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The Calgary Flames have long been after another top-6 forward to make their offense deeper.
They were one of the league’s highest scoring teams a season ago and even then still pushed hard for Jason Zucker and seemingly every other notable scorer available.
If GM Brad Treliving was borderline desperate to add more pop last year, imagine how he feels now with the Flames sitting 29th in 5v5 goals.
I know most – if not all – Flames followers realize they need more secondary scoring. Even so, I think it is lost on some just how *badly* they do.
Mikael Backlund is the only top-6 player on Calgary with fewer than seven goals at 5v5. Elias Lindholm (and Andrew Mangiapane, who is new to this role) aside, the top-6ers aren’t scoring at the same rate as a season ago but they’re still doing fine.
The bottom-6 is where things are really ugly. Take a look at the usual lines and their limited goal outputs.
Milan Lucic (1) – Derek Ryan (7 – good!) – Dillon Dube (4)
Tobias Rieder (1) – Mark Jankowski (1) – Sam Bennett (4)
Extra: Zac Rinaldo (2)
That, my friends, is not good. Dube is a talented and promising kid but if he’s leading your bottom-6 wingers in goals, well, you’re probably not a contender. What’s concerning is there’s no reason to expect much – any? – better moving forward.
Lucic’s offensive ability dried up years ago so it’s somehow not surprising he has one goal in ~550 minutes. Finishing has always been the knock on Rieder. The same can be said of Bennett. While Jankowski’s showed better in the past, Ryan is over-performing so it kind of balances out.
The Flames don’t have to go all-in and they shouldn’t. But they desperately need to add *someone* on the wing if they want to have a chance of accomplishing anything this year.
Take a look at how much better the lines could look with even one more player (Tyler Toffoli, let’s say) added to the mix.
Option 1
Tkachuk (7) - Lindholm (10) - Toffoli (9)
Gaudreau (9) - Monahan (7) - Backlund (1)
Mangiapane (8) - Ryan (7) - Dube (4)
Lucic (1) - Jankowski (1) - Bennett (4)
Option 2
Tkachuk (7) - Lindholm (10) - Mangiapane (8)
Gaudreau (9) - Monahan (7) - Toffoli (9)
Backlund (1) - Ryan (7) - Dube (4)
Lucic (1) - Jankowski (1) - Bennett (4)
I think I prefer the former but leaving L1 alone and reuniting Toffoli with Monahan (junior teammates) on an ultra-talented offensive line is pretty attractive as well. Backlund hasn’t scored goals but he is still strong defensively and his assist rates are solid. I think L3 would see a clear boost with him there as well.
At any rate, it’s pretty clear adding someone like Toffoli would give Geoff Ward some good options to choose from – something he doesn’t really have right now.
We’ll see if Treliving can pull something out of his sleeve in the coming weeks. The Michael Frolik trade certainly suggests he plans on it.
numbers via naturalstattrick.com
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