Projecting how the Calgary Flames will deploy their goalies next season

The Calgary Flames said goodbye to longtime starting goaltender Jacob Markstrom this offseason, shipping him to the New Jersey Devils. Markstrom was by far the best goalie the Flames had seen since Miikka Kiprusoff, and will go down as one of the best goalies in Flames history. Among all goalies in Flames history with at least 100 starts, he ranks fourth in games played, fourth in GAA, fifth in save percentage, fourth in wins, fourth in saves, and second in shutouts.

Now, we’ll usher in a new era of Flames goaltending.

Calgary’s goaltenders for the next season

This upcoming season, the Flames have a new trio that includes promotions and healthy competition for starts.

Dustin Wolf

The torch has been passed to youngster Dustin Wolf, who is tabbed as the Flames’ “goalie of the future.” Wolf is 23 years old, extremely young, and has three years of professional experience under his belt. Wolf is largely untested at the NHL level, playing a career-high 17 games for the Flames last season in which he split time between the NHL and AHL.

Wolf’s performance in the NHL wasn’t exceptional, but definitely good enough to warrant a fulltime NHL roster spot in 2024–25—one of the key motivators for Craig Conroy pulling the trigger on the long-rumoured Markstrom trade.

Devin Cooley

In free agency, the Flames added another tweener goaltender in Devin Cooley, formerly of the San Jose Sharks. Cooley played his first NHL games last season, suiting up for six games and putting up dreadful numbers for the even more dreadful Sharks.

Cooley is 27 years old, much older than you may think, and has four seasons of professional experience, just one more than Wolf despite being four years older.

Dan Vladar

Rounding out the three goalies in contention for NHL jobs next season is Dan Vladar, coming off off-season hip surgery and ready to enter his fourth season as a Flame.

Vladar is 26 years old and has eight seasons of professional experience split between the Boston Bruins and Flames systems.

There are a lot of cooks in the goaltending kitchen and all will need to get time in the NHL crease. With the three goalies, the Flames have lots of options for what to do, just like on TwinCasino Canada. Here’s how the Flames will likely split up those duties next season.

One goal in mind

The three Flames goalies for 2024–25 are a mix of inexperienced and mediocre. It’s not a bad thing for a rebuilding team, but there is a central goal: get Wolf the experience and development he needs to grow into a legit starting NHL goalie.

Here are the three goalies’ career stats to date:

Goalie	GP	W	L	O	SO	GAA	SV%	GSAx	QS%
Dustin Wolf	18	8	7	1	0	3.03	0.896	-8.86	0.500
Dan Vladar	75	37	23	10	2	3.08	0.893	-31.12	0.470
Devin Cooley	6	2	3	1	0	4.98	0.870	-4.27	0.333

Vladar has the most NHL experience by far but has honestly had a pretty rough career statistically. He had that one run in Calgary where he was the goalie in net for 13 straight games where the Flames got at least one point in the standings, but overall he’s been fairly mediocre.

We won’t know how his hip surgery will affect his abilities next season, though experts in the goaltending field say this type of surgery usually results in better mobility and has positive effects after an understandable adjustment period.

Cooley has by far the least experience, and the worst statistics as well.

Wolf is the best goalie on the list in almost every area, which is saying something because his stats aren’t amazing by any means. That being said, he has only allowed more than four goals in three career games and has allowed three or fewer in nine games. He has the ability to play well but does have some stinkers in there that deflate his stats with just 18 GP on his record.

Breaking down the 82-game schedule

There are a few important considerations when breaking down the schedule among the three goalies.

The Flames have 11 back-to-backs on the schedule next season, leaving 71 games with at least one rest day on either end. It’s a higher number than last year when the Flames had eight.

Cooley will likely get NHL games periodically throughout the season, as the Flames will want to see what he’s like in their system. Cooley is widely regarded as having NHL potential even at 27 years old, and as a rebuilding team, the Flames will want to know exactly what they have.

It’s reasonable to expect Cooley to get somewhere between 10 and 12 games next season. The rest will be divided between Wolf and Vladar.

Predicting the game split

It’s tough to predict exactly where the split will end up because of Wolf’s inexperience and Vladar’s surgery. There is a contingent of fans who think that Wolf should be the undisputed starter who gets 50 games, and others who believe Wolf should get exactly half the season at 41 games.

I think a realistic estimate is slightly less than that, somewhere around 35–38 starts. It’s still a pretty big jump from the 17 starts he had in 2023–24, but Wolf is a seasoned professional goalie who has lots of AHL experience under his belt. He isn’t a complete stranger to the rigour of the pro calendar and should be adjusting well to the workload.

Giving Cooley 15 starts leaves around 34 starts for Vladar.

Goalie	Projected 2024–25 Starts
Dustin Wolf	35–38
Dan Vladar	32–37
Devin Cooley	10–12

How do you think the Flames will distribute starts to their goalies next season?

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