24/25 Calgary Flames

[Trochu]

Well, seeing that the '24/'25 season kicked off last Friday, I thought I'd fire up the Flames thread for the year. Playoffs are likely out of reach, especially if we trade Kuzmenko, Mantha, Barrie, and Andersson at the deadline, but, you never know, they might be better than expected. Escpecially since there will likely be some really bad teams in the Division, Ducks and Sharks, that the Flames will play 7 or 8 times (combined).

The lines aren't set yet, but it's looking like they'll be composed of:

Kuzmenko-Kadri-Sharangovich
Zary-Backlund-Coleman
Huberdeau-Pospisil-Mantha
Lomberg-Rooney-Klapka

Weegar-Miomanov
Bahl-Andersson
Bean-Barrie

Vladar-Wolf

Which, doesn't look terrible.

The thing that annoys me though, you ship off Hanafin, Mangiapane, Markstrom, Tanev, Lindholm, Zadorov, and Toffoli, enter the rebuild right? But, then they go out and sign Lomberg (who I quite like), Mantha, and Barrie, then you've got left wing, 19 year old Sam Honzek who had an amazing camp, second in points/top in +/- for the preseason, noticed him for positive reasons almost every night, got better as camp progressed, etc. Where is he gonna play, we don't have room for him. Probably not gonna bump Kuzmenko who scored every other game for the Flames last season, gonna bump 23 year old Zary after his break out season last year, how about Huberdeau with seven years left on his deal, maybe Lomberg, who you just signed? So you've got a 1st round draft pick, who had a great camp, and don't have room for him on a rebuilding team? Feels to me they are still trying to be competitive. Can't see them being super competitive against the likes of Dallas, Winnipeg, Colorado, Vancouver, Vegas though but way better than Sharks, Ducks, Blackhawks. Feels like the old familiar lets finish 9-11, so, not good enough for the playoffs, but not bad enough to get a game breaker in he draft, the wonderful Murky Middle. Just annoyed a "rebuilding" team, after shipping out multiple veterans, doesn't appear to have room for a 1st round 19 year old who had a great camp.