Rewind back to the summer of 2024. The Calgary Flames were rather quiet in free agency, opting to add low-cost, depth players over big-game hunting. It was a smart move on the team’s part, given the stage of their rebuild. One of the more notable names the team brought in was former top draft pick and Calgary Hitmen star Jake Bean.
Bean is, of course, the son of former CSEC CEO John Bean and had long been linked with a return to Calgary over the years. Throughout the 2024–25 season and culminating with a couple of big mistakes in the biggest week of the season, Bean has struggled to make much of an impact in Calgary. Instead, he’s blocked younger, more promising players from getting NHL experience.
Bottom of the NHL production
Bean has never been a big point producer, despite being a point-per-game defender in the WHL. It’s the reason he’s bounced around the league and is now on his third team. This year, however, despite playing in 64 games for the Flames, Bean has had the worst season of his career points-wise. Let’s take a look at where his numbers stand among fellow Flames defenders.
| Stat | Jake Bean | Rank Among Flames Defencemen |
|---|---|---|
| Goals | 2 | T-7th of 7 |
| Assists | 5 | 7th of 7 |
| Points | 7 | 7th of 7 |
It’s ugly. Bean has somehow been outscored by former waiver claim and long-time depth defenceman Joel Hanley, despite Hanley playing in 11 fewer games this season. Similarly, Daniil Miromanov has two more points than Bean despite skating in 21 fewer games. Tyson Barrie only played 13 games in Calgary this year, and yet he nearly has half as many points as Bean in 51 fewer games.
No one expected Bean to be a big producer, but his numbers are frankly shocking. Among all NHL defenders with at least 50 games, Bean’s totals start to look even worse.
| Stat | Jake Bean | Rank Among NHL defencemen (min. 50 GP) |
|---|---|---|
| Goals | 2 | 152nd of 184 |
| Assists | 5 | 177th of 184 |
| Points | 7 | 178th of 184 |
A total of 184 defenders have skated in 50 games this season, and Bean ranks 178th out of those players for points. He’s sitting on the same totals as shutdown veterans like Travis Hamonic and Luke Schenn. Only five defencemen with 50 games played have fewer points than Bean: Jon Merrill, Justin Holl, Arber Zhekaj, Ryan Graves, and Vincent Desharnais. Of those five with fewer points than him, he’s averaging more ice time than all but one of them.
Among the worst producers since the lockout
In particular, Bean’s production down the stretch during the most important part of the season has been among the worst in the NHL. In fact, it is the worst in the entire NHL. Bean is currently riding a 28-game pointless streak, with his last point coming all the way back on January 31. In that time, 452 players have skated in at least 25 games and in that same span, Bean is the only one without a single point.
Yes, you read that right. Among 452 players, Bean is the only one who hasn’t contributed to a single goal for his team. His 28-game pointless streak is by far the longest of any Flame this year, and one of the longest the franchise has seen in a very long time.
Across the last decade, the Flames have had 142 instances of a player skating in at least 60 games in a season. Of those 142 cases, Brandon Bollig’s five points during the 2014–15 season is the only case of a player producing less than Bean has this season. For context, Bollig averaged under nine minutes a game that season, while Bean has played over 15 minutes a game this season.
If we look even further back, since the 2004–05 lockout, there have been 251 instances of a Flame playing in 60+ games in a season. In that span, there have only been three instances of a player producing less than Bean. Bollig in 2014–15, as mentioned above, Rhett Warrener’s six points in 2005–06, and Eric Godard’s two points in 2007–08. Of the three, only Warrener played more minutes per game than Bean has this season.
Bean’s 2024–25 totals are quite literally the worst point production by a Flames defender from the past decade, and fourth worst in the past 20 years. Among players who averaged over 10 minutes a game, only Warrener’s 2007–08 season was worse than Bean’s 2024–25 season.
Time to give the young guns a chance
Unfortunately, there is only one game left for the Flames this season, but it’s clear as ever that Bean should be watching the final game of the season. It’s time to let the young guns and the future of the Flames’ blueline get some action. They can’t do much worse than Bean this year.
