Pool Outlook for Calgary

The 2011 season was not a great year for the Calgary Flames, but they have been forced to acknowledge the last few years of poor performances and finally make some changes, but that won't save the team from any post-season reflection, which doesn't look good for them from any angle.  An abysmal start, the second-half resurgence that turned into an overly-optimistic run for a playoff spot and in doing so, standing pat at the trade deadline.  Thankfully for the Flames, there have been some management changes, but it will still be a Houdini act to get out of their own handcuffs this Summer.

The Flames seem to go as far as Miikka Kiprusoff can take them and if it wasn't for such a frustrating first half of the season, Kiprusoff's amazing second half would have been even more meaningful.  Kiprusoff finished the year with 37 wins, 6 shutouts and 1 assist for 87 points in the pools, 5th among goalies, but the Flames never held their own destiny in their hands by the time the playoff picture was shaping up.  Nevertheless, Kiprusoff was still an amazing pick for any poolie in the 2011 season.

Another slow start to the year for Jarome Iginla didn't seem to slow him down overall in the 2011 season, finishing with 86 points in all 82 games, ranking him 11th in pool scoring, 6th among all forwards.  A strong finish to the year carried the power forward to another 40+ goal season, keeping him among the elite in fantasy value.  Alex Tanguay (69 points in 79 games), Olli Jokinen (54 points in 79 games), Rene Bourque (50 points in 80 games) and Curtis Glencross (43 points in 79 games) provided ample, yet somewhat inconsistent help throughout the season, but all should be considered decent fantasy picks going into the 2012 year.

The blueline had three everyday players that played all 82 games for Calgary, Marc Giordano (43 points), Anton Babchuk (35 points) and Jay Bouwmeester (24 points), leading the team in defensemen scoring as well.  For the most part, the Flames blueline was fairly healthy, five defensemen playing 76 or more games, but even their great attendance wasn't quite enough to help the team find wins early on in the year.

The Flames were another team that didn't go to their back-up very often, so Henrik Karlsson really didn't get much time to work with the team and build a rapport with them.  Karlsson was on the ice for only 837 minutes, winning 4 games for 8 points, falling out of the top 60 in goaltending in that regard.  It's very hard to measure the back-up's season, when he spends most of it on the bench.

2012 Pool Outlook
If anything, the outlook for the 2012 season is a little bit rosier than what it was back in 2011, although, not many of the players really changed over in the year.  There are a lot of familiar faces from the list last year at about this time, but if the overall atmosphere of the room changed as dramatically as it did when management changed, that immediately should apply to the team below, according to how good their second half was.

Forwards	Defense	Goalies
Jarome Iginla	Marc Giordano	Miikka Kiprusoff
Olli Jokinen	Jay Bouwmeester
Rene Bourque	Cory Sarich
Curtis Glencross	Robyn Regehr
Matt Stajan
David Moss
Niklas Hagman
Mikael Backlund
Tim Jackman
Tom Kostopoulos
Daymond Langkow

The team may have a rosy outlook, but the cap situation leaves a little bit to be desired.  Currently, the team above (11 forwards, four defense and one goalie) and one buyout still on the books comes in at a hefty $55.2 million, which may only leave around $7 million left on the table for five to seven players, if the cap goes up another five percent.  The team will look to address some top six players, but as of right now, they won't be able to afford any more, not without a change in the personnel.

One of the UFAs they are currently working on is forward Alex Tanguay, who leads the pack of Flames heading for the open market on July 1st.  Tanguay will likely be looking for a big raise this Summer, coming off a contract worth $1.7 million.  Brendan Morrison, Anton Babchuk, Fredrik Modin, Steve Staios, Henrik Karlsson, Adam Pardy and Brett Carson are also heading for the open market, which won't free up any more space to the number above, but most will likely walk due to the unsettling state of the team's budget.

The RFAs, as per usual, are not a big priority for the Flames and the group is awfully small this year, with only one player having played in the regular season in 2011.  Brendan Mikkelson saw 24 games this year and will likely get a smaller deal to stay on for another year or two.

After more than their fair share of horrible drafting years, the Flames have slowly started to turn the corner and then showcase some of their up-and-coming young talent.  I don't think there will be a big rush to get some of these players into the line-up, especially since there are not very many holes to fill in their current situation, but that isn't to say that the Flames won't try to give them looks.  T.J. Brodie Lance Bouma and Greg Nemisz got looks at different points in the season and likely will again, which should give them a leg up on their young competition in 2012.  I would imagine that Brodie is ready to make a real impact with the club next season.

If anything, Darryl Sutter did leave behind a decent idea of what to draft for the Flames, because a lot of the youth in the system has a certain similarity to each other, especially the ones on the cusp of making the roster.  This may be an advantage to Jay Feaster, who should just be looking to stock up the shelves with quality talent where he can.  In the 1st round, a forward with skill and some decent size would be my guess for a priority, but a defensive defenseman doesn't sound like a bad idea either.

What I said last year at this time... "For the 2011 season, things are not necessarily looking up. The team has some necessary holes to fill on this team, but they might not have the room to do it in efficiently or in a manner that band-aids some problems the team had at the end of the season. Darryl Sutter signed on a couple players already during the year, which immediately takes away from cap flexibility in the Summer and may have a lasting impact on how the team is built going forward. With the way that cap-onomics are playing out these days, Sutter may have a hard time dealing some of his current assets in order to be flexible for others. Take what you know to be good in your hockey pool next season, but don't count on miracles just yet."

Things did not look up for the Flames and the first half of the 2011 season reflected that for the most part.  Of course, that's when the upper-management finally pulled the trigger on letting Darryl go and all of a sudden there was a sigh of relief in the room and things went about at a very pleasant pace.  Unfortunately, the signings before the Summer did continue to hamper the team and when everything turned rosy, every piece was kept for the rest of the run and the Flames finished out of the playoffs yet again.

The upcoming 2012 season will be better for the Flames, but with teams around them also improving, teams in the playoffs not seeing much of a drop off for the next season, making the playoffs will again be a very tiring feat for this club.  Sorting out the salary cap issues for the 2012 season will be priority number one and if Tanguay does re-sign with the club, they have a good shot at making their offense work.  Kiprusoff and Iginla will be good fantasy players again, Backlund could emerge as a good scoring threat, which may also open up the lanes for more secondary scoring.  The Flames will likely have a longer lasting challenge for the playoffs, but if they get in, it may be by the skin of their teeth.