Jessica Belmosto

Brad Treliving’s first move in the offseason jenga game is naming Geoff Ward head coach.

Ward coached the team to 25-15-3 record as well as a trip to the Edmonton bubble. He becomes the 20th head coach in franchise history. Ward replaced Bill Peters in November of 2019 after being fired for allegedly using racial slurs and abusing players.

What’s Next?

Naming him the coach seems like the right move. Sometimes those small adjustments can lead to big progress. Like I said before, this was the first move in the tricky and hopefully busy offseason for the Calgary Flames. Now that they have a permanent head coach, they can focus on the slightly bigger picture.

Goaltending

Goaltending should be at the top of Treliving’s to do list, highlighted, bolded, and underlined in red. Ignoring the problem will not make it go away. While David Rittich has one year left on his contract, Cam Talbot is a UFA. There’s a few things the Flames could do here.

Sign Talbot and trade Rittich. Talbot is the more reliable of the two and I find it hard to believe Rittich will happily sit around as backup.

There are a few goalies on the market the Flames could go after. There’s a chance that Marc Andre Fleury requests a trade, especially if Lehner is re-signed to the rumored $5m AAV deal. It could be a risk because of age and his playoff resume. Does the risk outweigh the reward?

Matt Murray is also on the trading block. I have a feeling that Treliving has been in Jim Rutherford’s ear, shopping some players around. The 26 year old topped TSN’s Trade Bait list earlier this month. Rutherford made it clear that he would be trading one of his goalies.

Top six forward

The Flames look great on paper. You have lines that are filled with talent and potential except every year it’s the same story. There’s no excuse for the Flames not to make it past the first round of the playoffs.

In order for things to get better, changes have to be might. Whether they be small or mighty, it’s obvious something needs to change. Has there been a change in the dynamic between Johnny Gaudreau and Sean Monahan? Is it time to rebuild and trade one or both of them? If so, who? I think it’d be harder to replace Monahan but if you can grab Jack Eichel it might not be a bad idea.

There’s been rumors of trading Noah Hanafin for Bruins forward, Jake DeBrusk. It’s not a bad idea but you’d certainly have to give up a lot for the RFA.

Regardless of what piece Treliving pulls next, the forward and offensive production needs to be addressed.

Final Takeaways

There’s a lot of uncertainty in the hockey world right now but I have a feeling everyone’s phones are ringing off the hook. I hate the idea of a Dallas Stars Tampa Bay Cup Final. Can Vegas please pull off a comeback? I am asking for a crumb of entertainment.