It’s been a mixed bag for the Calgary Flames so far this season. After a shocking 5–0–1 start to the year, the team has struggled of late, going 3-6-2 over their last eleven games. That leaves them at a very pedestrian 8–6–3 on the year. So how does their start this season compare to last year’s disaster of a season? Let’s take a deeper look into the numbers.
Flames raw totals
First off we’ll start high-level and look at the team’s record and raw totals through 17 games this season compared to 17 games last year.
| Season | Record | Points | Points % | GF | GA |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2024–25 | 8–6–3 | 19 | .559 | 46 | 50 |
| 2023–24 | 6–8–3 | 15 | .441 | 48 | 57 |
Record-wise, the team is certainly in a better position this year than they were last year, sitting with four more points than last season. They’ve essentially swapped their loss total for their win total this season. If you remember, the Flames went on a six-game losing streak just four games into the season last year which immediately tanked their record. So far through 17 games this year, their longest losing streak is four games which they already hedged with a four-game winning streak right out of the gate. Needless to say, the team’s low moments so far this year have been nowhere close to last year’s crushing start.
In terms of goals for and against, the Flames have scored two fewer goals than last year after 17 games. They have however at least allowed seven fewer goals, which is why they have two more wins than losses compared to last year.
Flames standings comparison
| Season | Division | Conference | League |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2024–25 | 4th | 6th | 12th |
| 2023–24 | 6th | 11th | 26th |
Standings-wise, the Flames are sitting pretty compared to last year’s early trainwreck. Although the team’s spot within their division is not that different (you can only move so much against seven other teams), they’re much more comfortable in their conference and league-wide at the moment. Last year through 17 games the team was 11th in the Western Conference and three points out of a playoff spot. This year however the team is sitting sixth in their conference and has a narrow three-point lead over the ninth-place team in the conference.
League-wide, it’s the same story. The Flames were bottom six last year at this point in the season and looked like a bottom feeder, while this year their scrappy efforts to grab points in 11 out of 17 games have them sitting 12th in the NHL. Their 19 points on the year are six more than the 26th-place team at the moment, the spot they occupied last season at this point.
Calgary’s underlying results
This is where things start to get interesting. Despite the difference in raw overall results, the underlying numbers between the two years tell a completely different story.
| Season | CF% | xGF% | HDCF% | xGF/60 | xGA/60 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2024-25 | 48.90 (21st) | 47.94 (23rd) | 50.56 (14th) | 2.25 (26th) | 2.53 (15th) |
| 2023-24 | 52.64 (9th) | 51.38 (15th) | 51.70 (14th) | 2.68 (14th) | 2.60 (16th) |
Despite their rough record to start last season, the team was actually playing some pretty decent hockey across the board. After 17 games last year, the Flames ranked in the upper half of the league in all of the above key metrics. This year however it’s the opposite story.
The Flames have been one of the league’s worst teams at 5v5 through 17 games, regularly getting outshot, out-chanced, and losing the expected goals battle. Obviously, so far it hasn’t impacted them that much thanks to some shooting luck and great goaltending from Dustin Wolf and Dan Vladar, but these numbers will catch up to them eventually if they don’t sort things out at even strength.
So far this season the Flames rank in the bottom half of the league in most key metrics. The only area in which they look better than last year is defensively in terms of expected goals against, and the difference is incredibly slim. Last year’s team was much better at generating shots, chances, and expected goals than this year’s team.
Flames scoring leaders
| 2023-24 | 2024-25 |
|---|---|
| Elias Lindholm (12) | Rasmus Andersson (11) |
| Nazem Kadri (11) | Jonathan Huberdeau (10) |
| Jonathan Huberdeau (10) | Mikael Backlund (9) |
| Blake Coleman (9) | Andrei Kuzmenko (8) |
| Andrew Mangiapane (9) | Nazem Kadri (8) |
In terms of scoring and point production, the roster is at a very similar spot to last season, and not in a good way. Last year the team had just three players in double digits, now it’s somehow even worse and they have just two. On top of that, only one forward on the team has double-digit point totals after 17 games in Jonathan Huberdeau. Fun fact, the Flames are currently tied with the Ducks as the only two teams in the entire NHL to have just one forward sitting in double digits for points right now. Every other team in the league has at least two.
An intriguing start to the regular season
If you were to ignore the Flames’ raw totals and record through 17 games and only look at underlying metrics and scoring leaders, you’d assume the team is actually in a worse spot than last season. However, they’ve been able to defy the odds so far and overcome some porous play at 5v5 to find themselves sitting in a much safer spot through 17 games compared to last season’s trainwreck.
With that said, if the team doesn’t clean up their act at 5v5 and start finding the back of the net more often, their time as a .500 team may come to an end sooner rather than later.
