The 2024-2025 Flames season kicks off tonight with a throwdown against the Vancouver Canucks. A quick look at projected rosters before we get to storylines surrounding the first game of the campaign.
Calgary Flames Projected Lineups
Monday’s practice lines.
Honzek-Kadri-Kuzmenko
Zary-Backlund-Coleman
Huberdeau-Pospisil-Mantha
Lomberg-Rooney-Klapka
Weegar-Miromanov
Bahl-Andersson
Bean-Pachal
Vladar
Wolf
Vancouver Canucks Projected Lineup
Tuesday’s practice lines. Optional skate this morning.
Heinen-Miller-Boeser
DeBrusk-Pettersson-Sprong
Höglander-Suter-Garland
Åman-Blueger-Sherwood
Hughes-Hronek
Soucy-Myers
Forbort-Desharnais
Silovs
Lankinen
Can’t be Worse Than Last October
With Chris Tanev, Elias Lindholm, Noah Hanifin, Nikita Zadorov, and Jacob Markstrom all playing for other teams – it’s hard to say that the Flames are a better team year-over-year.
With that said, they’ll probably look better than last October. That roster was cursed. They finished the month 2-6-1 with a 5-2 loss to one of the only teams worse than them: the Edmonton Oilers.
Standings prior to the Oct. 29, 2024 Heritage Classic courtesy of nhl.com.
Their arch-rivals passed the Flames in the standings with the win.
The point here is; to go with the already low expectations, the Flames probably won’t have as miserable of a month as they did in October last season.
A Hell of a Debut
Jump back to the end of the season last year. April 18. Anyone suggesting that 2023 16th overall pick Sam Honzek would be starting next year on a line with Andrei Kuzmenko and Nazem Kadri would probably be laughed and spit at.
Yet here we are.
Honzek finished the preseason with two goals and five assists for seven points in six games.
A Minor Heads-Up
You can find where the game is on this season at nhl.com in the schedule area. I will of course put it at the bottom of game day pieces, but if you're traveling, check it out. It looks like it uses your IP address to tell you which regional channels nearby are showing it.
Good On You
It’s early, but its cool to see Jacob Markstrom at the top of the NHL with a .968 save percentage. He really punched down on an unprepared Sabres team in the first of their two Euro games. To be fair, Jake Allen took game two and put up a .944 save percentage. The Devils only allowed one goal per game.
Those kinds of stats are why it’s fun to visit the stats page during the first month of the season. It’s like looking at an alternate timeline.
Trade Targets
You have to wonder if the Flames and Canucks will link up for more trades this season. Last year Calgary sent Elias Lindholm and Nikita Zadorov to Vancouver for a plethora of picks, prospects and the Flames’ most exciting winger, Andrei Kuzmenko.
A group 6 UFA after this season, you have to imagine that Rick Tocchet would love to have the hard-hitting Estevan, Saskatchewan product, Brayden Pachal. He would fit Tochett’s mould of a third pairing defenceman perfectly.
A year younger than Pachal and with RFA status after this season is Kevin Bahl. Six-foot-six, 230 pounds and low mileage on the odometer. Bahl doesn’t usually play a mean style, but he’s shown moments of ogre-like belligerence.
Those two defencemen alone would bolster the Canucks enough for another deep run. What Vancouver would pony up for the two remains to be seen.
Anthony Mantha and Kevin Rooney are also potential targets, but the price would surely be underwhelming. Both are pending UFAs.
In terms of what could head back to Calgary, Vancouver has their next three organic first round picks and two of their next three second round picks.
Courtesy of PuckPedia.
Surely the Flames have looked fairly extensively at the top end of the Canucks prospect pool and have a player or two identified that they would be asking for. 2024 third round pick Melvin Fernström certainly comes to mind; a six-foot-two playmaking winger slated to play his first full season with Örebro of the SHL.
Game time is 8:00 p.m. MST. Catch it on Sportsnet Pacific and Sportsnet One.
Stats courtesy of the National Hockey League and Natural Stat Trick.
Calgary Flames Blogger • 
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