With an important week of preseason games starting today, the Flames are heating up and looking forward to the beginning of the season.
Can GM Theo Pepper manage all the moving parts and get Calgary to the promised land again? You’re f*cking rights he can!
Between the multiple trades, the entry draft and free agency, the Flames had themselves an eventful offseason. Add to this GM Pepper’s oh-so-close attempt at finally getting his GED and you have to think things are looking up in Cowtown. There’s always next time, Theo!
Actual photo of Flames GM Theo Pepper
Entry Draft
Calgary had very few draft picks this year, but they certainly made the best of them.
With their first two picks, head scout Tod Button announced the names of two kids that Calgary was happy to get where they did in the 1st round. Both RW Matthew Coronato and D Carson Lambos will start the year in Stockton and slowly develop into what the Flames hope will be solid NHLers.
Trades and Transactions
Over the summer, Calgary made some trades to help shore up the team. The most important moves were bringing in Alex Kerfoot to center the 3rd line and adding some solid veteran depth in Dustin Brown and Nick Bjugstad. These players will fit in nicely and in Bjugstad’s case, he was overwhelmed with emotion to hear that the coaches have selected him as the new team captain.
Mike Hoffman - Gabriel Vilardi - Robert Thomas
Dustin Brown - Joshua Norris - Nick Bjugstad
Jordan Greenway - Alex Kerfoot – Dillon Dube
Jimmy Vesey – Logan Shaw – Nic Petan
Tyler Pitlick
Joel Edmundson - Travis Sanheim
Rasmus Andersson - Nick Holden
Sean Walker – Stephen Johns
Kevin Connauton
Linus Ullmark
Kaapo Kahkonen
Calgary has mixed in only Josh Norris as far as rookies are concerned this year. The entire management group feels confident that they’ve assembled a winner. This allows the organization to give one more year of development to players like Cole Caufield, Marco Rossi and Jake Bean in the minors.
This team is hungry to get back to the playoffs. The future burns bright.