Calgary Flames Search For A Right Winger Continues

Several short-term issues plague the Calgary Flames, from bad special teams to bad face-off totals, they can improve a lot in their day-to-day play. But the most troubling thing to me is the lack of right-wingers in the organization.

When your top right shot forward is David Jones, you know you have a problem.

Sure, forwards like Frolik and Ferland who play on the right side of the ice despite being natural left-wingers are great for the Calgary Flames, but in this league you need more parity amongst your forwards to succeed.

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Think back to the good old days where the Calgary Flames employed a boring and unsuccessful ‘dump and chase’ model. There weren’t many bright spots back then, really only two in Jarome Igninla and Miikka Kipprusoff.

It’s in the former captain that I focus on; remember how many goals he one-timed from the left face-off dot on the power-play, or how many goals he scored off the rush on the right side?

The Calgary Flames currently don’t employ anybody with anything close to that skill set on the right-side. In fact the only two right-handed shots are Jones and Jooris on the team.

As mentioned earlier this really hurts the team on the power-play, where you see so many goals scored from the left face-off dot from snipers like Alexander Ovechkin and Steven Stamkos, both right shots.

Adding a right-shot would really help diversify the Calgary Flames power play and offense, making it more difficult to defend against for opposing teams.

Perhaps where it hurts the team the most is on the Calgary Flames top-line, where Bob Hartley has tried virtually every player on the right-side, including Jiri Hudler, Micheal Ferland, Josh Jooris, David Jones, Joe Colborne, Michael Frolik, Sam Bennett and Mason Raymond. If this game of musical chairs continues to go on, than expect to see Brandon Bollig at some point on the first-line.

Quick side-note; I would actually kind of enjoy seeing a Johnny Gaudreau, Bollig tandem on the top-line. Two complete opposites playing together, would it be horrible, would Bollig somehow turn into a second-coming of Mario Lemieux playing with Johnny?

In all seriousness however the Calgary Flames single biggest organizational need is on the right-side, and don’t expect to see it filled by any prospects in the pipeline.

The Calgary Flames top right-wing prospect, Emile Poirier, is left-handed. Behind him are Hunter Smith, Austin Carroll, Garnet Hathaway, and Tim Harrison, not exactly superstars. Poirier has had an off year with just 18 points in 33 AHL games after an excellent rookie season in which he scored 50 points in 55 games in the AHL.

The rest are all bottom-six players who don’t have enough skill-set to make a sizeable impact on the Calgary Flames roster, with Hathway likely the only player with a good chance to suit up for the Flames in a Lance Bouma-type role.

Arguably an even bigger issue with the Calgary Flames roster is their size, ranking 23rd in the NHL in average size and weight. Although how much of an outlier is Johnny Hockey in that statistic?

The Calgary Flames single biggest organizational need is on the right-side, and don’t expect to see it filled by any prospects in the pipeline.

The Calgary Flames would absolutely love to check both of the size and right-shot boxes with one player, but the problem is that they don’t grow on trees. The cost to acquire one would be too high unless you acquire an older player, which doesn’t fit in the Calgary Flame long-term plans.

Free agency is however a good one for buyers with players like Backes, Okposo, and Perron available. Backes likely is too old an expensive to fit in the Flames plans, while the latter two are probably going to be too old by the time the Calgary Flames are actually Stanley Cup contenders.

This leaves only one option, the draft. This year’s Calgary Flames are almost all but assured not to make the play-offs and now is the time to start jettisoning the veterans on trade deadline day to help ensure a good spot in the draft.

With big and talented Finns Laine and Puljujarvi available, not to mention Nylander, Gauthier, and McLeod; the draft features lots of talented right-shots, most of whom have an enviable amount of size.

Here’s hoping the Calgary Flames fill their two biggest organizational needs with one pick in June.

Next: Calgary Flames Actively Shopping Jiri Hudler?

What do you think the Calgary Flames biggest organizational need is? How do they fill it? Sound off in the comment section below.

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