As we are now officially at the midway mark of the Calgary Flames’ 2024–25 season, it is that time of the year to hand out some awards for the best and worst performances thus far. It feels like the typical Flames season so far, going into the season the talk of the town was about the tank and the high draft pick we thought we would see the Flames receive. That hasn’t exactly been the case as the Flames are right in the thick of the playoff race.
So far this season, there’s certainly been some standout players both in good and bad ways. I’ll be handing out awards for MVP, best defenceman, best forward, most improved, biggest disappointment, and biggest surprise. Let’s get into it, shall we?
MVP: Dustin Wolf
Runner up: Jonathan Huberdeau
I think this was one that isn’t particularly close. From the word “go,” Dustin Wolf has been the Flames’ best and most impactful player on a nightly basis, he has been the team’s MVP through 40 games. Every game that he has been in the cage he has given the Flames an opportunity to win, and without him, the Flames are probably sitting in the bottom five of the league standings. The rookie netminder has been that good.
In the 21 games that Wolf has played, he owns a 13–6–2 record, a .914 save percentage, and an 8.6 GSAA (according to Hockey-Reference.com). He has not only been the Flames’ best player this season, but he has been one of the best goaltenders in the league, that says a lot about Wolf and how he has performed thus far.
The team plays completely differently when Wolf is in between the pipes, they trust him and he delivers on a nightly basis. He should be getting more starts and the split with Dan Vladar should come to an end as Wolf has outperformed Vladar in every facet of the game. Wolf should get some Calder votes at the end of the year if he keeps up this performance, but I think it is safe to say that the hype for Wolf has lived up to expectations.
Best Forward: Jonathan Huberdeau
Runner up: Connor Zary
As a whole, the Flames have had an awfully hard time scoring goals this year. Only a handful of times have they scored more than three goals in a game and the wins they have gotten this year have been close checking affairs. In saying all of that, Jonathan Huberdeau is playing the best hockey he has ever played in a Flames uniform and finally is playing like the team’s best skater.
Let’s call a spade a spade, Huberdeau still isn’t playing up to the $10.5 million salary, but he is showing signs of life this season as opposed to his first two seasons in Calgary. He leads the team in both goals and points, his 17 goals on the season are already a career-best with the Flames and he is on pace for 35 goals this season, which would be a career-high for him.
He is showing glimpses of why he was so good when he was with the Florida Panthers, he is making slick passes, creating offence sometimes out of nothing, and is driving the play on a nightly basis. While we probably never will see him get back to the 115-point mark like he did as a Panther, it sure is encouraging to see him playing some good hockey as a Flame. He finally seems to be enjoying himself.
Best Defenceman: MacKenzie Weegar
Runner up: Rasmus Andersson
On the backend this season, it has once again been the MacKenzie Weegar show. Weegar has been the Flames’ best defenceman for a few years now, and he has truly cemented himself as the team’s undisputed number-one rearguard again this season.
While he is unlikely to match his offensive production from a season ago, Weegar has been doing everything you could ask for out of him this season. He is playing massive minutes at even strength, he is quarterbacking the Flames’ top power play unit, and he is logging massive time on the team’s penalty kill. He has been doing all of this with a rotating door of different partners, but he has seemed to find an unlikely chemistry with Joel Hanley as of late and those two have been putting up terrific results together.
Better yet, the offence has started to come a little more for Weegar, and it was evident Tuesday night with his two-point effort against the Anaheim Ducks on his birthday. He has shown once again that he is worth every penny the Flames are paying him, and he is still very much a large part of what this team is trying to do in the future. The vibes sure are immaculate.
Breakout Player: Matt Coronato
Runner up: Kevin Bahl
Matt Coronato came into this season with a purpose. After being healthy scratched and demoted to the AHL early in the season, Coronato came back with a point to prove and has been fantastic as a full-time NHL player.
Coronato looks much more confident than he did a season ago. More ice time and the trust of your coach will do that, but Coronato is faster and more assertive than he was in his rookie season. Of course, that is all showing in his play this season.
He is on pace to break the 20-goal threshold and that would be a remarkable achievement considering he was playing on the fourth line to start the season. Now he has a nice spot in the Flames’ top-nine playing alongside Mikael Backlund and Blake Coleman, with whom he has had some really nice chemistry with. The sky is the limit, and Coronato is looking like a really nice piece moving forward for the Flames.
Biggest Disappointment: Yegor Sharangovich
Runner up: Andrei Kuzmenko
You could probably split this award between both Yegor Sharangovich and Andrei Kuzmenko, as they both have been horrendous this season in their own rights, but for the sake of this post, I am going to take Sharangovich.
Sharangovich has been a ghost all season long. After inking a long-term deal with the Flames on July 1, Sharangovich came into the season with the expectation that he would once again score 30 goals, well that isn’t exactly going to plan.
He started the year nursing an injury that he sustained in the preseason, and since returning in late October, we have not seen any sign of the player we saw a season ago. On pace for just 14 goals and 25 points, it has been a far cry from the player we saw score 31 times last year and he has not scored since December 3 with a goal that was into an empty net against the Columbus Blue Jackets—that was 15 games ago for those keeping track.
He has looked uninterested and not engaged since returning from his injury, and with his new contract not having even kicked in yet if he doesn’t get it going soon, that contract is going to age as badly as the James Neal one would have if the Oilers didn’t take him off the Flames hands. That is the first major blunder in Craig Conroy’s tenure as the Flames GM.
Plenty of season to go
With still just over half the season to go, there will be time for different guys to enter the conversation for the year-end awards, and some of the guys mentioned may find themselves on the outside looking in. For the sake of our entertainment as fans, let’s hope the Flames can generate more offence to get some different players going to make it a fun back half of the season.
