Ladies and Gentlemen…the Next Big Thing

 

The Calgary Flames currently hold down the last wild card spot in the WC.

Sports Club Stats has the Flames with a 72.2% chance of making the playoffs and that seems about right but that isn’t the real story.

The Flames are positioned to make a major leap forward in the seasons ahead.

If you believe, as I and any sane NHL observer does, that the best teams are built from the back-end out and down the middle, The Flames are in a great place.

The Flames have THREE NHL quality goaltenders in Hiller, Ramo and Ortio. Ramo is the worst of the bunch but has a .904 save percentage which is a couple of miles ahead of the Oilers best.

The Flames also have one of the best top pairing D in the league with Giordano and Brodie and Dennis Wideman is scoring at the same rate as Taylor Hall, Jordan Eberle and Ryan  Nugent-Hopkins.

With their D in a very nice place, the next order of business turns to centre depth. Good Grief!

Monahan

Backlund

Stajan

Colborne

Jooris

Granlund

Reinhart

Bouma

Byron

Shore

Sam Bennett

That’s ELEVEN NHL centres folks.

Obviously they won’t all play C in the Flames lineup but the Flames have the luxury of dealing from depth at the most important forward position or playing some of these guys on the wing.

But that’s not the most important factor in the Flames resurgence.

The Flames have the lowest payroll in the NHL and are in a position to take advantage of any cap strapped team that comes along…like Chicago, Boston, Philadelphia.

Can you imagine if the Flames add 2 established D like Keith Yandle and Brent Seabrook and a couple of high scoring wingers?

They have the cap space, the assets and a very smart management team to turn themselves into a bonafide contender in one offseason.

See the NYI for reference.

 

 

 

Snap Shots

 

1) With the trade deadline fast approaching, I think we’ll soon see some dominos fall. The chief sellers are likely to be Arizona, Buffalo, New Jersey and Philadelphia.

2) With the Canadian dollar in freefall, the salary cap is not likely to hit the $73M estimated earlier with Gary Bettman recently indicating it may be around $71M . That will have a major impact on teams like Boston, Chicago, the Rangers and Pittsburgh who are going to be in cap hell in the offseason.

3) Teams who have a lot of cap space (like Calgary and Arizona) or who can create it by selling expensive pieces are going to be in a great position to pick up some very good players for pennies on the dollar as we saw last offseason when the Islanders picked up Johnny Boychuk and Nick Leddy and fast tracked their rebuild right into the playoffs.

4)  Worth noting that the league leading Nashville Predators have one of the lowest payrolls in the league at only $61M. Scary to think how good they can be if they pick up a couple of major pieces this summer.

5) Other than Nashville, perhaps one of the league biggest surprises (quietly) is the Detroit Red Wings.

• Detroit is second in the Atlantic Division, one point behind Eastern Conference-leading Tampa Bay. The Red Wings have won five straight and are 13 points better than were at this point last season. The surprising part is they’ve gotten better with little roster turnover.

“Around July 5 when not much happened last summer, I was disappointed – just like a few of my veteran players who called me were disappointed, too,” coach Mike Babcock said. “I don’t think any of us would’ve believed we’d be in this spot, the general manager and myself included.”

So much for those who predicted the Wings would fall apart when Lidstrom retired.

6) The Vancouver Canucks are a bit of an enigma. They remain vulnerable to any of the 5 or so teams chasing them for a playoff spot (although the Canucks have games in hand on most) but what is holding the Canucks back is that they are very mediocre at home (11-8-1) while possessing the best road record in the league (15-8-2). Go figure.

7) It appears the Maple Leafs aren’t going to be signing UFA defenseman Cody Franson to a term and dollars the team likes and will move him shortly. The 6’5″ 215 pound RH shooting defenseman is having a career offensive year with 6 goals and 29 points. The Sicamous, BC boy would look pretty good on the Canucks blue line but I don’t know if the Canucks will be willing to give up much for a playoff rental even with Kevin Bieksa out of the lineup for 4-6 weeks with a broken hand. He may end up in Dallas who could also use another RH shot.

8) With Franson on the market, the trade value of Jeff Petry will sink even further. Another RH shot, Petry’s boxcars are pretty bad…4G 6A 10P -22. Disturbing to think Petry is the Oilers best defenseman and they are going to send him away.

9) There’s an old hockey saying…”goaltending is 50% of the game when you have it and 100% of the game when you don’t”. See Winnipeg and Nashville for reference.

10) Want to know why the Calgary Flames could make the playoffs? It’s because they have a 19-8-1 record against WC and a 14-4-1 record agains the Pacific Division. Want to know why the Oilers are in the basement? They have 3-19-1 record against the WC and are 2-14-3 against the Pacific Division.