The 22-23 season would be described as a disaster by most Calgary Flames fans.  I have said on numerous occasions the 22-23 squad may go down in NHL history as the best roster to not make the postseason. It is of zero surprise that Darryl Sutter and Brad Treliving were relieved of their duties to pursue new organizational leadership this off-season. Now, former Flames Captain, and current GM, Craig Conroy and head coach Ryan Huska had their work cut out for them in assembling a Stanley Cup contender around a very balanced and talented roster.

The first moves that stands out to me of the Flames’ offseason was the veterans who were allowed to walk in free agency. The departures of Milan Lucic, Trevor Lewis, Nick Ritchie, Troy Stecher, and Michael Stone indicate an organization that is looking to get faster and younger than they were last season, despite being a good defensive unit. In terms of players they acquired to fill those gaps, the list is very short and effectively consisted of Jordan Oesterle; however, I do not fault Conroy and Huska for choosing to give Matt Coronato, Jakob Pelletier, and Adam Ruzicka expanded roles in the 23-24 campaign. The biggest splash of Calgary’s off-season was the noted Sharangovich and a Third Round Pick for Toffoli acquisition prior to the draft. This trade wasn’t too much of a surprise for Calgary as they were looking to get younger, while getting out of Toffoli’s higher cap-hit and bringing in a young player in Sharangovich at a lower cost. This is beneficial to their long-term outlook on their roster. It is worth a note that Calgary used the third round pick in this trade on Aydar Suniev. On the surface, Calgary probably lost this trade in terms of offensive value as Toffoli has been a star producer for two of his last three seasons, whereas Sharangovich is an average producer (While also being a PK Specialist) and Suniev’s comparables are indicative that he is unlikely to ever make it to the NHL.

On draft night, the Calgary Flames seemingly underwhelmed most of their fans, as well as the NHL community. Their first selection, Samuel Honzek Is a big Power Forward; however, looking at his offensive comparables he could land anywhere between being a Nikita Scherbak or an Ivan Barbashev, which is not what you would like to see out of a first round pick for a team that missed the postseason. The rest of the forwards they selected also had underwhelming draft comparables, but goaltender Yegor Yegorov stands out as a potential Diamonds in the Rough who could someday be a starting goalie in the NHL.

In conclusion, the highlight of the Calgary Flames off-season was addition by subtraction, and based on the caliber of their roster last season with Kadri, Huberdeau and Weegar, I cannot say that standing pat was a bad decision by Conroy. With that said, I would give the Calgary Flames a B for their off-season. They did a lot of good work to prepare for the 23-24 season, but I would have liked to have seen a better draft haul with more offensive upside. 

-Christian