Calgary Puck

The Calgary Flames came into the 2008-09 season with numerous changes up front, changes that were far from impressive to many a media scribe, or fan from other markets.

Alex Tanguay and Kristian Huselius out, only Mike Cammalleri in was the battle cry from those that felt the Flames had given up too much up front, and were back to being the one trick pony name Iginla from yesteryear.

Todd Bertuzzi was considered a washout, Rene Bourque and Curtis Glencross mere third line depth players, and you likely didn’t even see mention of the home growns like David Moss and Dustin Boyd.

Now a third of the way into the season it’s interesting to look at the Flames forwards, their scoring pace, and how these changes have effected the team on the ice. A recent string on our message board (String) showed the current pace of the team based on their first third pace, but we’re going to take it a step further and put this season pace production against their salaries.

Bang for Buck

Recently someone pointed out to me in a water cooler discussion that the new NHL with a salary cap and constraints seems to value forwards at $100,000 a goal. This theory doesn’t work at all for the upper end players in the league; only Alex Ovechkin could possibly top 70 goals and even that would be a massive season for any player, but the system seems to work for pretty much everyone else.

Mike Cammalleri for example, is paid 3.5 million this season, so he should score 35 goals this season. Todd Bertuzzi is making just under 2.0 million this campaign so his pressure point arrives in that 19-20 goal range. A fourth line player making 600K should score 6 goals in a season, something many of the Flames fourth line players are on pace to accomplish.

But who is the most and least effective forwards on the team when you examine each player on this scale?

The Flames two system graduates, David Moss and Dustin Boyd are the most pleasant surprises thus far this season. Their modest salaries (between 500 and 700K) suggests they should light the lap for six or seven times this season but both have already achieved that and are on pace for 22 on the season, which is 15 and 16 ahead of their salaries expectations.

The rest of the positive list is a who’s who of off season acquisitions with Rene Bourque also on pace for 22 goals though his expectation from salary suggests only 13 to be a success. Andre Roy, Curtis Glencross and Todd Bertuzzi are all ahead of their expectation base by three to five goals; Mr. Sutter you can take a bow.

Not every player is lighting the lamp to their salary expectation level however. Some players are behind a little like Brandon Prust (-1), Craig Conroy and Eric Nystrom (-2), but others are starting to take on water.

As mentioned earlier, we’ll give Jarome Iginla a pass in this table. He may be 29 goals behind his 7.0 million dollar salary, but he is on pace to notch a very respectable 41 goals this season; a number I suspect will rise when his undisclosed injury (my view) heals.

But is the table fair to Daymond Langkow? Likely not as he is a puck disher more than a scorer, however his lofty salary this season is pressure to produce something he has struggled to do with an equally struggling Todd Bertuzzi on his flank.

Mike Cammalleri and Matthew Lombardi are off their suggested paces, but not to an extent that can’t be rectified with a big weekend and some production.

Wayne Primeau gets a pass for the leadership existence in the lineup and the fact that’s he’s just not going to score 14 goals this season regardless of how many chances he garners.

No matter how you add it up, or how you evaluate each and every player, one thing is very clear 33% of the way into this season; the Flames have scoring depth. Roughly six players on a 20 goal pace and three lines that can score. Add in a fourth line that is doing a masterful job of wearing out defenseman and playing well in their own zone and the Flames are a different club in 2008-09.

Now keep it up!