It’s no secret that the Flames were let down by much of their depth last year, particularly up front. Though Matt Stajan put up a surprisingly good season from a defensive standpoint, the truth is almost no one in the bottom six could reliably score enough to take the pressure off Calgary’s over-burdened top six.
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Throw in the Backlund line’s awful on-ice shooting percentage (despite great scoring chance ratios), and you have a top-heavy, one-line team on many nights. As a result, the club’s fate was sealed when Sean Monahan’s injury effectively put an end to that one line three-quarters of the way through the season.
Brad Treliving was determined for that fate not to befall the team again this year, thus the commitment to adding offensive depth at all levels of the forward rotation. The increased competition will mean many of the regulars whom we saw on the fourth line last season won’t be back in 2018-19 — either because they have moved on or because they will be forced out of the lineup by other, better players.
Arguably one of the better bottom-six players last season, Jankowski should have made the team out of camp but was shuttled to the AHL so the organization could conduct its annual “bad veteran player on a PTO makes the team for some reason” experiment, this time with Tanner Glass.
When Jankowski was eventually recalled, he combined with Sam Bennett and Jaromir Jagr (and then Garnet Hathaway) to form an apparently effective third line. In fact, in December, the Janko-Bennett-Hathaway trio was one of Calgary’s most dangerous units for a spell.
Unfortunately, the magic didn’t last, and the kid line’s scoring dropped away for long periods. That was a problem because Jankowski and company were a chaos unit — anarchy at both ends of the ice. When they weren’t scoring, they were a burden defensively, with Jankowski in particular clearly not quite ready for a pivot’s defensive duties at the NHL level.
Nevertheless, Janko did manage to notch 17 goals, tied for fifth most on the team with Dougie Hamilton. He flashed above-average hands and sniping abilities that suggest top-six-type upside if he can figure out the rest of the game.
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This season, Jankowski might be relegated to fourth-line duty to start out, but it’s a role in which he should be able to safely refine his two-way game. In addition, there’s a chance he’ll be playing with more skilled linemates than the typical fourth line, which means his offensive opportunities shouldn’t be completely undermined by his role.
Garnet Hathaway
In 2016-17, Hathaway looked for all the world like little more than an eight minute-per night crash-and-bang winger. He was popular and memorable during his cup of coffee in the show due to his propensity to mix it up and anger the opposition. But in truth, the team’s underlying numbers all plunged precipitously whenever he was on the ice. I figured we wouldn’t see much more of him moving forward.
Instead of fading into obscurity, Hathaway took a big step forward in 2017-18. He forced his way onto the top line in the AHL with Jankowski and Andrew Mangiapane and scored at a better than point-per-game pace (11 goals, 19 points in 18 games) before being recalled. When he arrived in Calgary, he helped push the Janko-Bennett duo over the edge for a brief period.
While Hathaway will always be considered an “energy” player, his game this time around wasn’t merely about hitting everything that moved. There was added nuance and maturity to his performances during his second appearance, with the player clearly trying to contribute in ways other than getting under the other team’s skin.
Although his scoring didn’t really translate at the NHL level, Hathaway put up above-average possession and expected goal numbers in a supporting role. If the puck could go in for him a bit more frequently, his results suggest he could comfortably contribute as an NHL regular. He might be forced out of the regular lineup by the addition of Austin Czarnik, but Hathaway might be ideal in the 13th forward role.
Matt Stajan
In Stajan’s last season as a Flame, he faced a pretty thankless task. Glen Gulutzan buried Stajan with defensive zone starts, and his most frequent linemates were Curtis Lazar and Troy Brouwer. Like everyone who played on the fourth line, Stajan didn’t score much, but he did put up some of the best defensive underlying numbers on the team, which is kind of amazing in and of itself.
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Of course, some of that is likely circumstantial — with the Flames’ top-two lines playing against the stars, Stajan’s line was mostly on clean-up duty against other third and fourth lines. Even then, Stajan helped drive play and reduce shots and chances against to a decent degree. Although he wasn’t able to land another NHL contract this season, it shows he probably has some quality hockey left in him.
Troy Brouwer
The irony of Brouwer’s recent buyout is that he had a slightly better season this year than he did last year. He improved from “dear god, no” to “passable fourth liner,” but one would have expected things to move in the opposite direction given his age (32).
Of course, the improvement wasn’t enough to justify the player’s $4.5M cap hit, so Treliving reasonably decided to move on. With Brouwer’s ouster, the team opens up a roster spot for promising youngsters like Czarnik or Spencer Foo, who can likely do as well (or better) for one-quarter of the cost.
Curtis Lazar
I’m not sure we can say the Lazar experiment is over yet, but we’re pretty close to embracing the null hypothesis. Although he seemed to get more comfortable as the season went on, Lazar’s near complete lack of offense at the NHL level automatically consigns him to the “replacement level” player bin. Although the coaching staff gamely tried to insert Lazar higher in the lineup on occasion, he always ends up plying his trade on the fourth line.
A blazing fast skater with a great work ethic and attitude, it’s easy to see why NHL decision makers keep taking a chance on the 23-year-old, hoping he can become something more. Unfortunately for Lazar, he is facing some stiff competition from other young players at the bottom of the roster this year. If he can’t take a firm step forward, he might find himself in the AHL.
What can be said about Kulak is that he was an NHL defenceman last year.
The team’s designated “sixth defender,” Kulak put up slightly better underlying numbers than his frequent partner, Michael Stone, but was also the most sheltered blueliner on the team. Gulutzan and crew made sure to limit his minutes most nights and keep him off the ice when the other team was skating its stars.
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Kulak is in trouble in his own end against quality players, and he’s still pretty hesitant in the offensive zone, but he did display a penchant for a quality first pass and transitioning out of the defensive end due to his above-average skating.
Nevertheless, like Lazar, Kulak will have to outplay some usurpers to his position this year if he wants to stay in the NHL. Rasmus Andersson, Juuso Valimaki, and Oliver Kylington all figure to be in the mix to make the jump. If Kulak is once again unremarkable, his $900,000 one-year deal makes him easy to demote.
(Top photo of Jankowski: Gerry Thomas / NHLI via Getty Images)