A Quick Look South on the QE2

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The Calgary Flames have had a quiet offseason, with one big splash and one big problem. The splash was the Lucic-Neal trade with the Edmonton Oilers. It's pretty rare to see the two clubs make a deal and this one was extra strange with both clubs bailing out on expensive free agents that turned into disasters. The big problem is Matthew Tkachuk and the salary cap. I pegged Tkachuk ready for a $8M AAV contract this Summer and the Flames have less than $5M in cap space and not a lot of wiggle room.

Not much was expected from the Flames this offseason and most expected them to enter into the 2019-20 season with a virtually identical roster as the previous season. There was a list of RFA's to sign but outside of that they only really needed a backup goalie. The Flames got that goalie by signing former Oiler Cam Talbot to a 1 year deal, since then we have seen Calgary primarily focus on signing its list of RFA's. Two of the big ones were signed this week, Sam Bennett and David Rittich, all that's left are two remaining RFA's, Andrew Mangiapane and Matthew Tkachuk. We should see Mangiapane sign for under $1M on likely a one year deal. We might have to wait a while to see a Tkachuk deal though. As previously mentioned, the Flames now have some serious cap issues and are likely heavily shopping a player like Michael Stone to try and get everything under control. I don't see any reason why Matthew Tkachuk would sign for under $5M, so they wait for his contract to get finalized could be a long one. It is likely both sides have a good idea where the contract is going to land at this point but it won't be signed until the Flames have made another cap space move.

The Flames roster looks very good for the coming season. They moved on from UFA bust James Neal and newly acquired Milan Lucic should be a permanent fixture on their fourth line this coming season. The forward core is very young, talented and potentially still getting better. With Mark Jankowski and Sam Bennett really coming into their own at the end of last season, Calgary will have one of the best top 9 forward groups in the league.

On the back end the Flames will have an identical top 4 to last season. Mark Giordano just won the Norris Trophy so it's hard to say his game is declining despite his age. Noah Hanafin is still young and should continue to grow into a top pairing player. TJ Brodie and Travis Hamonic round out the top 4. We should see some younger players having a more prominent role on the third pair, most likely Juuso Valimaki and Rasmus Andersson. This will be a very good defensive group.

Still a few question marks in goal for the Flames. Rittich was good last year but not good enough to ease all the teams concerns at the position. Rittich should be given the reigns as the starter for the season but Cam Talbot will be on a mission to prove himself after getting bounced around the league last year. If Talbot can return to form, we could see a very potent goaltending duo in Calgary. We could also see goaltending be Calgary's eventual downfall next season.

This roster is significantly better than my beloved Oilers. I would kill to have their depth on any area of the roster. If the Flames show any improvement over last season, I think they will be Canada's best chance at winning the Stanley Cup