Smart Free Agents: The Calgary Flames are in a position where it makes sense for them to sell at one point this season. There are a number of free agents coming up, whether they be RFAs or UFAs, but players that the team will have to make decisions on. The Flames have talent pushing into the NHL too, so that has to be kept in mind when determining the future of older and/or less productive players.
The Flames, who aren’t contenders and are close to the bottom of the league, haven’t been afraid in recent years to give their young players opportunities or at least tests in the NHL when they play well in the AHL. This includes recent graduations over the last couple of seasons like Matt Coronato, Connor Zary, Adam Klapka, Yan Kuznetsov, Zayne Perekh, Hunter Brzustewicz, William Stromgren, Dustin Wolf, Devin Cooley, Samuel Honzek, Martin Pospisil, Rory Kerins, Sam Morton, Matvei Gridin, and even Justin Kirkland, who is a bit older.
Not all of those players are in the NHL and not all of them will stick or get many more chances, but for the players who do, there has to be opportunities for the team in transition to find strong pieces to have on the team. This means decisions on these players.
Among players on the IR or in the NHL, there are six without contracts for next season – Rasmus Andersson, Ryan Lomberg, Justin Kirkland, William Stromgren, Jake Bean, and John Beecher.
With Mackenzie Weeger as a strong top-2 veteran defenseman on the team and Perekh and Brzustewicz (RD) in the NHL and looking for playing time, Andersson, who is having a great season and isn’t likely to re-sign, makes a lot of sense to move for a strong return.
A similar reasoning can be made for moving on from Bean, who is injured, but averaged less than 16 minutes per game this season in 16 games. Yan Kuznetsov has stepped in to be a very fine replacement there, and he’s just 23 years old.
Stromgren isn’t going anywhere as he’s a 22-year-old RFA, but I had to mention him since he’s played very well in the AHL and recently got the callup for the time being. The rest are depth forwards, but if there was a player the Flames would like to keep, it’s Lomberg, who has a nasty style of play. But since Pospisil was already signed for three years, that might be the choice right there.
With that being said, Andersson, Kirkland, Lomberg, Bean, and Beecher are likely all to be gone by next season for the Flames, whether any of them are traded or aren’t brought back after the season.
