The Calgary Flames’ first game of the season did not go nearly as well as hoped. While the team won the game 6–5 in overtime, Kevin Rooney suffered what appeared to be a brutal injury and nearly needed a stretcher to be taken off the ice. This injury is unfortunate for the Flames and Rooney, who’s seen his fair share of injury trouble over the past couple of seasons. We wish him the best.
Injuries never come at good times, but this one couldn’t have come at a worse time for the organization. The Flames have little in the way of centre depth in the organization, and having lost Cole Schwindt on waivers to the Vegas Golden Knights, the team doesn’t have many players that they can bring up to play down the middle.
The only player that the organization really has that could slot into that role is Sam Morton, but with just a handful of AHL games under his belt to this point, he probably needs more time to get up to speed. Short of signing a free agent to fill in for now, the Flames should try Connor Zary at centre.
Is Connor Zary a centre?
The Flames drafted Zary as a centre out of the Kamloops Blazers in the COVID-19 shortened-season. Due to the pandemic, he played in the AHL to start the season, on the wing with Matthew Phillips and Adam Ruzicka, and had seven points in nine games in that time.
However, as the WHL opened up, the Flames needed to send Zary back, and he played in the WHL for 15 games, putting up 24 games in that time. He ended up getting hurt that season and missed the rest of the year.
After graduating from the WHL, Zary was immediately injured at Flames training camp and was out for eight games. When he returned to action with the Stockton Heat, the team put him at centre, and it was not a great start. Through his first three games, he had one goal and was a whopping minus seven.
However, he did take steps forward to add 12 more points in his next 28 games as he adjusted to the faster speed of the game. However, it took him a long time to get there. He ended that year with 25 points in 53 games and a minus-4.
The next season was much better. Zary had 58 points in 72 games and actually looked like a high-end player. He played top minutes for the team and was a key reason the team finished the season as the top team in the league.
Then he started last season on an absolute tear, putting up 10 points in six games before being called up to Calgary. However, he played just a handful of games at centre at the end of last season in games that didn’t matter. The hope was that the Flames would start him at centre this season, but they haven’t done so to this point.
Now is a good time to try him down the middle. The open spot is on the bottom line, which gives him a great opportunity to establish himself in that role and get used to the position at the NHL level. While he won’t be playing with stars like Mikael Backlund and Blake Coleman, he’ll get to play with Adam Klapka, who he played with in the AHL, and learn from cup winner Ryan Lomberg. He could do much worse.
After scoring the overtime winner for the Flames in this game, now is the time to move Zary to centre.
How do the Flames line up with Zary at centre?
This move also limits what the Flames need to do to their lineup. The Nazem Kadri and Jonathan Huberdeau lines stay exactly the same as they are. Zary then goes down to centre the fourth line and then the open spot goes to Matt Coronato, who is the Flames’ 13th forward currently.
Coronato on the Backlund line makes a lot of sense. He’s a right winger, which allows Coleman to play his natural right side. Coronato also played a ton of two-way hockey when he was with Harvard in the NCAA, playing top penalty kill minutes for the team. He also gets the Backlund Bump that so many others have seen over the years playing with the Captain.
The Flames can then bring up another player, and while they probably bring up Morton, giving Jakob Pelletier a look would be good for the 2019 first-round pick. Now that there is an open spot, this gives them an opportunity to see what they really have in him in games that matter.
At the end of the day, while it’s great that an opportunity has opened up to play Zary at centre, what really matters is Rooney’s health, and all the best to him for a speedy recovery.
Photo by Brett Holmes/Icon Sportswire
