While most would agree the Calgary Flames have had a successful off-season - they significantly upgraded their goaltending, for starters - there are still a handful of question marks surrounding the team entering the 2016-17 campaign.
Let's look at a few of them.
1. Is there enough secondary scoring? Headlined by Johnny Gaudreau and Sean Monahan the Flames have quite a few capable point producers in the top-6. If those guys stay healthy they will produce on a consistent basis. There's no need to worry about that.
Where things get dicey is in the bottom-6. Even if the Flames keep Sam Bennett at center, which means either he or the vastly underrated Mikael Backlund are on the 3rd line, I don't know where the goals will come from in the bottom-6.
Michael Ferland, Matt Stajan, Alex Chiasson, Linden Vey, Lance Bouma and Brandon Bollig will all likely play in the team's bottom-6. I expect more from Ferland this season but the six of them combined for just 26 goals last season. That's not close to good enough so if someone doesn't step up and/or bounce back from last year the Flames will be relying way too heavily on their top-6. Two-line teams don't usually make the playoffs and if they do they're often a 1st round exit. Those guys - and the likes of Hunter Shinkaruk and Daniel Pribyl - really need to step up and produce with some sort of consistency for the Flames to get where they want to go.
2. Is the bottom half of the defense good enough? As is the case with the Flames forward group, the top half is very good and the bottom half is underwhelming. Mark Giordano, T.J. Brodie and Dougie Hamilton are all fantastic and will produce while logging a ton of minutes. There isn't much after those three, though.
Jyrki Jokipakka may be able to contribute a little more this season but he's a bit of a question mark. Dennis Wideman's defensive game is poor and his offense is drying up with age. Deryk Engelland doesn't bring much to the table beyond the occasional big hit and Ladislav Smid is injured again.
A couple of those guys, or someone like Brett Kulak, need to be able to chew up some minutes without being a disaster. If nobody steps up the Flames will be forced to rely too heavily on the big three and they'll wear out down the stretch.
3. Can the Flames hold their own in possession? Despite all the star power the Flames have on their roster they were routinely out shot, out chanced and out played under head coach Bob Hartley. I think Glen Gulutzan will be able to help in that regard - he seems like a forward thinking guy - but a coach can only do so much.
Again, the Flames' possession numbers have been poor in recent years and the guys they added to the mix this summer (Troy Brouwer, Vey, Chiasson, etc.) generally have negative impacts in that regard. Can the Flames somehow improve their underlying numbers while bringing in players who historically have hurt them?
There are some other question marks, too, but to me those are the big ones that will determine whether or not the Flames get back into the playoffs in 2016-17.
I think they'll at least be in the conversation one way or the other. Time will tell if that's the case.
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