Calgary Flames: New fan? We’ve got you covered!

The Basics

What every new Calgary Flames fan needs to know are the basics. If you’re already a hockey fan, then you may already know some of these. If that’s the case, feel free to skip ahead. But let’s get on with the basics.

First, we have the captain of the team who is Mark Giordano (wears #5), a defenceman. He became the captain before the start of the 2013-14 season. There are also three alternate captains. Those include Sean Monahan (wears #23), Matt Stajan (#18), and Troy Brouwer (#36).

Let’s get on to some fan-favourites.

Current Favourites

One main fan-favourite is Johnny Gaudreau. He wasn’t taken until the fourth round of the 2011 NHL Draft, and now he’s one of the better players in the NHL. NHL.com did a re-draft of the 2011 draft last summer and put Gaudreau at first overall. He’s also a very small guy. His profile says he’s 5’9″, but he definitely looks more around 5’7″. He’s also only 160 pounds. So you don’t see this guy hit a whole lot. So much so that he won the Lady Byng Trophy this year as the most gentlemanly player in the NHL. He had just four penalty minutes the whole season.

Related Story: Johnny Gaudreau's Case for the Non-Olympics

Speaking of him being only 160 pounds, this happened in his rookie year in 2015 and it was hilarious:

This summer, he was also ranked as the 10th best winger in the NHL. And he’s always a fun player to watch, so definitely be on the lookout for #13.

Johnny is definitely the main fan-favourite, but recently, it seems like Dougie Hamilton (#27) has been becoming somewhat of a favourite by his funny character. The Flames traded for Dougie Hamilton in a draft-day trade in 2015. His year in 2015-16 wasn’t the best, and some people were thinking that he may be a bust. Not a lot of people thought this, but there were some.

But last season was a big improvement. He had 50 points in 81 games, a career-high, and was tenth among all defencemen in points. This summer, he was ranked as the 16th best defenceman in the NHL. But this isn’t the reason he’s become a bit of fan-favourite.

#DougieBomb

Lately, he’s been known for his Dougie Bombs. Basically, as a player is doing some sort of interview during intermission or after the game, he’ll go and photo/video bomb. And he’ll always do something funny. So much so that everyone was always waiting for him to show up during intermission or after games.

All the M’s

Something you need to know about the Flames is ALL OF THEIR M’S. They have what has been dubbed as the 3M line consisting of Mikael Backlund, Michael Frolik, and Matthew Tkachuk. The Flames have not only a lot of M’s, but a lot of Michkaeals. Yes, I have to spell it like that because they’re spelled differently. They have Backlund and Frolik like I mentioned, they also have Micheal Ferland, Michael Stone, and now Mike Smith. The Flames have a Mike on every line.

They also have more M’s, like Mark Giordano, Matt Stajan, and Tkachuk like I mentioned. Oh, and Johnny Gaudreau’s middle name is Michael. It’s like this whole team was meant to be.

New Faces

Now let’s look at some new faces in the lineup. We have the player who’s the reason that a lot of people may be hopping on the Calgary Flames bandwagon this year. And that is the 45-year-old legend, Jaromir Jagr. Calgary will be Jagr’s ninth NHL team he’s played for, his first Canadian team, and he has a long list of accomplishments to add to his resume.

"Originally drafted at fifth overall by the Pittsburgh Penguins in 1990, he’s played for eight different NHL teams, is a two-time Stanley Cup winner (both with the Penguins in 1990-91 and 91-92), is a five-time Art Ross Trophy winner, a three-time Ted Lindsay Award winner, a Masterton Trophy winner, a Hart Trophy winner, and has made the All-Star team eight times. From Czech, he has one Olympic gold medal, two gold World Championships, one gold European Champions Cup, two World Championship bronze, one Olympic bronze, one World Juniors bronze, and one bronze World Cup."

After months of rumours that he may be playing in Calgary, he was finally signed yesterday. And Flames fans are ecstatic to have a legend play on their team. He’s also hinted at this potentially being his last season, so he’ll be a player everyone’s going to have their eyes on. He may also break the record this season for most games played ever. That’ll also be fun to see.

Another new face is Travis Hamonic (#24). The Flames also traded for him on a draft-day trade (in the second round, though) this year.

Related Story: Travis Hamonic - Off-ice Hero

The crease will also have completely fresh new faces. The Flames traded for Mike Smith (#41) and Eddie Lack (#31) this off-season. Mike Smith is also a bit of an oldie, being 35 years old and starting to get to near the end of his career. But 35 years seems nothing now to Jagr now.

Red Mile

In Calgary, the city has 17th avenue, also called the Red Mile during hockey season. It was first somewhat established in 2004 when the Flames made it all the way to the Stanley Cup Finals (we’ll get to that later). During games, the bars on this avenue are completely filled during playoffs. And after games, it’s basically mayhem. The roads are all blocked because it’s just hockey fans covering the streets all along this avenue. It’s actually quite special to see, the city has a lot of pride in their hockey team.