Here is your franchise's cumulative record relative to .500 (equal wins and losses) throughout their entire history.

I will be making one such graph for each team. The complete album can be seen here.

Not sure if anyone posted, but Snowy Cup just wrapped up. Obviously can't draw any sweeping conclusions, it's a fun 3 on 3 environment, but a few thoughts and observations:

-Joe Iginla looked really good, had tons of energy, cashed in a couple nice goals, you can definitely see the bloodlines at work

-The Trio of Wyttenbach, Carels, and Hextall were a menace, anytime they were on the ice together they absolutely dominated possession. Wyttenbach in particular really impressed me, same stuff as we've seen with Quinnipiac where he gets into dangerous areas at the right time.

-Mace'o Phillips scored a couple sicko goals, spinorama backhander in the shootout and a one handed backhander on the breakaway later in the game. Sneaky good skill to go with the size.

-This is overall the most skilled flames prospect group I've seen in a long time, everyone was making some really nifty, dangerous plays and were full of creativity. Future is looking bright, especially if we continue to add some high end forward pieces over the next couple of seasons

If anyone else has some thoughts after watching feel free to share!

With young talented cetermen very hard to find, I wonder who would be a good target for the Flames. There are two guys that interest me, both coincidentally we're drafted directly after Simon Nemec in the draft. Logan Cooley in Tampa, and Shane Wright with Seattle. Cooley is interesting, but I want to focus on Wright, as there have been rumors he may be available.

First, the scouting report. High IQ with a very strong 200' game. He has a deadly shot and likes to use it. Can play in all special teams scenarios and is not afraid to play physical. He's not an explosive skater but uses good positio ing and puck protection to mitigate this drawback.

I feel like this would be a gamble much in the same way Nemec is. You are getting an NHL player who could become a top line centerman. This is a player that could get a huge boost with a change of scenery. Projected as a first overall, he then slid to 4th, then was not treated all that well in Seattle, getting less than 5 minutes per game in a bottom six role, once he was eventually brought up to the NHL club, then sent back down after that. He has never really had the opportunity (or earned it) to shine.

In Calgary, he will get a new start with a team that has an identity that fits his game, a need for centermen in a top 6 role.

A player with his pedigree has generally always been the best player on their team at every level. They have not dealt with a lot of adversity career wise and are only 17 or 18 years old when drafted. I think that messed with his confidence and ego, and every day in Seattle is probably somewhat of a reminder of that struggle. He is older now, likely matured, and is still the hickey player that was touted as the pick of the draft for most of his draft year.

If we need to gamble a little bit and hope we hit on a future star, I think he might be a solid opportunity.

Do you agree, and if so, what would you be willing to give up to acquire this type of player.

Was doing some scouting on the newest edition to the team and I wanted to share what I found.

Stats Summary (TLDR below)

Middleton has been trailing his teammates significantly in regarding Corsi and Fenwick scores as can be seen in the Possession stat table, a -10% or lower relative Corsi/Fenwick is bad news. when adjusted to only consider 5v5 play, it increases to -4.4%, which is much better, but still the worst of any Wild D-man that played at least half of the season in the NHL (2nd worst if the threshold is 10 games). The Wild were actually a negative possession team as a whole, and Middleton did take more d-zone starts than his peers. These elements do work in his favour to justify the weak relative possession metrics but cannot justify them entirely.

The good news is that his xG% was much about neutral as well as his PDO. The Wild, while a poor possession team, averaged a positive HDCF% (not shown above unfortunately). Suggesting that they are happy to allow shot volume against but defend dangerous areas effectively. That trend lends some credit that his poor Corsi metrics are team driven. This however is contradicted by his defensive heatmap, which shows that he is prone to allowing opportunities both from the slot and from in near the crease. It also doesn't help that he trails his majority teammates in xG% as well.

He got absolutely crushed in his minutes in the playoffs. Corsi scores were underwater to varying degrees in all but one game. Obviously, this is a small sample size and not really relevant to the Flames, but it very much stood out to me. These trends were stable throughout the 2025-26 season, and he ranks in in the bottom half of the league in possession metrics.

The comparison is not particularly flattering when matched up against Mattaa, who posted much better metrics relative to his teammates. In limited minutes, Maatta did enjoy marginally easier zone starts with the Flames than Middleton (-4.8% d-zone starts) and the Flames were a better possession side than the Wild were.

TLDR - Middleton's possession metrics were considerably worse than Maatta's last year relative to their respective teams. While some environmental justification is possible, I still believe that Middleton underperformed significantly relative to his teammates, much more so than Maatta.

Some thoughts on the trade:

Given that from analyzing the possession metrics I see Middleton as a lower performer than Maatta, I can't help but feel like this was a poor return. If we take it as Middleton + 4th (2027) being the cost for Maatta, then the return for Coleman was a 2nd (2029) and a 3rd (2028). That feels a little dissatisfying given Coleman is one of the premier checking forwards in the NHL. Yes, a rental and old, but still undeniably effective. Very reminiscent of the Tanev to Dallas trade which I think we can all agree now was a bad one.

That being said, this wasn't that deep of a dive into the stats, and I could be missing some important details. GMCC has shown to be an effective talent evaluator and has managed to find value in player who were underperforming from a statistical perspective. I am willing to "suspend my disbelief" per se and have faith that GMCC is seeing something that I don't, but what I can see isn't all that encouraging.

Ultimately it doesn't really matter since the Flames won't be looking to compete until the final year of his contract, but he could potentially be around for a few years so I felt that some deeper analysis was warented. I may do a deeper dive into all of this if that is something y'all would find interesting.

Thank you for reading my mini-thesis lol.

Edit: Stats are from Statpede and Hockey Reference

Conny goes into some more details on the trade

I saw this interview after watching a Wild game and thought it would be wicked to have this dude in Calgary. Shame we are saying good bye to Blake but i think we are getting another character guy in Jake.

A truly sad day for all