August 28, 2022 by Ryan Lotsberg

I rarely deviate from writing about the Edmonton Oilers, but I want to focus on the wild offseason that has been for our neighbours to the south.

The Calgary Flames lost their top two scorers from last season in the blink of an eye. Johnny Gaudreau bolted for Columbus on the first day of free agency. Matthew Tkachuk informed Treliving that he would not sign with the Flames after this coming season.

That wasn’t how Brad Treliving was expecting this summer to play out after winning the 2021-22 Pacific Division title and advancing to the second round of the playoffs.

The Flames also recently traded Sean Monahan to the Montreal Canadiens, and paid a first-round pick to do it. These developments came a year after the Flames decided to expose longtime captain Mark Giordano to the Seattle Kraken in the expansion draft. The Flames are not the same old group anymore. They come into the 2022-23 season with a totally new core.

Treliving was in the tough position of dealing with two big losses and still needing to ice a competitive team to meet the high expectations placed on his team after a successful season. He pulled off one of the most interesting trades that I remember seeing when he traded Tkachuk and a conditional 2025 fourth round pick to the Florida Panthers for Jonathan Huberdeau, Mackenzie Weegar, Cole Schwindt, and a conditional 2025 first round pick.

Tkachuk is a good player who just had a fantastic season, but Huberdeau is the best player involved in that trade. Calgary got him AND Weegar, who is an underrated right-handed defenceman, AND they picked up a first-round pick. Calgary won the deal from a strictly talent based standpoint.

However, Huberdeau, age 29, was set to become an unrestricted free agent after the 2022-23 season, while Tkachuk, age 24, was set to become a restricted free agent after next season. Weegar, age 28, will be an unrestricted free agent next summer, unless he chooses to sign an extension with Calgary. Florida gave up the most talented player in the trade, a fantastic defenceman, a prospect, and a first round pick for the ability to sign Tkachuk through the prime of his career.

They chose to not risk losing either Huberdeau or Weegar for nothing in the open market. They chose to avoid signing them into their late thirties. They chose to avoid having expensive declining players on their roster in the future. That’s a progressive asset management move by the Panthers. They made their team worse in the present to avoid a salary cap issue several years down the road.

The Flames promptly signed Huberdeau to a massive eight year extension that will keep him in Calgary until he’s 38 years old. Weegar has yet to extend his contract, but he has expressed a willingness to stay after this coming season. They still had a hole to fill up front and they signed Nazem Kadri to a seven year contract which will also keep him in Calgary until he’s 38.

The Flames have taken the opposite approach of Florida. They have paid a ton of money to free agents that are good now but will decline through their contracts in Calgary. These contracts have the potential to severely limit their ability to improve their team once Huberdeau and Kadri begin to decline.

Treliving has totally changed the core of the Flames. I didn’t believe that the old core was capable of winning so I feel the forced core change was a blessing in disguise. However, I can’t definitively say that the new Flames core puts them in a better position to contend over the next eight years than the old one would have due to the age of the players that they have on their roster.

I can’t even say that they’re much better today than they were last season. Let’s take a look at their roster to see how it looks currently:

Huberdeau – Lindholm – Toffoli

Mangiapane – Kadri – Coleman

Lucic – Backlund – Dube

Pelletier – Rooney – Lewis

Hanifin – Andersson

Weegar – Tanev

Zadorov – Kylington

Valimaki

Markstrom

Vladar

I would say that the forward group is slightly worse than last year, but not by much. Huberdeau replaces Gaudreau, so that’s a wash. The top line is weaker with Toffoli there instead of Tkachuk. Kadri strengthens the second line. I don’t think that will be enough to make up for Tkachuk’s departed offence from last season though. Kadri won’t have Andre Burakovsky or Valeri Nichushkin on his wings in Calgary. I don’t see him producing as much as he did last season. 

Weegar improves an already strong Flames defence, there’s no arguing that. The Flames lack one elite defenceman, but they have a deep group of high quality defencemen. Adding Weegar and letting Erik Gudbranson leave in free agency makes the defence faster and more mobile. That will make up for the slight decline in the forward group.

The Flames improved ever so slightly for the upcoming season, but they have increased the average age on their team thus shortening their competitive window. Treliving has done well to compensate for the losses of Guadreau and Tkachuk, but I still don’t see the Flames as one of the true Stanley Cup contenders.

I’m an Oilers fan, so naturally I have to compare the two teams. Kadri, Elias Lindholm, and Mikael Backlund form a strong trio of centers for Calgary; but they fall short of Connor McDavid, Leon Draisaitl, and Ryan Nugent-Hopkins.

Huberdeau is the best winger on either team (unless Draisaitl moves to the wing), but that doesn’t compensate for McDavid and Draisaitl. Toffoli isn’t up to the standard of Evander Kane. Andrew Mangiapane is close to where Zach Hyman is, but Hyman averaged 0.04 more points per game than Mangiapane did last season. Both Kailer Yamamoto and Jesse Puljujarvi got more points than Blake Coleman did last season, and Coleman is 33 years old.

The Flames defence is better than the Oilers defence right now. Rasmus Andersson surprised me by putting up 50 points. Noah Hanifin was right there with him at 48 points. Weegar wasn’t far behind them at 44 points. All of those guys are big and they can all skate well. That’s an enviable top three. Darnell Nurse is a fantastic defender, but he doesn’t produce that kind of offence.

Tyson Barrie can produce a lot of points, but he likely won’t get the opportunity to produce 50 points while playing on the third pairing. Evan Bouchard could continue climbing after his 43-point season from last year. The Oilers’ best defenders don’t produce as much offence or defend as well as Calgary’s top defenders. However, that could change in the next few years with the development of Bouchard and Philip Broberg.

The goaltending is pretty comparable. Jakob Markstrom had an unbelievable season last year with 37 wins, nine shutouts, a .922 save percentage, and a sparkling goals against average of 2.22. Jack Campbell had a good year, but he wasn’t up to Markstrom’s standard.

Here’s the thing though: the Oilers were able to beat the Flames in five games in the playoffs while getting a sub .900 save percentage from Mike Smith. The Oilers have addressed their goaltending and the Flames have only improved marginally. The Flames aren’t likely to get the level of goaltending that Markstrom achieved last season again either.

The Oilers appear to be the better team right now and they’re in a better position to remain competitive over the course of the next eight years.