Where do the Flames go next with Huberdeau?

Last April, Jonathan Huberdeau left Calgary for the off-season believing he was still a top-tier player.

“I didn’t lose my talent in five months,” Huberdeau said after the Calgary Flames concluded their disappointing 2022-23 campaign. “I’m not a different player from what I was last year. … Maybe I’ve got to play a little different, too. You work on some stuff in the summer and come back. I know what kind of player I am. It’s been a tough year but it’s how you bounce back and that’s what I’m going to do.”

In September, Huberdeau arrived at Calgary Flames training camp revitalized.

“Mentally, this summer was huge to get the confidence back,” he said. “I've just got to let loose and have fun out there.”

In Tuesday night’s 4-2 win over the Nashville Predators, Huberdeau’s fun factor was limited, and a few images stand out.

The first was after yet another play attempt failed to connect, and Huberdeau stood still for a moment and looked to the sky in frustration.

The others involve the ongoing views of him at the end of the Flames bench for the whole third period, his only action opening the door for teammates, capped by him hanging his head.

What happens from here will be an ongoing story for the player who posted a 115-point season with the Florida Panthers in 2021-22, plummeted to 55 points last season and only a dozen games into the first season of the eight-year, $84 million contract has managed only six points and team-worst minus-12 rating.

By no means does first-year head coach Ryan Huska want to bench his highest paid player and create a potential spat. But benching Huberdeau, along with fourth liners A.J. Greer and Walker Duehr, made sense with three lines building momentum en route to the comeback victory.

Now, the club and the player must find a way to turn the corner.

The Flames failed mightily in the trade that brought Huberdeau along with defenseman MacKenzie Weegar and a first-round draft pick in exchange for Matthew Tkachuk. As talented of a passer as Huberdeau is, without speedy line mates and defensemen capable of joining the rush, his game is limited. (Yes, a player making $10.5 million per season should drive a line, not require others to make his game work, but that is where the Flames are right now.)

Undoubtedly, the Flames are doing what they can to help — one reason they keep putting Andrew Mangiapane on the other wing — but their options are limited.

That said, the time is at hand for Huberdeau to figure out a solution and follow through.

For starters, he is far too often standing still or gliding, instead of creating space for himself. Naturally, his thread-the-needle passes are all too often intercepted when defenders immediately close the gaps as soon as he touches the puck. It has happened over and over again, and the insane part is how he expects a different result.

All of those giveaways and missed passes have Huberdeau over-thinking to the point he must make a perfect play, which will never happen because his reaction time has been slowed.

Thus, he is fallen into the vortex of lost confidence and spiralling to oblivion.

At this point, trading Huberdeau is essentially a non-starter for a team that is already without its 2025 first-round pick after giving it to the Montreal Canadiens to take on Sean Monahan (another move that can blow up in Calgary’s collective faces).

The $84-million question is whether everyone involved will find a way for Huberdeau to regain his game.