The Calgary Flames may not have had the most successful season, but they sure did have some standout performances from their roster nevertheless.
From Tyler Toffoli and Mikael Backlund’s career best outputs, to the emergence of young players like Walker Duehr and Jakob Pelletier, it’s a shame that despite the season’s outcome, there isn’t more love for these individual standouts.
Every year, organizations will take a look at who on their roster overperformed and who underperformed based on a number of factors. One that is by far the most interesting is the value of their contract.
Now surely, there are always “intangibles” that somehow cannot be quantified by any known metric known to the public, but there are others that are much more accessible. CapFriendly has an amazing tool called Cost Per Point that easily breaks down the best and worst value deals of the season by a few different metrics.
Over the next two days, we will be looking at the Calgary Flames best and worst valued contracts from the 2022–23 season. Let’s start with the good news:
Flames’ best cost per point players
| Player | Cost Per Point | Cap Hit | PPG | League Rank |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Adam Ruzicka | $38,125 | $762,500 | 0.45 | 75 |
| Trevor Lewis | $40,000 | $800,000 | 0.24 | 82 |
| Dillon Dube | $51,111 | $2,300,000 | 0.55 | 145 |
| Tyler Toffoli | $58,219 | $4,250,000 | 0.89 | 188 |
| Michael Stone | $68,181 | $750,000 | 0.23 | 225 |
Some surprising and unsurprising names on the list to start us off. Adam Ruzicka had the best cost per point this season with just $38,125 per point, good enough for 75th in the entire NHL. It’s a shame that for some reason Ruzicka was stapled to the press box for most of the second half of the season.
Trevor Lewis is by far the most surprising name here, with exactly $40,000 per point this season. His total of 20 points is the same as Ruzicka, but with almost double the amount of games played. Ruzicka’s 0.45 points per game pace is better than Lewis’, but at least from a pure salary cap value perspective Lewis provided some depth.
Dillon Dube and Tyler Toffoli should come as little surprise on this list. Dube had a career best season with 45 points, putting him at just above $51,000 per point. Toffoli had a monstrous season and led the team in points, resulting in just over $58,000 per point.
Finally, Calgary Flames recurring legend Michael Stone also provided some defensive depth scoring value with $68,181 cost per point.
Cost Per Goal
| Player | Cost Per Goal | Cap Hit |
|---|---|---|
| Trevor Lewis | $88,888 | $800,000 |
| Walker Duehr | $118,214 | $827,500 |
| Tyler Toffoli | $125,000 | $4,250,000 |
| Michael Stone | $125,000 | $750,000 |
| Adam Ruzicka | $127,083 | $762,500 |
In terms of goal production, the same standouts can also be noted.
Lewis in fact had the best value per goal on the entire team with $88,888 per goal. Something that I am sure no one expected to see.
Duehr was also a stand out this season with seven goals equating to $118,214 per goal. A depth contract that provided an immense amount of value, Duehr will be a full time Flame next season.
Toffoli, Stone, and Ruzicka also made the list which should again come as no surprise.
Cost Per Assist
| Player | Cost Per Goal | Cap Hit |
|---|---|---|
| Adam Ruzicka | $54,464 | $762,500 |
| Trevor Lewis | $72,727 | $800,000 |
| Dillon Dube | $85,185 | $2,300,000 |
| Tyler Toffoli | $108,974 | $4,250,000 |
| Troy Stecher* | $113,636 | $1,250,000 |
Four of the same players are right again at the top when things are broken down by assist value. Ruzicka, Lewis, Dube, and Toffoli are the top four in value, but newcomer Troy Stecher makes the list as the fifth best cost per assist.
With just $113,636 per assist this season, Stecher is making his case for a new contract with the team. Stecher was phenomenal with the Flames after being traded at the deadline and although the numbers may be slightly skewed due to him being on the Coyotes to start the year, his value was immense to end the season.
Not all good news
The good part of the story today is that the Flames did have some value this year. Sometimes this value comes due to cheaper contracts simply producing at a slightly better rate than the higher paid players, but that is what you need to win in this league.
Unfortunately, there wasn’t always value this season as tomorrow we will take a look at the contracts that cost the Flames the most this year.
Photo by Brett Holmes/Icon Sportswire
