cross16

No surprise but Pelletier is invited to Team Canada's summer camp for the 2021 World Juniors. Camp will be held virtually. Given the makeup of the roster (less than 50% are drafted) I would suspect Pelleiter to have a large role and maybe even wear a letter. It's as light on experience a roster as I've ever seen from Team Canada.

Treliving has said as much on a few calls now. Expectation is exactly this that Parsons and Zag are the AHL goalies next year. I agree he is worth another look and it's pretty common that the goalies coming from overseas tend to struggle the first year in terms of numbers. Lots comment about how the ice and the style of play are a bigger transition that it would appear to us and the nice thing about Zac, from everything I read, is he flashed a lot of upside. Consistency would be what you'd like to see out of him next year. I agree it's the end of Gilles (as it was always likely to be anyway) and that is too bad but makes sense. Gilles had all the talent you want but for me he just couldn't never get to the level of being dialed in for 60 minutes. Too many mental lapses that would lead to bad goals and he just could not overcome that which is true for so many prospects. I think part of re signing Zag is they needed that depth. I'm not sure how comfortable you'd be with the idea of Parsons playing NHL games next year if an injury occurred so having Zag is good depth. If he had of left I think they would have been in the market for a goalie who could be a call up option. Unfortunately this turned out to be incorrect (and Pike clarified that). If you have 2 or less pro season under your built you are not eligible for the expansion draft and Zag won't have that.

Yes it is better. Moncton a starting a rebuild and we’re going to lose 3 of their top scorers (outside Pelletier) Due to age and don’t have a lot of young talent to step in. They loaded up to try and get to the Memorial cup. Val D’Or is not stocked or a power but they were young this year so easy to see how they can get better. They also have an up an coming center in Justin Robidas who was just invited to team Canada’s summer camp for Ivan Hlinka. That should be positive for Pelletier.

Pretty cool that they would make him captain right away. Probably speaks to his character.

This. it will have a larger lower bowl and more prime area boxes/suites. That's one of the biggest problems with the dome today. The quantity of seats is not as important as the quality of the seats or the $/seat unfortunately. That's the way arena construction has gone in the last decade or so. Experience and $ > quantity of fans.

Markstrom and Lehner are the only two out there I would consider on the right deal. I don't really agree with giving goalies more than 4 year terms so if they want more I would be out. The rest of the options to me are not starters, not worth the money they will get, or I would just prefer to stick with Ritttich. I'm pretty lukewarm on Murray given his injury problems. Might be tough for him to recover but I do like the skill set. Unless it's a young goalie that you can add now and for the future I'm not as much a believer in the Flames needing a solution in net. While I understand the reservation around Rittich, IMO I think you would have the same reservations around many of the available "upgrades". i just don't think there are that many very good or great goalies in the league so spending time, assets or cap space for a marginal upgrade doesn't really interest me. I see the Flames going with Rittich and another 1B next year and there are a few options there I don't mind.

It's a rule for an entry level contract. Entry level contracts go based on age and if you are under the age of 25 you have to sign an ELC. he was considered 24 years old for the purposes of his contract so he had to sign a one year deal ELC. From everything i've read/heard he had a decent season. It was up and down but there were some flashes and also i think Stockton was a mess defensively this year so that should be factored in too. I have no problem bringing him back, just putting it out there that there are some suggestions he wants to go back. I'd run Parsons and Schenider next year in Stockton if it were my call but I certainly would be disappointed if its Zags and Parsons. either way, Parsons needs a bigger role and the organization should not give up on him by any means.

Technically yes they can keep him up for the 9 games. Don't see it as worthwhile though other than seeing him in an NHL game for the fans sake. I've read some soft reports out there that Zagidulin may be heading back to the KHL. Nothing super reliable but it was out there that he was in negotiations with a team there. I recall someone telling me on a recent call Treliving did say they want Parsons in the A next year getting starts.

not a bad year....

Pelletier was traded in the Q today for quite the haul. Will play in Val D'or next season.

In case anyone is curious, the arena has come up a few times in some Conference calls I've been on recently. - They've picked an architect and also recently selected their construction manager. Neither has been confirmed publicly but they have been selected. - Expect that the architectural and building plans will be done by Stampede of 2021. Plan to build shortly after that. - Goal still is to be playing in the new arena by the 2024/25 season. - Will visit the newer buildings (Vegas, Detroit, Edmonton) to see what went well/what didn't. They also want to visit Columbus and Minnesota (the NBA arena not the NHL one) and keep pointing to those as building where they did it right.

Depends on where they reside and where they own property/earn income. Players have to pay tax in every state/country they play ini and earn income in so it gets more complex than just looking at their salary and the state/province the team is located in.

Ya the Torts thing was a bit of a mess. He wasn't Gillis' guy either the owners pushed hard to hire him and basically told Gillis what to do. Doomed to fail from the get go from a few reasons I think. and i'm not trying to put Calgary down either. I love Calgary, lived her almost my entire life, and think its a great city and the Flames are a good franchise. However, there is also higher taxes than many places, pressure of a Canadian hockey city, brutal travel schedule, your in Canada (big deal for an American coach perhaps) and the Flames don't really have a marquee player that I think coaches would have a strong desire to coach. When you have multiple options lots of factors come into play.

ya count me in the crowd that thinks the Flames will get lean here over the next couple of years. The NHL draws almost 40% of it's revenue based on ticket sales and gate revenue and I think not only will be that reduced this year I think it's very likely you'll take a hit there next year. On top of that with the situation here in Alberta being what it is your going to have sponsorship and corporate packages impacted as well as tickets. Not suggesting they are going to be in trouble but I think there i going to be a big financial impact to the club. That being said I've said for a while i'm not sure if it's a money thing so much as a recruitment issue. I'm not sure I see coaches lining up to coach here unless you overpay.

I'm not sure who FLA is as Florida is not looking for a coach. If you mean Flames, I don't think you will hear any links between the Flames and available coaches. They are, at least for now, committed to Ward. The 4 names linked to the Devils right now are Gallant, Laviollette, John Stevens, and the interim coach Alan Nasreddine.If Gallant or Laviolette are there preferred candidate i would imagine hiring them right now would be tough as I could see them wanting to wait to see what happens with the teams in the mix that are looking for coaches.

I've thought about that. I was impressed with his work as well and if he's got his life turned around and cleaned up I would agree he deserved a 2nd chance. However, not sure the Flames can be in the market for another head coach who past raises questions. I don't want to compare the actions of the two men involved as they are drastically different but there would be similarities in terms of the PR and the media and i'm just not sure the Flames can go that route.

This is very interesting given how Gallant has been tied there by a few people. Maybe this is the "kiss of death" for a coach but for a team that won't be a part of the play in or playoffs it would be uncommon to make this statement unless it was truthful.

And where is Andrew Ladd or Louis Eriksson? All 3 signed very similar contracts back on that July 1 and Lucic has been the better of all 3 of them. Ladd isn't even in the league right now.

It certainly belongs in the conversation but i'm a bit surprised it's the worst to be honest. I would rank it behind the Seabrook, Karlsson, Skinner and Neal deals myself. I don't think votes like this give enough credence to the fact that if you want to get out from the Lucic deal it's actually relatively affordable in real dollars and the back end of the structure is team friendly as well. The rest of those deals are much harder to get out from and are not as team friendly in terms of the cash payout. Bit of a futile debate though as all of them are bad.

Hardware for Wolf

No surprise but now official. Wolf wins goalie of the year in the WHL

I agree, he also has a real impressive draft record. Unfortunately unless someone in the flames hockey ops is moving on I don’t see it happening. I can’t imagine between Covid and the oil crisis the flames are going to be increasing budgets anytime soon.

Behind a paywall at the Athletic but Rutherford being pretty honest that the cap is likely going to force him to trade one of Matt Murray or Tristan Jarry. Flames have been linked to Murray in the past. https://theathletic.com/1795631/2020/05/05/jim-rutherford-says-trading-one-of-his-goaltenders-might-be-inevitable/

Seems to me Talbot's beef was more with Peters and less the organization. He speaks really highly of the organization so I don't see it as bad blood. If Ward is back and they are willing to let it be an open competition I see a scenario where Talbot's back. There are not many other areas that jump out as fits but i'm also not that broken up if he moves on.