It wasn’t all doom and gloom for the Calgary Flames in the 2022–23 season, as they had some depth players put together some pretty productive seasons. That said, there was still plenty of doom and gloom to go around.
Yesterday, we took a look at the best value contracts from the Flames over the course of 2022–23 and we had surprising results. Adam Ruzicka, Trevor Lewis, Tyler Toffoli, and Dillon Dube were the all around most productive when looking at cost per point, cost per assist, and cost per goal.
Unfortunately, it wasn’t all positives as there were a number of contracts that were less than valuable when it comes to offensive production. Some players played a more critical role rather than just pure point production, so it’s hard to fault them just on pure output. That being said, others cost the Flames in both production and salary cap space.
Here are the worst value contracts from the 2022–23 Calgary Flames season:
Flames’ worst cost per point players
| Player | Cost Per Point | Cap Hit | PPG | League Rank |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Kevin Rooney | $1,300,000 | $1,300,000 | 0.06 | 807 |
| Chris Tanev | $346,153 | $4,500,000 | 0.20 | 711 |
| Milan Lucic | $315,789 | $6,000,000 | 0.25 | 702 |
| Dennis Gilbert | $190,625 | $762,500 | 0.17 | 604 |
| Nikita Zadorov | $178,571 | $3,750,000 | 0.26 | 581 |
Let’s get the extreme pain out of the way first. The Calgary Flames paid Kevin Rooney $1.3M to get them one NHL assist this season. His name will come up again. Pretty inexcusable.
Chris Tanev was one of the Flames’ best defencemen last season, and the Flames aren’t paying him to notch points. It’s unfortunate that he wasn’t able to pitch in a few more points, but that is not an indication on his play at all.
To no one’s surprise, Milan Lucic found his way on this list with an average cost of $315,789 per point. As Lucic said in his closing press conference, the weight of this contract is over but last year’s lack of production hurt this team.
Dennis Gilbert and Nikita Zadorov are two defencemen with very different contracts that round out the top five. Once again, they aren’t being paid to score, but even with Zadorov’s career year he still found himself on this list.
Flames’ worst cost per goal – forwards
Now for the cost per goal, we are only going to look at forwards because if you took a look at just the defencemen it’s not an apples to apples comparison. Chris Tanev would have topped that list with $4.5M per goal, since he scored just one, but as stated that is not the value that he provides.
| Player | Cost Per Goal | Cap Hit |
|---|---|---|
| Milan Lucic | $857,142 | $6,000,000 |
| Jonathan Huberdeau | $393,333 | $5,900,000 |
| Andrew Mangiapane | $341,176 | $5,800,000 |
| Nazem Kadri | $291,666 | $7,000,000 |
| Jakob Pelletier | $287,777 | $863,333 |
Technically, Kevin Rooney tops this list once again as he didn’t score a single goal. But since that value is technically infinity, he gets an exclusion on technicalities.
When it comes to goals, the Flames paid Lucic just over $850,000 per goal he scored this season. That is more than double than the next forward.
It should be no surprise that Jonathan Huberdeau would end up on this list somehow, and with $393,333 per goal that makes a lot of sense. If he were to match his 15 goals next season, it would cost the Flames $700,000 per goal. Let’s hope that changes.
After signing his new contract in the offseason, Andrew Mangiapane failed to hit 20 goals landing himself on this list. With a cost of $341,176 per goal, the Flames needed a lot more in terms of goal production this season from the real Breadman.
Rounding out our list again are two contracts on opposite sides of the spectrum. Nazem Kadri was one of the Flames major offseason acquisitions, but only produced at a rate of $291,666 per goal. Jakob Pelletier was just south of that number, but is obviously on his entry-level contract which means his production was even less. He was limited to just 24 games and got the short end of the stick near the end of the season.
Flames’ worst cost per assists – forwards
| Player | Cost Per Assist | Cap Hit |
|---|---|---|
| Kevin Rooney | $1,300,000 | $1,300,000 |
| Milan Lucic | $500,000 | $6,000,000 |
| Blake Coleman | $245,000 | $4,900,000 |
| Andrew Mangiapane | $223,076 | $5,800,000 |
| Nazem Kadri | $218,750 | $7,000,000 |
Moving into cost per assist, a few familiar names show up that shouldn’t surprise.
Rooney is back in action with his $1.3M per assist, while Lucic, Mangiapane, and Kadri all reappear.
The more interesting name comes with Blake Coleman who cost the Flames $245,000 per assist. Despite notching a career-high in assists and points, his production was unfortunately third worst in value among forwards. Tough sledding.
Wrapping up
If we included the defencemen on this list, it would have been much more painful to look at. That being said, outside of a few names, no one truly had an amazing season. While last year the Flames had so much value up and down their lineup, this year it was simply not the case.
Here’s to hoping next year the roster is filled out with some more value contracts that can improve this list.
Photo by Brett Holmes/Icon Sportswire
