Joined: Mar. 2022
Posts: 78
Likes: 44
This is a pretty darn good team on paper, but I see three issues that might hinder it's competitiveness:
1. No cap space for extra hands. You need to carry at least 22 players all the time during the season for minor injuries and cold streaks, there's no way to get an extra player up without putting someone on LTIR. Ideally the Flames would shed another $1.5M-$2M.
2. Even with a $4M increase to the salary cap in 2024/25, you'd still lose a quality player or two with all the expiring contracts. Losing Backlund to free agency might not be a huge hit with some of the young forwards the Flames have coming up, but the entire bottom 4 defense group is expiring as well. Nylander, Zadorov, Pelletier, and Ruzicka will certainly be getting raises. Kylington might if he returns to form, as could Kahkonen and Wolf with good seasons.
3. Defence and goaltending is pretty suspect. Kylington is a real wild card, he has one standout season under his belt and no guarantee to return to that level after a year away. Tanev's body is falling apart, and I don't think Oesterle should be an every game guy. After that your next best Dman is Gilbert, who also doesn't inspire a lot of confidence. It's tough to say what you'd get from Kahkonen, Vladar, and Wolf. If all three prove they're not ready to be NHL starters, you're hooped.
All in all a pretty fun team, and certainly different than most posts around.