Flames aim to turn entertaining off-season into longer playoff run

CALGARY — No NHL team lost more and gained more than the Calgary Flames after their most successful season in years.

Newcomers Jonathan Huberdeau and Nazem Kadri can bring offensive firepower and other intangibles to compensate for departed wingers Johnny Gaudreau and Matthew Tkachuk. Will they?

Masterful wheeling and dealing in the off-season does not guarantee a championship, Calgary's general manager cautioned.

"This idea of winning in the summer is a load of crap I think," Brad Treliving said to start training camp. "You try to win in the winter."

Calgary has the pieces of a Stanley Cup contender, but there's still the matter of fitting them together.

"Chemistry, you've got to get in and see live bullets. You just don't know right?" Treliving said.

The Flames open at home Thursday against the defending Stanley Cup champion Colorado Avalanche.

Kadri won the Cup with the Avs, so he'll face his former teammates within weeks of lifting it with them.

The Flames (50-21-11) won the Pacific Division and made it past the first round of playoffs for just the second time in 17 years in 2022.

Calgary bowed out in five games to the Edmonton Oilers in the conference semifinal.

It was nevertheless a significant post-season step forward for the Flames. There will be little tolerance for backsliding.

"Make sure that the returning guys are on top of it, of the identity of our team and the strides we've made as an organization, that's really important to reinforce that," head coach Darryl Sutter said.

"As important as it is that the 23-to-28 age group takes another step in terms of their maturity on ice and development, it's important that those three or four older guys get back to their career average or maintain where they're at,