Coming off a season where the Calgary Flames barely missed the Stanley Cup Playoffs, losing a tiebreaker to the St. Louis Blues, many expected some progression from this team again this season after seeing Matthew Coronato and Dustin Wolf break out a season ago.
However, the Flames’ management did very little in the offseason to improve their roster that nearly made the playoffs despite some glaring issues. They instead elected to be patient and run it back, allowing for some of their talented offensive prospects to develop.
Related: Calgary Flames Fans Need to Be Patient With the 2025-26 Roster
The Flames sitting on their hands’ offseason is probably going to be looked back on as the correct decision. But, that does not mean it will not hurt the team’s performance in the short-term.
Last season, even while overperforming, this was a team starved for offence, and now after the offseason with no significant additions, the problem is still there. It is actually getting worse with the Flames losing six straight games while scoring two goals or fewer.
Flames’ 2024-25 Offensive Struggles
The Flames did a lot of good things offensively last season. They finished the season averaging the fourth-most shot attempts, the seventh-most unblocked shot attempts and the fifth-most shots per game. Despite the excellent puck possession metrics, the Flames finished with the second-worst shooting percentage in the NHL.
They may have been getting a ton of attempts at the net last season, but the quality of those chances were often way too low. Even with the high shot attempt metrics, the Flames finished the season ranking 21st in high-danger chances and expected goals per game.
This, along with the Flames only having three players crack the 20-goal mark, led to the Flames finishing the season with the fourth-fewest goals scored.
The Offensive Issues Have Got Worse for the Flames
Without many offseason changes, it should not be shocking to see these trends continuing into the new season.
Through the Flames’ first seven games, they rank 25th in high-danger chances, 28th in high-danger shots and 29th in expected goals per game. This inability to create quality chances is plaguing the Flames in the goal scoring department again as they are scoring the fewest goals of any team this season, averaging 1.55 per game.
While the Flames struggling to produce quality chances is nothing new, the more concerning part is the drop in shot attempts.
After being one of the best teams in this department last season, the Flames rank 13th in shot attempts, 16th in unblocked shot attempts and 26th in shots per game in the NHL through their first seven games.
Flames Adding Defensive Struggles to List of Problems
On top of the Flames’ continued offensive struggles. They have started the season as one of the worst defensive teams in hockey.
They are currently allowing the seventh-most high-danger chances, the ninth-most expected goals and most goals per game in the NHL. Combined with their offensive struggles, it explains the Flames’ league-worst five-on-five goal share and them having the second-worst average goal differential in the NHL.
How the Flames Can Improve in the Short Term
Flames’ management made it clear this offseason that they will not be rushing this team into a contention window by making moves to improve the team in the short-term, despite being one point away from a Stanley Cup Playoff berth last season.
The main issue this team if facing is a lack of talented offensive players who can dominate with the puck. After Jonathan Huberdeau, Nazem Kadri and Coronato, the Flames’ only 20-goal scorers last season, there are few players on this team who will consistently make a play that leads to a goal being scored.
Surely, over the next few seasons, the Flames will look to infuse young talented offensive prospects like Matvei Gridin, Andrew Basha, Jacob Battaglia, Cole Reschny and Cullen Potter into the lineup, which will help offensively.
However, in the meantime, if the Flames want to compete in more games, they must do a better job of getting pucks and players into high-danger areas of the ice.
If you look at the top five scoring teams in this young NHL season, you’ll see that four of the top five also rank in the top five of high-danger goals scored per game. If you go back to last season and look at these numbers, you’ll find that seven of the top 10 offences in terms of goals scored also ranked in the top 10 of high-danger goals scored.
It is not always the amount of chances you get, but more so the quality of the scoring chances that wins hockey games. The Flames have been trying to create offence around the perimeter for far too long, if they want any consistency offensively, they need to get more chances in tight around the goalie.
