The Calgary Flames are in big trouble already this season as they have started 1-6-0. While 3.85 goals against per game isn’t good, the 1.71 goals the team has scored per game is much worse. Even with the goaltending the Flames got from Dustin Wolf last season, they weren’t sniffing the playoffs scoring that few goals.
Calgary has held on for a few years too long and a rebuild has to come. Bob Stauffer joined the Spittin’ Chiclets Podcast and said it best, “It has to come from ownership. The owner has to agree to it, otherwise it doesn’t work.”
The last playoff appearance from the Flames was in 2021-22, the final season before Matthew Tkachuk and Johnny Gaudreau both left. That was the point when the rebuild needed to happen after winning one playoff round in three playoff appearances in the previous four seasons, before now missing three years in a row with a threat of a fourth.
Flames Have Been Stuck in Mediocrity for Too Long
Just making the playoffs doesn’t remove a team from mediocrity. Inconsistent success or failure without a real threat of being able to win the Stanley Cup or get the number one overall pick leaves a team in a bad place.
Whether a team thinks they can chase a Cup with what they have and could add or have to tear it down to be able to work their way back around to that place, there has to be a direction. Like the Vancouver Canucks , the Flames are just holding onto something they had and have been stuck in mediocrity since the 2021-22 playoff appearance.
The Flames’ lack of success is no knock on Mackenzie Weegar or Jonathan Huberdeau, who arrived in Calgary to start the team organizational shift, but while Weegar has fit in well in Calgary, Huberdeau was removed from a system that fit his style of play and started under Darryl Sutter with the Flames.
There has been no threat of winning the last three seasons as the Flames finished with 93, 81, and 96 points, while also having little to no chance at a high draft pick that could change the franchise for the better.
Dustin Wolf Camouflaged A Lot for the Flames
Stauffer also said, “(Dustin Wolf) camouflaged a lot of the problems Calgary had last year. Dustin Wolf was tremendous in goal.” He finished with a 29-16-8 record last season, posting a 2.64 GAA, .910 SV%, three shutouts, and an 11.93 goals saved above expected. He also finished second in Calder Trophy voting, eighth in Vezina Trophy voting, and 15th in Hart Trophy voting as a goalie who was on a non-playoff team.
“If they get average goaltending, they’re an 82-85 point team, and it can go the other way on them because they can’t score,” Stauffer continued as he referenced the Flames’ 96 point 2024-25 season, where they just missed the playoffs. We are seeing that this season, as they can’t score and the goaltending hasn’t even been able to be average thus far.
The good news for the Flames is that there is a lot of time remaining in the 2025-26 season, but they will have a much easier time giving into a rebuild and reaching the bottom for a few years than trying to add more to a lost cause and attempting to win.
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