Five burning issues ahead of season
Some last-minute roster tweaking will set table for season, Kristen Anderson writes.
Time is ticking down to the end of the Calgary Flames training camp, but the storylines are just heating up.
Dillon Dube is still around. David Rittich and Jon Gillies are competing for the back-up goaltender position. Oliver Kylington was dispatched to the Stockton Heat. The top line is still trying to mesh; heck, all four lines are largely undecided.
With two remaining preseason clashes on the docket — Thursday at San Jose and Saturday at Edmonton — there is much to ponder before the 2018-19 National Hockey League campaign kicks off next week.
1.
ROSTER TRIMMING
The Flames had an unexpected day off on Wednesday after originally scheduling a practice before flying to San Jose. But first, they made 17 cuts, whittling their roster down to 33 players including injured defenceman Marcus Hogstrom (three goalies, 10 defencemen, and 16 forwards). They made another four, releasing defencemen Justin Falk, Phillip Samuelsson, Duncan Siemens and right-handed centre/winger Logan Shaw from their professional tryout offers and inviting them to Stockton’s training camp. That’s 29 players left. The math is easy for them to get down to the 23-man roster they’ll have when they clash with the Vancouver Canucks next Wednesday at Rogers Arena to start the season. Heading to Stockton immediately were right-wingers Spencer Foo and Matthew Phillips, left-wingers Brett Pollock and Ryan Lomberg and defencemen Oliver Kylington and Adam Ollas-Mattsson. Netminder Tyler Parsons was also dispatched to the Heat, who’ll open their season this weekend with a pair of pre-season games against the Bakersfield Condors. They placed centres Morgan Klimchuk and Alan Quine on waivers for the purpose of being assigned to Stockton along with right winger Buddy Robinson and left winger Kerby Rychel. They also released PTO players Gilbert Brule, Ryan Sproul, Viktor Svedberg and Jeff Glass. Bill Peters said earlier this week that he’d like to see a lineup on Saturday that closely resembles their NHL team. If that’s the case, there could be six cuts — technically five factoring in the injured Hogstrom — en route Friday, following Thursday’s friendly against the San Jose Sharks. The math suggests that one goalie, two defencemen and three forwards will pack up their things and head for Stockton.
2.
NO EARTH SHATTERING SURPRISES
The moves that garnered the most interest involved Parsons (who arguably outplayed both Rittich and Gillies), Foo (who many thought played well enough to stay a little longer), and Kylington (who was among the blue-liners pushing for fulltime work at the NHL level). Flames general manager Brad Treliving reflected on all three:
Parsons — Too many bodies, not enough jobs to go around … and, likely, not quite ready for full-time back-up duty at the NHL level: “We look at long-term and short-term (goals for him) … With Tyler, just managing the numbers here, they’re going to be playing some games in Stockton this weekend. Tyler’s had an excellent camp. But we’re trying to manage four goalies with one net and two games left.”
Foo — Much improved from a year ago, but still needs to work on his play on the other end of the ice. “He went down to the American League at the beginning of the year and struggled. I thought he had an impact (this fall). There are some areas he needs to clean up. He’s a real hungry player around the net. But it’s managing the puck in the defensive zone. It’s making sure you’re winning pucks along the boards, getting pucks out and advancing pucks and being strong on the puck in all three zones … But we think we’ve got a player there.”
Kylington — A work in progress. “Look at his game. (Against the Sharks on Tuesday), there’s lots of stuff to clean up … he’s taken huge steps. But the big area (to work on), and it comes from a good place because he’s always trying to do more, but sometimes as a young guy you have to learn that sometimes less is more. That big ‘Wow’ moment, and not for positive reasons, there’s less and less of that. When you’re trying to do too much, it ends up going the other way. There’s still just the details defensively, but he’s pushing.”
3.
DARK HORSE DUBE
Dillon Dube has turned heads, he’s impressed with his offensive ability and, through five pre-season contests, he’s scored four goals and two assists with 12 shots on net. The impressive 20-year-old centre from Cochrane has done everything he possibly can to earn a spot on the Flames’ roster. While Treliving wasn’t giving away secrets a few days early, he admitted the scouting report is glowing. “What I’ve liked about him is, No. 1, his approach. He hasn’t gotten ahead of himself. He’s had some success. His focus is here, now and in the present. He has a good day, he parks it, and gets ready for the next day. Then there’s the physical attributes — the speed, the energy, and the ability to execute … it’s one thing to be fast. But you have to have skill and a brain to go along with it or else you just end up in the wrong spot quicker than anybody else. He doesn’t.” Dube is in the mix along with Andrew Mangiapane, Garnet Hathaway, Curtis Lazar, Anthony Peluso for the 12th, 13th and 14th forward positions (assuming the Flames keep seven defencemen). But expectations should be tempered. This is Dube’s first crack at the pro game on a full-time basis after graduating from the Kelowna Rockets in the springtime. Pre-season is one thing, but a full 82-game slate plus travel, community appearances, media obligations, general wear and tear on the body, and playing against the best players in the world … That’s a completely different story. While Matthew Tkachuk forced the Flames’ hand when he broke on scene in 2016, Mark Jankowski had a solid pre-season and was one of the last cuts, only to be recalled a few weeks later. Every story is different. “We’ll take it slow,” Treliving said. “But that’s what you want — you want people pushing for jobs. We’re at September 26. It’s a little different in November and December. I always want to take the pressure off these young guys. We’ve seen it before, you have a young guy that comes down the pipe and has a good two weeks and everyone gets all crazed about it … but when you have more people pushing for jobs, it means you’re deeper.”
4.
TOP LINE TALK
While Johnny Gaudreau looked like his normal, playmaking, dazzling self on Tuesday against the San Jose Sharks (Barracuda?), Sean Monahan is still trying to regain his prowess in the faceoff circle. In his postgame press conference, Peters pointed out that the duo needs to have the puck more often which comes from winning more faceoffs. That, he said, could open up room for Elias Lindholm to step in and act as a secondary centreman, taking draws on the right-hand side. Although chemistry is apparent between James Neal and the dynamic duo, it’s about maximizing assets — which the Flames, suddenly, have a lot of. “They didn’t have the puck a whole bunch (in their first game together) and it started with faceoffs, Monny struggled a little bit,” Peters said. “They have to have the puck and have to be dangerous offensively … that line is a little bit different. That line is going to be a little more dangerous than every other line off the rush because of their skill set and mindset. You can’t have all four lines relying on just rush-offence. When all the dust settles, I think it’ll be three lines deep that can score wherever you are. Our topnine will be very deep.”
5.
BATTLE OF THE BACKUPS Tuesday’s 7-5 pre-season win over the San Jose Sharks was hardly a goaltending showcase. Peters joked and said it was a “throwback to the ’80s” and was not going to lose sleep of the performance of his goaltenders. Good thing. Rittich and Gillies, who are both auditioning for the Flames’ backup job, split the net on Tuesday and didn’t exude a lot of confidence. A tough sample size, however, with a young blue line iced by the Flames which made many, many defensive blunders. Still, their job description is to stop pucks and battle. They’ll need to fill in confidently for Mike Smith, whose time in the crease will hopefully be monitored by the Flames this coming season. The No. 1 likes to play, and likes to play a lot, but the plan should be for the backup to see a little more time in the net this season compared to 2017-18. Peters wants Smith to play one full final tune-up this pre-season, which likely means it’ll be the 36-year-old in net against the Edmonton Oilers on Saturday. So, with only three goaltenders remaining at camp, that leaves Rittich and Gillies to duel on Thursday against the Sharks in San Jose.