The summer carries on and Flames fans continue to wait in what has been a very unsettling holding pattern.
Top four defenceman Noah Hanifin has made it clear he won’t be signing an extension with Calgary. Centers Elias Lindholm and Mikael Backlund are both noncommittal about extending as well. If they like the direction of the organization and enjoy playing next season, it sounds like they’ll stay.
With 72 days to go until the season starts, here are a few notes, thoughts, and takes on the organization.
1.) Waiting on the domino
While
Ethan Bear or
Jake Gardiner may surprise, it’s fair to say that there is only one clear-cut top four defenceman still available on the unrestricted free agent market. That being Edge School product,
Matt Dumba.
Dumba’s representation, Newport Sports Management Inc. has their hands full this offseason.
Scott Mayfield of the Islanders signed a seven-year deal worth $24,5000,000.
Ryan Graves, 28, got six years and $27,000,000 with Pittsburgh.
Carson Soucy, who is 28 and has been a 5-6 guy for most of his career, is getting $9,500,000 to play for Vancouver for three seasons.
Yet as of July 29, 2023, Matthew, is still waiting. A big reason being that he is coming off a career-low four goals and 14 point 2022-2023 regular season. The season prior, Dumba posted seven goals and 27 points over 57 games.
Despite a noticeable drop in production, Dumba, 29, kept his physical style going and his outlet passes didn’t suffer much from the injury issues that he’s struggled with in the past. 31 general managers saw this hit in the playoffs and likely thought
“Hey, I wouldn’t mind having hits like that around if his asking price drops.”
This offseason has been a tough situation for the Regina, Saskatchewan product. Unfortunately, his availability also puts the brakes on the Noah Hanifin market. After all, why give up assets for a top four defenceman when one is available for only cap space and a roster spot?
The catch here is that they play different sides. Hanifin plays left and Dumba usually plays right. An organizational shuffle would be required for the two to be considered fungible as blue line assets.
2.) Doubling the Pro Scouting Department
Is it just me, or does it seem odd that this era of the Calgary Flames has ran with only one pro scout on staff until July 25 of this offseason? Steve Pleau has been their only listed Pro Scout for years.
Pleau, 50, has worked as a pro scout for the Flames since the 2010-2011 season.
Again, maybe just me, but there were 1123 professional hockey players to dress for at least one game last season. It’s likely that video coach, Jamie Pringle, and video analyst, Connor Rankin, do some of the pro scouting via tape, but that still leaves three people needing to have updated reports on roughly 900-some regular players.
And not just updated reports, but
nuanced information that might help in trade discussions or upcoming road trips. Add on another 1000-some players in the AHL and the scope of the role gets fairly intimidating.
Can we connect this lack of pro scouting personnel to some of the ugly contracts the Flames have handed out? Can we attribute James Neal, Brian Elliott, and the
“Brouwerplay” to this deficiency?
The work may be spread out through the organization, but here’s a quick case that we at HockeyBuzz aren’t completely out to lunch on this theory.
Let’s take a cursory glance around the league.
Pittsburgh’s pro scouting staff? Will Acton, Jay McLement, Greg Pateryn, and Craig Patrick. They also have two Global Crossover Scouts that do both amateur and pro assignments.
The Montreal Canadiens? Six pro scouts including Eric Crawford who serves as Director of Pro Scouting.
Tampa Bay? Four pro scouts. San Jose? Four pro scouts. Toronto? Six pro scouts.
Chicago?
Ten. Ten pro scouts. Calgary had
one last season.
Alright, we’re on to something. Let’s excavate this rabbit hole into a parking garage. “Undisclosed” means they list their scouts, but don’t specify whether they are dedicated Pro or Amateur Scouts.
Dedicated Pro Scouts Per Team
Anaheim: Undisclosed, but they have a Director of Pro Scouting.
Arizona: 5
Boston: 3
Buffalo: Undisclosed, but they have a Director of Pro Scouting.
Calgary: 2
Carolina: 6
Chicago: 10
Colorado: 6
Columbus: 4
Dallas: 3
Detroit: 5
Edmonton: 3
Florida: 5
Los Angeles: 9 (including four dedicated AHL Scouts)
Minnesota: 7
Montreal: 6
Nashville: 4
New Jersey: 5 (including Jim Mill as Head of Free Agent Scouting/Recruitment)
New York Islanders: 4 (five if you include one dedicated Special Assignments Scout)
New York Rangers: 5
Ottawa: 4
Philidelphia: 3
Pittsburgh: 4 (six if you include crossovers)
San Jose: 4
Seattle: 3
St. Louis: 2 (Their only dedicated North American pro scout is Troy Brouwer. Small world.)
Tampa Bay: 4
Toronto: 6
Vancouver: 5
Vegas: 6
Washington: Undisclosed
Winnipeg: 6
Three caveats to this:
*There are lots of staff available to scout pro games. With that said, committing to only that job nets more scouting reports and ultimately more useful information.
*Teams have assistants and odd job titles that may include pro scouting assignments.
*The Flames have two Assistant Directors of Scouting, but also have no Director of Pro Scouting. It appears that Rob Sumner and Fred Parker are assistants to Todd Button.
Oh, one more caveat. *This is information provided by their respective team. Scouts may have been added or subtracted. Example: Calgary hasn’t officially added Kerry Huffman to the Hockey Ops section of their website.
Ambiguity aside, one pro scout doing the work that other organizations have up to ten people doing is a lot. Especially when you factor in the success that pro scouting provided for a team such as Chicago. Stan Bowman was constantly juggling pro assets with other teams throughout the 2010s to keep supporting talent on the roster fresh and competitive.
Discounting the undisclosed teams,
the league averages 4.68 dedicated Pro Scouts per team. The Flames increasing from one to two is a good step, but still dreadfully underwhelming.
3.) Playing the Oilers
The Battle of Alberta season series concluded 2-1 in favour of the Oilers in 2022-2023. A nine to eight differential.
A trigger warning for Flames fans. The next line may bring on unwanted flashbacks.
All three games were decided by one goal.
We’re not bringing this up to torment Flames fans, there is a point to be made.
The top five scorers on Calgary in three games against the Oilers last season were:
Mikael Backlund: three goals, zero assists
Micheal Stone: one goal, two assists
Andrew Mangiapane: one goal, one assist
Nazem Kadri: one goal, one assist
Blake Coleman: two assists
The initial impression is that you have to question the
“trade Backlund” crowd a bit. Are we talking about three one-goal games without the now 34-year-old pivot dominating the ice on both ends?
Now the ugly stuff. No need to list out stats. These guys all put up zero points in three games against the Oilers.
Jonathan Huberdeau
Tyler Toffoli
Nikita Zadorov
Chris Tanev
MacKenzie Weegar
Rasmus Andersson
Tanev gets a pass. Scoring isn’t his role. Shut down McDavid a get off the ice.
The rest of the bunch? Well, you can only go up from zero points.
The silver lining is that Mangiapane will likely get back to running over the Oilers after getting shoulder surgery. The 27-year-old has seven goals and 19 points in 24 career games against the Oilers.
As the summer progresses, we can only ask questions about what kind of product we will see hit the ice in October.
Where will Matt Dumba sign? Will Noah Hanifin be wearing a Flames jersey on opening night? If not, what will he fetch as a return in a trade?
Is two dedicated Pro Scouts enough for a professional hockey organization?
How will the Flames look against the Oilers next season? It’s a tough stat, but Jacob Markstrom has lost six straight games against Edmonton. Is
he the guy to win a seven game series against Calgary’s archrival? Does trading Backlund ensure an Oilers sweep?
That’s the fun of following pro sports. We get to see all of these storylines develop.
Trevor Neufeld
@Trevor_Neufeld
Stats via AllThreeZones on Patreon, eliteprospects.com, and nhl.com. Scouting staff info courtesy of nhl.com. Shoutout to @TonyAndrock for the Kerry Huffman news and @RTaub_ for the Dumba hit.
Calgary Flames Blogger • 
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