Calgary Flames executive Don Maloney recently did an interview with NHL.com and discussed a wide array of topics.
Perhaps the most interesting one was free agency. Maloney hinted the Flames won't necessarily chase the big fish, but rather some of the under the radar options.
"Right now we're looking at value. Who's under-priced in today's market and how do we get that player. Might not necessarily be the big names - that home-run guy - but there are players who are interesting to us.
Many assumed Ryan would be a target for the Flames if he hit the open market, as expected, and Sportsnet's Elliotte Friedman added some credence to that during an interview with Calgary's Sportsnet 960 (…‹transcription via frshockey.com).
“One of the guys I think Calgary could potentially be looking at is a guy like Derek Ryan. He would make a lot of sense to me for what the Flames are looking for. Bill Peters really liked him. He’s not going to cost you a ton. He’s a really easy-going, good guy and I think he’s an Alberta boy right, so I could see that being a match for you guys.…
As I mentioned above, Ryan's counting totals were respectable in 2017-18. The same can be said of his underlying numbers. Among 13 eligible forwards (400+ minutes) on the Hurricanes, Ryan finished 5th in points/60. Funny enough, that's where he'd have ranked on the Flames as well.
His possession numbers were also really good, although favorable deployment – plenty of offensive zone starts – and Jeff Skinner riding shotgun a lot of the time definitely helped the cause.
Nevertheless, Ryan is a pretty good player, he's a right handed shot, which the Flames are severely lacking up front, he'd improve a bottom-6 that clearly needs work, and it wouldn't cost a ton to get his signature.
Suffice to say, the Flames could do a lot worse than Ryan.
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