The Calgary Flames just couldn't find enough success this season. Adam Proteau thinks there should be ramifications as a result of missing the playoffs.
The Calgary Flames’ playoff hopes were extinguished Monday night when they lost to the Nashville Predators in a 3-2 shootout.
In a way, it was an appropriate reflection of a Flames team that's lost a league-high 17 games in overtime or shootouts this season and went 24-17-14 since Dec. 8. The Flames deserved their fate, but the bigger question now is, “What are the ramifications for Calgary in the upcoming off-season?”
Any discussion of change must start in goal – and specifically, with veteran Jacob Markstrom. The 33-year-old posted a 2.92 goals-against average and .892 save percentage in 59 appearances – both of those numbers are the worst he’s put up in any season in which he played 33 games or more.
Markstrom clearly lost his confidence this year, and although backup Dan Vladar (2.91 GAA, .895 SP in 27 appearances) wasn’t significantly better, Vladar has a salary cap hit of $2.2 million, and he’s only 25. Although there will be some veteran goalies on the UFA market this summer, Vladar may be the best option to replace Markstrom as Calgary’s starting goalie.
Before Vladar takes over, there’s the matter of getting rid of Markstrom. You’re not going to pay a backup $6 million per season until his contract expires in 2026, and you’re not going to find any takers for his salary cap hit after the way he played this year unless he bounces back next season.
The sole option if Markstrom continues to play poorly, then, is a contract buyout. As per CapFriendly, buying out Markstrom’s contract would reduce his cap hit to only $333,000 next season, but for the following two years, the cap hit would spike to $4.1 million before it drops to about $1.67 million for the final three years. Obviously, the two seasons at $4.1 million would hamstring the Flames, but if the cap ceiling rises significantly after next season, Calgary could absorb that spike to get them through the two tough years of the buyout.
That’s a tough pill to swallow, but Flames GM Brad Treliving is under tremendous pressure. The reality is Calgary might not retain Treliving’s services after this season’s letdown. He’s been on the job for nine years now, which is an eternity in GM circles.
He should be held accountable for this dismal performance – and if Treliving is fired, his replacement will be putting coach Darryl Sutter on the clock. This is not to suggest Sutter was the problem for the Flames this season, but it is always a given that new GMs want to install their own pick for the coaching position, and Sutter may not want to work with the new person in charge.
Regardless of who is in charge on the management side, the Flames’ roster needs to change next season. But that won’t be easy.
Calgary currently has 19 players under contract for the 2023-24 campaign and just $386,667 in projected cap space. Even with a buyout of Markstrom’s contract, the Flames will have approximately $6 million in space – certainly not enough to make them a big player in free agency, even though the free-agent group is not deep nor especially talented.
For those reasons, Calgary will have to make moves via trade. They have very few untouchables, but their current defense corps has five players who will be entering their final contract season next year before they become UFAs next summer. The Flames’ GM could move one of them, along with a forward or two, in the effort to bring in veterans who can be more consistent than Calgary’s vets did this year.
The Flames came into this season with high aspirations and slowly frittered away game after game where they just couldn’t figure out how to win after regulation time. That problem has consequences, which will alter their look and feel on the ice and in the dressing room. It doesn’t matter that they missed the playoffs by a couple of standings points. It shouldn’t have come to that for a team that won its division last season.
And now, there’s every reason to change things up.