To say the the 2021–22 season has been a pleasant surprise for the Calgary Flames would be an understatement. The team has gone from suspected playoff bubble team to a legit contender in the Western Conference. Most of that credit goes to Darryl Sutter, who has turned the Flames into one of the best two-way teams in hockey.
In particular, the veteran coach has his defence corps playing some incredible hockey right now. From bounce back years to breakout seasons, every defenceman on the Flames this year has experienced massive success under Sutter.
So much so that all six regular Flames defenceman are on pace for career years when it comes to points and underlying numbers. Let’s take a further look.
Noah Hanifin
Noah Hanifin, who is now in his seventh NHL season and fifth with the Flames, has never been a big point producer or flashy player in the NHL. However this season he’s quietly playing perhaps the best hockey of his career and the points are following. Here’s how his current pace stacks up against his career bests.
Goals
- Career-best (2017–18): 10
- 2021–22 pace: 9
Assists
- Career-best (2018–19): 28
- 2021–22 pace: 32
Points
- Career-best (2018–19): 33
- 2021–22 pace: 41
Points per game
- Career-best (2018–19): 0.41
- 2021–22 pace: 0.51
All said, Hanifin is currently on pace to set career-highs in assists, points, and points per game. All three current career-bests were set in 2018–19 in his first season with the Flames. His current goal pace is just two behind his career best set in 2017–18 with the Hurricanes.
Rasmus Andersson
Coming out of junior where he produced 124 points in two seasons for the Barrie Colts of the OHL, Rasmus Andersson was thought to have the offensive skill to be a point producer at the NHL level. Up to this season that hasn’t really been the case. That said he’s finally having a breakout year offensively in his fourth full season in the NHL.
Goals
- Career-best (2019–20 and 2020–21): 5
- 2021–22 pace: 3
Assists
- Career-best (2018–19 and 2019–20): 17
- 2021–22 pace: 44
Points
- Career-best (2019–20): 22
- 2021–22 pace: 47
Points per game
- Career-best (2020–21): 0.37
- 2021–22 pace: 0.57
Not only is Andersson on pace to set career-highs in assists, points, and points per game, he’s already set a career-high in assists and points just 46 games into the season. He’s currently on pace to double his career best totals in both assists and points. After a rough 2020–21 season, Andersson is flourishing under Sutter as his offensive game has made huge strides.
Chris Tanev
Chris Tanev has never been a defenceman who focuses on points. He is and always will be a purely defensive defenceman, and rightly so as he’s been elite at it nearly his whole career. However even he is experiencing some surprise success when it comes to producing offence this season.
Goals
- Career-best (2013–14): 6
- 2021–22 pace: 7
Assists
- Career-best (2014–15 and 2019–20) – 18
- 2021–22 pace: 23
Points
- Career-best (2014–15 and 2019–20): 20
- 2021–22 pace: 30
Points per game
- Career-best (2019–20): 0.29
- 2021–22 pace: 0.37
Tanev is on pace to set career-highs in goals, assists, points, and points per game. His 30 points would be a 50% increase over his previous career-best of 20. If even Tanev is putting up points, you know things are going very well.
Oliver Kylington
No one on the Flames has had a more surprising breakout year than Oliver Kylington. The 2015 second-round pick cleared waivers just over a year ago and is now in the midst of a massive breakout season.
Goals
- Career-best (2018–19): 3
- 2021–22 pace: 11
Assists
- Career-best (2018–19 and 2019–20): 5
- 2021–22 pace: 32
Points
- Career best (2018–19): 8
- 2021–22 pace: 43
Points per game
- Career-best (2019–20): 0.21
- 2021–22 pace: 0.53
Before this season, the most games Kylington had played in a single year was only 48, back in 2019–20. After only playing eight games all of last season, he’s played in all but one game for the Flames this year as he sits just three shy of tying his career high 48 games from 2019–20. He’s already set career-highs in every stat in just 45 games, and those numbers will only increase as the season goes on.
Nikita Zadorov
Like Tanev, Nikita Zadorov has never been known for his offence. He’s a purely defensive player and is not expected to contribute offensively. However, like Tanev, he’s also putting up some career-best numbers offensively this season.
Goals
- Career best (2017–18 and 2018–19): 7
- 2021–22 pace: 6
Assists
- Career-best (2017–18): 13
- 2021–22 pace: 17
Points
- Career-best (2017–18): 20
- 2021–22 pace: 23
Points per game
- Career-best (2018–19): 0.26
- 2021–22 pace: 0.31
Zadorov set almost all of his current career-highs back in 2017–18 with the Colorado Avalanche, but is now on pace to set new highs in assists, points, and points per game this season. His current pace of six goals is also just one off his career-best of seven. Zadorov has shown some surprising ability to carry the puck the last few weeks and it’s leading to him landing on the scoresheet.
Erik Gudbranson
Erik Gudbranson isn’t really known for either offence nor defence. He’s typically known for being bad. However like the rest of the Flames defence corps, Gudbranson is having a much better than expected year offensively. Turning Gudbranson into a useable depth defenceman might be Sutter’s greatest achievement.
Goals
- Career-best (2019–20): 4
- 2021-22 pace – 5
Assists
- Career-best (2014–15): 9
- 2021–22 pace: 14
Points
- Career-best (2014–15): 13
- 2021–22 pace: 19
Points per game
- Career-best (2014–15): 0.17
- 2021–22 pace: 0.23
When your career-high in points in just 13, it’s not hard to set a new one if things go well in a season. That said Gudbranson set that career-best all the way back in 2014–15, so it’s certainly impressive that at 30 years old he’s on pace to set new career highs in goals, assists, points, and points per game.
Gudbranson has only posted a double digit point total twice in his career, in 2014–15 and 2018–19, yet he already sits with 11 points this season and is on pace for nearly 20.
A deep defence group
Sutter has his defence group playing some incredible hockey right now. Having one or two players on pace for career years is one thing, but to have an entire positional group on a team—one that includes players at different points in their careers—all on pace to set career-highs is extremely rare.
If you’re able to get career-years out of every regular defenceman on your team, it’s a testament to how effective and productive your team’s system is. Sutter has been able to plug in just about anybody on defence this year and have them contributing at a career-best pace, something that no one could’ve expected.
Ahead of tonight’s Flames contest, the bookies have predicted the Flames as the heavy favourite, with Betway Sports pricing the Flames at -175 and the Kraken at +300 to win the game in regulation, with an overtime decision being priced at +380.
