The Calgary Flames are far from rock bottom, but the franchise is definitely between a rock and a hard place with the playoffs looking unlikely even after respectable winning streak and an unrewarded effort against one of the league’s toughest opponents this week.
Flames GM Craig Conroy kept this group together to let them continue battling during a surprisingly successful season. To their credit, they’ve done an admirable job hanging in there despite being right at or near the bottom of goals scored per game all year.
Some nights, even when they score, they don’t — like during their tragic loss to the Dallas Stars on Thursday night when they had two goals called back that they probably deserved.
As impressive as they played that evening, and as fantastic a run as they’d been on with four straight nail-biting victories between the bookmark losses to the Toronto Maple Leafs and the Stars, they’re even further behind the playoff picture now than when that streak started.
Six points separate the Flames from the even hotter St. Louis Blues, who are flirting with leapfrogging the Minnesota Wild for the first wildcard spot in the Western Conference now.
With just 11 games left on their 2024-25 NHL schedule, the Flames are simply running out of available points to close the gap. Here are some positives and negatives about what’s happening with the Flames right now:
Positive #1
Being in contention for the playoffs is offering the younger players like Matt Coronato, Dustin Wolf, Connor Zary, Martin Pospisil and Kevin Bahl important experience, and it’s giving veterans like Jonathan Huberdeau and Nazem Kadri added motivation after a couple of tough seasons as the faces of their new franchise.
Negative #1
Coming close to the playoffs but missing out is just more of the mushy middle the Flames have been stuck in for what feels like a century. Considering the belief outside of the locker-room to start this season was that the team would be in contention for a second straight top-10 draft pick, the surprise of their (relative) success may not outweigh the sting of what they’re missing out on at the draft.
Positive #2
There is something to be saif for the confidence that can come from a GM making a statement just by avoiding salary and contract dumps for assets at the trade deadline and hanging onto a handful of pending RFA, UFA and veteran players with outside interest. Even more impressive, the deal Conroy made prior to the deadline was made with both the future and the present in mind — making the team a little better.
Negative #2
Conroy probably lost out on acquiring a few draft picks that he could have used to help bolster an already decent prospect pool. Dan Vladar and Joel Hanley might have fetched third round picks and even Kevin Rooney might have had some value as a penalty killer for serious playoff contenders looking for depth. Missed opportunity? Depends how you want to look at things. And that's not even addressing rumours about guys like Nazem Kadri and Rasmus Andersson.
Bottom line
If the Flames somehow squeak into the playoffs as a team that peaked at the right time, who knows what might happen. The odds are stacked against them either way, but what’s been fun about this season for fans lamenting the playoff proximity over the lottery pick is how they’ve defied them so often.