Calgary Flames where are they now: #79 Micheal Ferland

There are only 79 days until the season starts! Let’s play another edition of “Where are they now?” with a player who only most recently left the Calgary Flames.

The wound is still fresh for this one, but Micheal Ferland is the only player in Calgary Flames history to wear No. 79. It’s quite crazy that there are only about two and a half months until the season starts. It seems like just yesterday the Flames were making me cry when they traded away Ferland. Having just 79 days left really hits you in the honey nut feelios.

Since it’s a little hard to play “where are they now” with Ferland since he just left, let’s look at how he got to this point in his career.

The Calgary Flames drafted Micheal Ferland in the fifth round of the 2010 draft. He stayed with the Brandon Wheat Kings until he went pro in the 2012-13 season. He started the season off with the Abbotsford Heat, the Flames AHL affiliate at the time, but was sent down to the ECHL because he was somewhat out of shape. The same story goes in the ECHL and he was eventually sent back down to the WHL. Ferland admitted that he almost quit hockey after all that.

Via Calgary Herald:

"“You know, I’m actually kind of happy it went that way,” Ferland says brightly. “Where I am today, I don’t know if I’d be as committed to wanting to play as badly as I do right now. I wasn’t really sure what I wanted to do with hockey — if I wanted to keep going or what — because I wasn’t playing, I was out of shape.”“I really had to figure it out,” says Ferland, a fifth-round pick in 2010. “I’m happy I’ve stuck with it. I loved the game since I was a young kid. It’s all going good for me right now. Obviously the Calgary brass believes in me. I talk with them all the time and they tell me what kind of player I can be, what kind of player the Flames need.“I’ve just got to keep working and hopefully things will work out.”"

Being sent back down to the WHL, he was traded from the Brandon Wheat Kings to the Saskatoon Blades, where he was a big factor in their success that led them to the Memorial Cup.

For the 2013-14 season, Ferland could have played a full season with the Heat, but he suffered a knee injury. In his first full (ish) season in the AHL, he put up six goals and 18 points in 25 games.

In 2014-15, he started the season off with the Heat before being recalled by the Calgary Flames. During the regular season, he put up two goals and five points in 25 games, but was pivotal in their playoff series against the Vancouver Canucks. The first time the Flames made the playoffs in six years. In nine playoff games that year, he had three goals and five points and was named the Flames MVP during their series against the Canucks.

Ferland found himself with a full-time job with the Flames since then. During the 2016-17 season, in late February, he was put on a line with Johnny Gaudreau and Sean Monahan and that line tore up the next few months. He was commended by his teammates, saying that he’s quite underrated and has a good shot.

This past season was his best season yet. He reached the 20-goal mark for the first time and put up 21 goals and 41 points in 77 games.

A couple weeks ago, as we know, he was traded to the Carolina Hurricanes. While Ferland had some tendencies to be inconsistent, his character was loved by everyone.

Next: Flames sign Elias Lindholm to six-year contract

All the best to him in Carolina.

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