Yes, you read that right. Without including the seasons interrupted by the COVID-19 Pandemic and lockouts, Blake Coleman is currently on pace to become the lowest leading goal scorer in a full season in franchise history. Through 44 games, he sits at the top of Calgary’s goal leaderboard with 13. Assuming nothing changes and he maintains his current pace through the end of the year, he will finish the season with around 23 goals. That would put him 3 goals under the current record, which is held by Mike Cammalleri and Bob Leiter with 26. It’s worth pointing out as well that Mike Cammalleri scored 26 in 63 games and Bob Leiter did it in a 78-game season.
| Player | Season | Games Played | Goals |
| Blake Coleman* | 25/26 | 81* | 23* |
| Mike Cammalleri | 13/14 | 63 | 26 |
| Bob Leiter | 72/73 | 78 | 26 |
What does this mean for Blake Coleman?
A few things need to be emphasized before trying to understand what this stat means for Calgary. This is absolutely by no means a shot at Blake Coleman. He is currently having a terrific year: 23 goals would be the second-highest goal total of his career so far. Unfortunately, the lack of help around him has left him in an unfortunate position. He is not an elite goal scorer, and the expectation shouldn’t be that he needs to be one. He is a very complete player and has been one of Calgary’s best penalty killers this season; he contributes in many ways that go beyond just scoring goals. Unfortunately for him, his success is currently going to lead to him getting an unfortunate record attached to his name.
So who’s to blame?
Management is the obvious answer here. The team hasn’t had an elite goal scorer on the roster since the departure of Johnny Gaudreau and Matthew Tkachuk in the summer of 2022, and they’ve done very little to try to remedy that since that same offseason. Calgary’s highest goal scorer since then has been Nazem Kadri, who put up a 35-goal season last year, but that has been the only year in his time in Calgary so far that has seen him eclipse 30 goals. The Flames also haven’t made the playoffs since 2021–22, and an argument could absolutely be made that the lack of elite scoring talent is the top reason behind that.
The Calgary Flames have been host to many legendary goal scorers throughout their history. Jarome Iginla, Lanny McDonald, Theo Fleury, Joe Nieuwendyk, Gary Roberts and Johnny Gaudreau, just to name a few. In recent years, the team has been unable to find anyone capable of moving the needle in the same ways, and it has been a major reason why they haven’t found any recent success in the playoffs. Change won’t be born from mediocrity; you very rarely find top-level scorers in the middle of the first round. If you ever needed evidence that Calgary is desperately in need of a top-three pick, this is probably the best you are going to find.
