Calgary Flames Mid-Season Award Winners

Randy Sportak

Feb 2, 2024, 17:00

Randy Sportak

Feb 2, 2024, 17:00

The Flames reached the all-star break with a .500 record and a retool has begun, but it has not been all doom and gloom so far this season

Despite high hopes of a turnaround earning a playoff berth, the Calgary Flames have taken another step backward. The Flames are a .500 team at the break and have already seen the anticipated rebuild pick up speed with Wednesday’s trade that sent first-line centre Elias Lindholm to the Vancouver Canucks for Andrei Kuzmenko, a couple of prospects and pair of draft choices.

More deals are coming down the pike, too, in what was destined to become a turning point season for the franchise, making the remainder of this campaign as much about the off-ice developments as the on-ice performances.

It has not been all bad news, though, for the Flames, with plenty of positive performances worth honouring.

So, who are our picks for the mid-season award winners? Here are our choices:

ART ROSS: Blake Coleman, 40 points in 49 games

Coleman has already surpassed his career high with 40 points in a fantastic season for the two-time Stanley Cup winner.

ROCKET RICHARD: Blake Coleman & Yegor Sharangovich, 20 goals in 49 games

Coleman’s career best is 22 goals, a standard he is on-pace to obliterate, while Sharangovich, who is four goals shy of his career high, has delivered everything the club hoped for when he was acquired last summer from the New Jersey Devils.

HART: Blake Coleman

Skating on a line with another greatly under-rated player in Mikael Backlund, Coleman has also the team-best plus-22 rating.

NORRIS: MacKenzie Weegar

Speaking of a player reaching new highs is his game, Weegar has scored 12 goals (his previous career high was eight) and added 17 assists. Weegar has become a team leader, which the Flames will need going forward.

VEZINA: Jacob Markstrom

Markstrom went into the season looking to bounce back from a disappointing 2022-23 campaign, and has delivered. He is among the league’s best in goals-saved above expected.

SELKE: Mikael Backlund

Night after night, Backlund’s line faces the top opposition. Through it all, he is a plus player, a strong penalty killer, face-off artist and adds plenty of offence. He became the franchise's No.-2 player in all-time games this season and headed to reach 1,000 games next season.

CALDER: Connor Zary

The 2020 first-round pick was summoned from the minors at the start of November and provided pop to the attack and scoresheet ever since, having collected 10 goals and 23 points.

MASTERTON: Oliver Kylington

After missing all of the 2022-23 season as well as the first half of this campaign while dealing with his mental health, Kylington returned in January and appears to have everything back on track.

LADY BYNG: Yegor Sharangovich

Not only has Sharangovich provided some of the much-needed offensive punch, he has only four penalty minutes in a key role.