Despite a recent hot streak, the Calgary Flames have a glaring hole in their lineup. It’s been that way for a long time.
The Flames’ biggest need has been a number-one centre since Gaudreau and Tkachuk’s time.
Sean Monahan was supposed to be the next franchise centre for the Flames. But recurring injuries and a plethora of surgeries, which ultimately ended his tenure in Calgary, stopped that from happening.
Elias Lindholm filled the gap and had a couple of really strong seasons. But he was never the superstar centre the Flames were hoping he would become.
The Flames’ current roster sees Morgan Frost take the role of top-line centre, boasting a lukewarm 50.7% career faceoff percentage.
Over the Flames’ incredibly rough start to this season, the team has been throwing a lot of things at the wall to see if they stick. One of their better ideas has been playing Matt Coronato at centre.
Is Coronato an NHL-calibre centre?
Matt Coronato is not going to be the Flames franchise centre who the team builds on for the next decade, and that’s okay.
But if Coronato can keep winning draws, having the 23-year-old sniper occasionally occupy the faceoff dot is an idea worth trying.
Coronato is naturally a right-winger and has played on the right side for most of his professional career. He’s had a few stints playing the left side as well. But the right side is where Coronato feels at home.
What made this idea feasible dates back to Coronato’s time with Harvard University during the 2022–23 NCAA season. Coronato was briefly the Harvard Crimson’s top-line centre.
Coronato’s faceoff win rate was 56.6%, impressive numbers for a player who doesn’t play centre.
The Flames don’t need Coronato to be the next franchise centre-man. Yet, if he can be a serviceable and reliable option in the faceoff dot, that could pose a lot of positive possibilities for the remainder of the 2026–27 season.
Morgan Frost was asked about Coronato’s work in the faceoff circle, with Frost saying;
“It’s huge. You see other teams that do it, and I know as a centre when I would go take draws against, say we’re matched up with a line, and they have guys that are only take them on their strong sides,”
“It’s such an advantage, and I saw it firsthand when I first played in the league with Claude Giroux and Sean Couturier, they were both like 63%.”
Coronato currently sits in second place for points on the Calgary Flames roster, one point behind Joel Farabee. We’ll have to wait and see if the Flames’ young sniper has anything else up his sleeve when it comes to taking draws.
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