but from what I saw there was a lot of good. If the flames play like that more often than not they’ll be in good shape. PK and Zadarov are the only two things that jump out as problematic. The rest of the game came down to the flames giving up a little too much high quality( that will get fixed) and some bad bounces.

while I’m not saying this is wrong or I disagree I just think this is a problem for every team in the league. It’s not really a uniquely Flames issue. I think the business of pro sports, and in particular pro hockey in Canada, discourages long term planning.

Agreed, which is why I would suggest that both should face discipline. Punish both would set the standard that neither are ok rather than trying to pick one side or the other which is exactly why the NHL seems to like to do. Joseph actually had the more dangerous play IMO but it should be remembered that despite what they may state publicly, the NHL does not care about player safety. They have made that very clear over the years.

NHL DOPS is so antiquated in their thinking. Once again, let's pick out the retaliation and not look at the original action. I don't like what Larkin did but I dislike what Joseph did just as much. Both should be getting a call today.

Has there been a team that has successfully done this in the cap era?

I'm ok with that as long as some PK/PP time is thrown in there to get his confidence up too. Just carve out a role for him. It can be 3rd pairing, although having to carry around Gudbranson is not ideal, but just have a role. Don't just bury him there with the hope he earns his way up.

I actually think what the Flames need is Valimaki to be what they drafted him to be. That's the skillset that is lacking for me, not so much what Kylington brings. I'm pleasantly surprised to see Sutter appears to be giving Valimaki some rope.

Skating on his own but not yet ready to practice with the team.

I'm not surprised. I stopped reading into preseason many years ago after being duped by it too many times. Again not to put down Kylington, who I still think will get a chance to play, but I jsut don't think a few good games in a pre season mean much.

Looks like Flames have made several additions and changes to their hockey ops. Most notably a new pro scout with a pretty good resume in Derek Clancey. He was with the Penguins for the last 14 years, including their 3 cup wins. Ray Edwards and Gelinas back to their roles as Player development coaches. Full time skating coach and some adds to their analysis/data team. Ron Sutter appear to be moving as. he was a player development coach for some time. Hakan Loop also appears to have retired from scouting, according to Ryan Pike. Mix bag but interesting to see additions at this point in time. https://www.nhl.com/flames/news/flames-announce-additions-to-hockey-operations/c-326783504

Wouldn't surprise me nor do I think it's a bad idea. He probably wants to ease Hanifin into things, probably isn't too confident in Valimaki nor Kylington's game right now and Gudbranson could prove a liability early. 7D makes a ton of sense.

PP Units. Little surprised it's Anderson on the number 1 unit and not Hanifin but that could also be an ice time thing.

Sutter is the type of coach that will change things in a hurry, but under normal circumstances this would indicate the lineup he plans to start the season with Likes: What I believe is the top line stays together Monahan with 2 speedy wingers Dube elevated (even if it's just until Coleman is back) Lucic and Backlund together Gawdin a potential to play Hanifin and Anderson back together Dislikes: Zadorov in a top 4 role plus being paired with Tanev. I get part of the rationale (Tanev boosted everyone he played with so far as a Flame) but that is a potentially alarming lack of foot speed for a top 4 pairing.

I don't know where scouts got it wrong with Chychrun because when I watched the under 18s I saw a number one dman. I thought he was fantatic at that tournament and should have eased concerns about his stock, but it seemed to fall. To have guys like Jake Bean and Juolevi go ahead of him didn't make sense at the time and makes less sense today. Seems to me to be a case of over analysis on his game, which I find can happen when guys are pegged at number 1 for such a long length of time. Miss by a lot of scouts though IMO. Take this for what it's worth, but post draft Burke has stated a few times that they had Juolevi and Tkachuk tied. Perhaps someone else was ahead of them but given their love for Tkachuk that would appear doubtful.

And if they had not hired Quenville (rare coach) I think they'd still be "rebuilding" to a certain extent. So many things have to come together and Florida finally getting an owner willing to open up the wallet for a coach was huge.