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The Calgary Flames will play their entire regular season schedule, and as many as two playoff rounds, against Canadian teams.
Given as much, the majority of my writing leading up to – and during the season – will focus on the North division.
I recently shared my inner-division award picks. Today, I’ll be looking at some breakout players.
Juuso Valimaki
I was all set to temper expectations for Valimaki this season considering, you know, he didn’t appear in a single hockey game last season. It would’ve been reasonable to assume such a long layoff would crush Valimaki’s development.
Well...you wouldn’t have known it based on his performance in Finland this season.
Valimaki appeared in 19 games for Ilves. He produced 19 points, ranked 3rd on the team with 65 shots, and posted a plus-15 rating while logging more than 23 minutes per night. He also finished with the 3rd highest Corsi For% among Ilves regulars.
By all accounts, he was a dominant player for that team and as involved as anybody offensively.
With the departures of T.J. Brodie and Travis Hamonic, among others, I think Valimaki could walk into a regular lineup spot playing healthy minutes on the Flames blueline. He has the ability to take advantage. I also think he’ll benefit from playing in what should be a fast-paced, high-scoring division.
I’m expecting big things in his first full NHL season.
Jesse Puljujarvi
The former 4th overall pick found his footing playing in the SM-Liiga. Since the beginning of the 2019-20 season, Puljujarvi has netted 31 goals and produced at just under a point per game pace spanning over 72 appearances. Attached with those outputs came the most shots on goal in the entire league. Skill level has never been much of a question with Puljujarvi. Confidence shouldn’t be one now, either.
He is going to play top-9 minutes with Edmonton, and there is real potential for him to end up alongside Connor McDavid or Leon Draisaitl. If that’s the case, he should be able to put up numbers. Anyone who can shoot is going to excel with those players.
Nick Suzuki
This is the most obvious pick in the division. You could say he broke out last season but I don’t consider rookies as breakout picks. I like there to be a clear step forward; not just a player going from nothing (zero games, zero production) to X.
Suzuki is smart, highly skilled, and responsible. Claude Julien already trusts him to play key minutes for the Canadiens, and that trust is only going to grow as he continues to improve.
I think Suzuki has a real shot at improving upon last season’s point total (41 in); but in 56 games rather than 70+.
Bonus round: Andrew Mangiapane
The bread man has been extremely efficient in his 5v5 minutes through 1.5 seasons. He just hasn’t played a ton of ‘em. With Calgary looking to really change things up front – perhaps by splitting up Johnny Gaudreau and Sean Monahan – I think there is potential for Mangi to take on a bigger role this season; not just at even-strength, but on the power play (he ranked 13th among Flames in PP time on ice last season).
If that happens, like Suzuki, I think Mangiapane can beat his outputs from 2019-20 in significantly fewer games.
Recent posts:
2021 NHL award predictions: North Division edition
On the Flames’ rumored interest in Travis Hamonic
Are the Bruins interested in Noah Hanifin?
Three reasons to be optimistic about the Flames in 2021
Grading the Flames’ off-season moves
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