On the cusp<\/p>\n
Aydar Suniev<\/a>, F: The 21-year-old had 24 points (16 goals, eight assists) in 57 games with the Calgary Wranglers of the American Hockey League last season and one assist in six games with the Flames. Selected in the third round (No. 80) of the 2023 NHL Draft, Suniev is expected to challenge for a roster spot this season. … Jonathan Castagna<\/a>, F: Acquired in a trade with Utah on March 4, the 21-year-old signed a three-year entry-level contract with Calgary on March 30. He spent the past three years at Cornell University and had 34 points (15 goals, 19 assists) in 34 games last season. Castagna will be attending his first pro training camp this season, which will give Calgary a good read on how close he is to making the NHL roster. … Tyson Gross<\/a>, F: The 23-year-old played six games with the Flames last season after the conclusion of his third season at St. Cloud State, in which he had 41 points (18 goals, 23 assists) in 36 games. Signed as an undrafted free agent on March 12, he scored his first NHL goal in his third game with the Flames; a 3-1 loss at the Avalanche on April 9 and is expected to get a good look during training camp where he could compete for a roster spot.<\/p>\n What they still need<\/p>\n Another offensive forward. Calgary was the lowest-scoring team in the NHL last season averaging 2.54 goals per game. They lost a 20-goal scorer in Coleman, which will need to be made up somehow. The Flames are hoping Jonathan Huberdeau<\/a> can return and have a strong season after undergoing hip surgery in March and that they get more out of Matt Coronato<\/a>, Yegor Sharangovich<\/a> and Joel Farabee<\/a>\u00a0this season, but could use another veteran forward to chip in offensively.\u00a0<\/p>\n They said it<\/p>\n “The one thing we talked about is giving those younger guys the minutes that Coleman won’t be getting now and the situations because he played power play and penalty kill and even strength. So, someone’s going to get those minutes and that’s what it’s all about, giving opportunity to young guys to see if they can do it and hopefully they all can. I know they’re going to be hungry to steal that ice time, too.” — Blue Jackets\u00a0general manager Craig Conroy<\/p>\n EDGE stat to watch<\/p>\n Calgary finished in the NHL’s bottom three in 20-plus mph speed bursts (1,180; 32nd), max skating speed (22.87 mph; 31st), midrange goals (58; 32nd) and high-danger goals (108; 30th). But, per NHL EDGE IQ, the Flames ranked 10th in goals off the rush (87; goals that come within five seconds of crossing offensive blue line), led by forwards Joel Farabee (13), Morgan Frost<\/a> (10) and Coronato (nine). Coronato was in the 85th percentile or higher at the position in total skating distance (214.11 miles), midrange shots on goal (84), long-range shots on goal (21) and midrange goals (eight) last season. — Troy Perlowitz<\/p>\n Fantasy spin<\/p>\n With goalie Dustin Wolf<\/a> and defensemen Zayne Parekh<\/a>\u00a0and Simon Nemec, the Flames are the only NHL team with two defensemen and a goalie among the top 75 of the fantasy keeper and dynasty league rankings<\/a>\u00a0which are the top 25-and-younger players for long-term formats. Wolf is tied for 12th in the NHL in wins (52) over the past two seasons, and Parekh (ninth pick in 2024 NHL Draft) and Nemec (second pick in 2022 NHL Draft) are breakout candidates who can take on expanded roles after MacKenzie Weegar (Utah Mammoth) and Rasmus Andersson<\/a>\u00a0(Vegas Golden Knights) were traded last season. — Pete Jensen<\/p>\n Projected lineup<\/p>\n Matvei Gridin — Morgan Frost — Matt Coronato\u00a0<\/p>\n Connor Zary — Mikael Backlund — Joel Farabee\u00a0<\/p>\n Jonathan Huberdeau — Ryan Strome — Yegor Sharangovich\u00a0<\/p>\n Maxim Tsyplakov — Martin Pospisil — Adam Klapka\u00a0<\/p>\n Kevin Bahl — Zach Whitecloud\u00a0<\/p>\n Jacob Middleton — Simon Nemec\u00a0<\/p>\n Yan Kuznetsov — Zayne Parekh\u00a0<\/p>\n Dustin Wolf\u00a0<\/p>\n Devin Cooley<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"On the cusp Aydar Suniev, F: The 21-year-old had 24 points (16 goals, eight assists) in 57 games…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":790738,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[556],"tags":[64,63,575,85],"class_list":["post-790737","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-nhl","tag-au","tag-australia","tag-nhl","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/790737","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=790737"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/790737\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/790738"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=790737"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=790737"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=790737"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}