Lewis is decent, would not touch those other 2 though. Gawdin makes the team for sure, doubt Buddy does though.

AA is a low risk reward return type of player.
Rutta just won a Cup .. in a limited role.

If Treliving doesn't make any more moves...then CGY is basically icing the same caliber of team next season.

Andersson replaces Brodie top pair. Tanev replaces Hamonic 2nd pair. Valimaki could be a big boost on the 3rd pair if he has improved from where he left off.

Markstrom is better than Talbot, but their numbers weren't that different.

No real changes up front...sure, some improved development potential from guys like Mangiapane, Dube, and Bennett. And if they stay, obviously CGY management thinks Gaudreau, Monahan, and Lindholm (not getting traded) will have better seasons.

Have to think that Treliving is looking at one more big move before next season. Gaudreau and Hanifin should both be available in the right deal.

That’s probably accurate. I really don’t see any big blockbuster deals anytime soon.

Rutta was a healthy scratch until Schenn and Bogosain got injured. He honestly sucks, I would rather bring back Stone

Done.

AA is awful, he's a liability when not scoring and his effort levels are a huge red flag. Robinson is likely to be on the team as he was given a 1-way deal, they may see Froese as the 4th line C, as they gave him a 2 year deal and will want him to play enough to help us meet the expansion requirements for exposed forwards.

Mangiapne won't sign for that cheap, expect 2.4-3m for him. Stone would probably sign for 700k again, Kylington I have pegged in the 700-850k range as he hasn't been a full-time NHLer yet and might be better off accepting his QO. So overall I think those salaries do end up balancing out.

Similar team does not always mean similar caliber.

Andersson is a slight downgrade on Brodie, but as much as I liked Hamonic, Tanev should be a big improvement because of how poor of a year Hammer had last year. Valimaki should be able to slot in and hopefully fill the shoes Andersson is vacating on the 4rd pairing to move up. Kylington has spent most of his life as a RD, so hopefully if he plays there he will show some solid improvement. If he doesn't Mackey could very easily step in and be an improvement on Kylington (and Kylington an improvement on Stone)

For goalies, Markstrom is a massive improvement on Talbot. Numbers may be similar, but Markstrom was the Canucks MVP and stole a good number of games to have the Canucks where they were. Talbot was solid, but he did not steal many games. If Markstrom can steal us 1 game a month, that would be a pretty big deal.

Up front, with full seasons under their belt, there is no reason to think Mangiapane and Dube (well most of a season in his case) won't show decent improvement. In addition, there is no reason to think the top forwards don't bounce back some, they may not hit their 18/19 numbers but expecting halfway between those numbers and last seasons is reasonable.

Keep in mind that despite people chalking up 2019-20 as a disappointment for us, it really wasn't as bad as people make it out to be. Before Vegas's hot streak to end the season, we were in the mix for the division title again and were 4 points back (in 1 fewer game) from the Oilers for what would normally be home-ice in round 1. All while having our team shaken by scandal and changing coaches midway through.

If the Flames can improve goal scoring by 1 goal 3-4 games, and reduce goals against by the same amount, we would be close to the top 10 in both GF and GA, which will put us in a great position.