The Flames’ start to the season has been rough enough that the numbers are doing the talking for them.
Six losses in seven games has Calgary sitting at the bottom of the NHL, with the Kings still winless at the time of writing. The one obvious bright spot has been the early call-up of Aydar Suniev, a move Ryan Huska got right, and it’s also tied directly to the team’s only win so far. Beyond that, there hasn’t been much to grab onto.
Matt Coronato and Joel Farabee are the names at the top of the scoring sheet, but even that comes with a heavy dose of reality. Coronato, who led the Flames in points last season with 45 in 80 games, has opened with two goals and two assists for four points.
At that pace, he’d finish with 48 points, which is better, but only by a little. The bigger concern is what’s happening behind the points: Coronato is already at minus-9, second-worst on the team behind Zayne Parekh’s minus-10, after finishing last year at minus-29, the worst mark among players who were in Calgary for the full season.
Farabee is in the same neighborhood offensively. He has four points in seven games, all of them assists, which would also project to a 48-point season if the pace holds.
That would be a 10-point jump from last year, so there is at least some upward movement there. Even so, his minus-5 shows the same issue cropping up elsewhere.
The goaltending has been every bit as bleak. Dustin Wolf has started five games and owns an 83.4% save percentage with a 4.85 goals-against average.
Those numbers are ugly on their face, and they look even worse against last season, when Wolf posted an 89.9% save percentage and a 3.01 GAA. Calgary has already given up six goals three times and seven goals once, so the environment has not helped, but the gap from last year is hard to ignore.
Devin Cooley’s first two appearances haven’t gone much better. He’s sitting at an 81.8% save percentage and a 5.01 GAA, a brutal opening stretch after what he did last season as a reliable backup option, even surpassing Wolf’s numbers.
The schedule doesn’t offer much relief, either. Calgary’s next three are against the Carolina Hurricanes, the Minnesota Wild, and then the Red Wings, who are currently bottom of the Atlantic at the time of writing. That Detroit game looks like the clearest chance for a win in the near term, because after that come the Leafs and Oilers.
The Flames don’t face another team with a relatively comparable record until November, when the Flyers visit Alberta. Philadelphia are on nine straight defeats to start the season, though they still sit above Calgary because of three overtime loss points.
Nobody should be surprised by the mess the season has become. After all the trades in recent years, this was always going to be a difficult year.
Still, the way it has begun lines up with the worst fears, and the numbers don’t offer much reason to think the mood will change soon. If anything, they point toward a later-stage opportunity for the prospects, because at some point the question becomes simple: what do the Flames have to lose?
In Other News...
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Ducks Could Be Eyeing A Blue Line Upgrade Before Deadline Chaos
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Anaheim is among the clubs being linked to Whitecloud as teams look for help on the blue line, with Toronto, Edmonton and Tampa Bay also showing up in the discussion. Nothing has been confirmed, and that is part of the point this time of year. The Flames have made it clear by their results where they stand in the standings, and Whitecloud's name is one of the more plausible ones to monitor as the deadline noise starts to build. [Read more 🡒]
Flames Trade With Carolina Is Paying Off In More Ways Than One
Jake Middletons penalty kill goal gave the Flames a rare bit of production from the back end, the first by a Calgary defenceman since Noah Hanifin did it in 2018. It was a timely reminder of how much the blue line can still matter in the details, and it also pulled some old trade history back into focus as Calgary continues to live with the ripple effects of the Hanifin and Elias Lindholm deals made ahead of the 2024 trade deadline.
Those moves sent two major veterans out the door, but they also stocked the organization with futures that are still being sorted out. The Flames have already added prospects and draft capital through those trades, and the return keeps taking on different forms as the asset chain plays out, a process that could end up shaping pieces of the next roster in ways that were not obvious at the time. [Read more 🡒]