The Calgary Flames are almost a quarter of the way through their season, and some players have become some fan favourites. Whether it is their personality off the ice, on-ice performance, or just general vibes that they give off, fans of the Flames no doubt have a list of their favourite Flames players in their head. This week, we decided to poll our readers on who their favourite Flames player is right now. Voters were presented with two random players, and they could vote as much or as little as they wanted. Ultimately, each Flames player was assigned a score based on how many votes they received. Votes have been tallied, so let’s take a look at how the results look!
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Top Favourites
Connor Zary and Martin Pospisil are your two highest-ranked players with scores of 89 and 82 respectively. Though the sample size is small, the two rookies have far exceeded expectations, and it’s clear that fans have taken notice. Whether the two continue their fantastic play and production throughout the season is yet to be determined, but it’s clear that as fans have been begging for a youth movement, they are very happy and excited about what these two have shown on the ice.
MacKenzie Weegar is your third favourite Flame with a score of 78, and though he is a fantastic defenceman on the ice, he probably has one of the best personalities off the ice as well. It’s no surprise he is one of the highest-ranked players. With a score of 74, Rasmus Andersson comes in at fourth as the Flames number one defenceman and potential future captain of this team.
At five, Jacob Markstrom comes in at a score of 73. Markstrom has rebounded quite well from his lacklustre season last year. I would think his high ranking has a lot to do with his resurgence in play. In sixth place is current Flames captain Mikael Backlund who had a career year last year, and fans were quite happy when he was awarded the captaincy last offseason. Spots 7-10 are practically a four-way tie between Yegor Sharangovich, Nazem Kadri, Elias Lindholm and Blake Coleman.
Middle of the Pack
Despite playing only 11 career NHL games, Matthew Coronato just misses a spot in the top 10. Given his NHL resume, this is a pretty high placement for him. It’s safe to say that fans are extremely excited for what he will bring to the team once he develops. The same can be said for Dustin Wolf who is ranked just outside of the top 10 as well. No doubt that he will shoot up the rankings once he becomes an NHL regular.
Andrew Mangiapane and Jonathan Huberdeau are the two top-six wingers who make up the middle of the pack. Just a season or two ago, Mangiapane was a huge fan favourite with his incredible play. Mangiapane is still playing pretty well, however now that he has his new contract in effect, fans might be hoping to see a little bit more from him. Huberdeau has also picked up his play as of late, however, with a $10.5M price tag, fans are expecting at least a point per game production from him. Despite some on-ice struggles, Huberdeau does a lot for the community in Calgary, as does Mangiapane.
Noah Hanifin, who requested a trade in the offseason, is on the lower end of the middle group. I would think his trade request has something to do with this, and fans might be ready to see what a return for him would look like for the franchise. Adam Ruzicka finishes off the middle group. Ruzicka played great last year when he was inserted in the lineup, and fans are hoping to see him replicate his performance from last season.
Bottom of the list
A common theme with a lot of the names in this list is a lack of games played for the Flames, or just a lack of minutes. A.J. Greer has been a very steady bottom-six player for the team. However, outside of him, Walker Duehr, Daniel Vladar, Ilya Solovyov, Nick DeSimone, Dennis Gilbert, Dryden Hunt, and Jordan Oesterle have not played a large number of games for this team.
Nikita Zadorov very publicly requested a trade, which seemed to rub some players in the room the wrong way. Additionally, after his trade request, his play has dropped drastically. His placement is not much of a surprise. In regards to play, the same can be said about Dillon Dube, who fans have been waiting for a while to see some more from. Dube is a bottom-six caliber player, and it might just be time to accept what he is at this point in his career.
Fans love the rookies
If there is one thing I have taken out of this survey, it’s that the Flames fans absolutely love the rookies. Zary, Pospisil, Coronato, and Wolf all ranked pretty high despite their low number of NHL games played. Fans are excited about the future of this team, and the prospects that are in the pipeline. I would be very interested to see where Jakob Pelletier would rank once he gets an NHL game in this year. Who’s placement in this survey surprised you? Let us know!
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