The Calgary Flames will be without their leading scorer when they return to action to kick off the 2022–23 season.
According to a report by Daily Faceoff‘s Frank Seravalli, Johnny Gaudreau will leave the Flames as an unrestricted free agent this summer.
Gaudreau, 28, scored 40 goals and 115 points in 82 games with the Flames during the 2021-22 regular season. He added three goals and 14 points in 12 playoff games as the Flames fell to the Edmonton Oilers in the second round.
Seravalli said the Flames “rolled out the red carpet” for Gaudreau and presented him with a “massive offer,” but concluded that the star forward’s decision “wasn’t about money.”
Gaudreau hails from Salem, New Jersey and was a fan of the Philadelphia Flyers as a child. The New Jersey Devils have a ton of cap space to potentially fit Gaudreau into their lineup.
The Flames originally selected Gaudreau in the fourth round (No. 104 overall) of the 2011 NHL Draft. He emerged as a full-time NHLer with the club in 2014-15 and was named a finalist for the Calder Trophy after scoring 64 points in 82 games.
Gaudreau scored 99 points in 2018–19 as the Flames finished with the second-best record in the NHL. This past year, he scored the overtime winner in Game 7 to oust the Dallas Stars in the first round of the 2022 Stanley Cup playoffs.
In 602 career regular-season games with the Flames between 2014 and 2022, Gaudreau scored 210 goals and 609 points. He departs the Flames as the team’s fifth-leading scorer of all time, behind Jarome Iginla, Theoren Fleury, Al MacInnis and Joe Nieuwendyk.
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