Flames’ Three Biggest (Positive) Surprises Of The Year

Technically, the entire Calgary Flames team has been a surprise this season. Depending on your point of view, it could be a positive or negative one.

If you were hoping for a lottery draft pick, it’s been a bit of a bummer, but if you just love the team being competitive in a race for a fringe playoff spot, you’ve probably been pretty happy.

There have been some negatives on the player front, with a handful of players performing at a much lower offensive pace than last season, and an inability to find the right mix on defense.

However, there have been some really nice surprises that are tough to ignore. Here are three of them.

Kevin Bahl: Cornerstone Defenseman

Coming over to the Calgary in the trade return for former starting goaltender Jacob Markstrom, Bahl was a bit of an unknown to Flames fans. He was well known to Flames scouts, though, and they nailed it with the 24-year-old stay-at-home defenseman who has been an anchor on the top pairing alongside Rasmus Andersson all season.

Before being hit head-first into the boards by Minnesota Wild forward Jakub Lauko at the end of January, Bahl was a rock alongside Andersson on the top five-on-five pairing, allowing his partner to do his thing offensively. Not only has Andersson been a primary producer, Bahl, a pending restricted free agent, has set a career high himself with a pair of goals and 14 points.

Using every bit of his 6-foot-6 and 230 lb. frame, Bahl has been a physical force and used his reach to make things miserable for some of the top offensive talents in the league. Considering he has less than 200 NHL games to his credit, Bahl has been a pleasant surprise and is a player who should be locked up long term as soon as possible.

Matthew Coronato:Total Package

Coronato had a strong finish in his rookie season as a professional player last year. Not only did he score 15 goals and 42 points in 41 AHL games with the Calgary Wranglers, the 22-year-old winger also netted three goals and nine points in 34 NHL games as a rookie — finding most of his success late in the year as he was given some quality development time.

This year, he started as a healthy scratch but quickly found himself a regular role — often with veterans Mikael Backlund and Blake Coleman but more recently with Nazem Kadri and Johnathan Huberdeau. Coronato seems to go wherever the team needs for a spark.

The big surprise with Coronato isn’t his elite shot and goalscoring ability, it’s what a great leader he has been and how he can fit in with any line and drive the possession game. He’s even filled in nicely as a right-handed faceoff guy in the absence of that elusive right-shot center. Flames GM Craig Conroy is still searching for.

Dustin Wolf: Elite Rookie Goaltender

Not only has Wolf been one of the best of the NHL rookie crop this season, he’s been one of the best goaltenders in the league in his first full year with the Calgary Flames.

Vezina contender? Maybe. He’s the biggest reason the Flames are anywhere near a playoff position this late in the year. That’s not necessarily a good thing considering the Flames franchise is nearly as close to a top 10 draft pick as they are the last wildcard position in the Western Conference, but it’s tough not to root for an overachiever.

That’s been Wolf his whole career. Although he’s lost four in a row, the 23-year-old netminder still has a 19-11-3 record and .912 save percentage to pair with a 2.63 goals-against average.

Any questions about whether Wolf can be an NHL starter have been answered. We’ll see how he does down the stretch but the Flames appear to have a keeper between the pipes for the long term.

Honorable Mention — Jonathan Huberdeau: Power Forward