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When Brad Treliving hired Bill Peters, he scratched off the top item on his off-season to-do list. Still, a lot of work remains.
Let's take a look at five keys to a successful summer for the Calgary Flames:
1. Clearing some cap space
As it stands, the Flames don't have a lot of wiggle room to improve their roster. Matt Stajan ($3.125 million) is the only remotely lucrative contract coming off the books and potential raises to Mark Jankowski and Brett Kulak, while small, will likely eat into some of that money.
If the Flames want to make a notable addition to their roster – without losing an important piece in the process – they have to clear some cap space.
There are a couple obvious ways they could go about doing so. One of which is trading Michael Stone. Teams are always looking for established NHL defenders who play on the right side and, well, Stone meets the criteria.
I doubt there would be a bidding war for his services but I'm sure a couple teams looking for defense help would be willing to take on two more years at $3.5 million – although a modified NTC could complicate things.
The trickier option is Troy Brouwer. His $4.5 million cap hit is downright scary for what he brings to the table. He also has a modified NTC that could narrow an already (extremely) shallow pool of potential suitors.
If the Flames want to dump Brouwer, I think they'll have to eat some money – be it salary retention in a trade or buying him out. Not ideal, but perhaps necessary.
Removing one, or both, of those guys from the equation would give Brad Treliving some much needed flexibility.
2. Adding a top-6 forward
That's perhaps the biggest need on the roster right now.
Only five Flames forwards recorded 30+ points this season. Among the nine teams still playing, Washington (6) is the only team with fewer than seven forwards to reach that plateau. Several had eight or even nine.
The Flames were way too top heavy up front. If Johnny Gaudreau, Sean Monahan or Matthew Tkachuk (more so down the stretch) weren't scoring, the Flames weren't scoring.
Micheal Ferland is a fantastic complimentary piece but he's not a guy who will create his own opportunities. The same can be said of Michael Frolik, who is coming off a disappointing 25 point season.
The Flames need another big piece up front.
3. Adding a capable backup
David Rittich had a nice stretch when he was first recalled. Things quickly went south, though.
When all was said and done, he posted a .904 save percentage in 21 appearances. That's well below league average.
Jon Gillies fared even worse posting an .896(!) save percentage in 11 appearances. Some of those games were played behind a watered down lineup but the results were still pretty discouraging.
As for Eddie Lack...well, we don't need to go down that path.
Mike Smith is 36 years old, has an injury history, and his numbers have been pretty mediocre since 2011-12. The Flames need reliable goaltending behind him and, if 2017-18 was any indication, they don't have someone capable of providing that.
4. Shoring up the bottom-6
A big factor in the Flames underachieving was the play of their bottom-6 forwards. Beyond Mark Jankowski, and occasionally Sam Bennett, there were no positives down there.
Brouwer scored six goals in 76 games. Stajan scored four goals in 68 games. Curtis Lazar scored two goals in 65 games. Garnet Hathaway scored four goals in 59 games. Tanner Glass didn't even register a point in the 16 games he played.
Making matters worse is they all served as possession anchors. It's not as if they were useful when they weren't scoring and, well, they pretty much never were.
With some help, I think Jankowski and Bennett could be 2/3 of a decent 3rd line. Nick Shore is more than capable of filling in as the 4th line center.
Other than that, I think the Flames would do well to rebuild the bottom-6 – be it via free agency, trade, or from within (Andrew Mangiapane/Spencer Foo). There was way too much dead weight down there.
5. Making room for kids on defense
In particular, I'd love to see Stone moved this off-season. I think he's a servicable depth guy but a) he makes too much money and; b) he's blocking kids right now.
Rasmus Andersson is probably ready for full-time duty. There's reason to believe Juuso Valimaki could be, too. What he's done the last couple years is pretty similar to what Ivan Provorov and Mikhail Sergachev did in junior before making the jump.
Note: green means best of the trio, red means worst of the trio.
While Valimaki's on-ice goal numbers aren't as impressive, Tri-City isn't close to as good as Brandon and Windsor were when Provorov and Sergachev were there. I'm guessing that's a factor.
Despite that, Valimaki was a more efficient point producer than both of them. There's more to the game than just points, obviously, but that's an encouraging sign.
If Valimaki isn't ready to make the jump, he's probably close. Opening up a spot on the back end so guys like Andersson and Valimaki get a fair shake seems like a pretty good idea to me.
Recent posts:
Notes on quotes from Bill Peters' introductory presser
The Flames need a new backup goaltender
Trading T.J. Brodie could make sense for the Flames
Calgary Flames 2017-18 season awards
Setting the table for the 2018 off-season
On the possibility of trading into the 1st round
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