Can the Flames Have a Great Season Without Winning?

There’s a funny thing about rebuilding an NHL team. Everybody says they want to see progress, but then the season starts, and everybody starts counting wins. For fans, that’s totally understandable. We want our teams to win, and hockey is a results business. Coaches get judged by wins. Players get judged by production. General managers get judged by whether the team is getting better. Fans, naturally, look at the standings.

But for a team like the Calgary Flames, there might be another way to judge the coming season. Sometimes a bad season can actually be a good season.

The Flames Standings Might Not Tell the Whole Story.

The Flames aren't expected to be very good this season. That’s hardly a controversial statement. They’re rebuilding, they’ve accumulated draft picks, and a lot of their most important players are still pretty young. So what happens if they finish near the bottom of the Western Conference?

That might be disappointing on the surface. But suppose Zayne Parekh takes another big step. Suppose Matvei Gridin establishes himself as a legitimate NHL player. Suppose Dustin Wolf proves he really can be the long-term answer in goal. Suppose Matt Coronato takes another step offensively.

Suddenly, the standings don't look quite so important. That’s the strange math of a rebuild. A team can lose more games than it wins and still be moving forward.

Related: Matvei Gridin: The Flames' Late-Round Steal Is To Get Excited About

For Calgary, Progress Isn’t Always Measured in Points.

This is something that's easy to forget when watching young teams. A 22-year-old defenceman who goes from being a promising prospect to a dependable NHL defenceman might be worth far more to the future of a franchise than the six or eight extra points the team might have picked up by playing a veteran instead.

The same thing applies to forwards and goalies. The Flames don't necessarily need to discover that they can win 45 games this season. They need to discover which young players can help them win 45 games a few years from now. That's a different kind of season. And it can be a pretty important one.

There will be nights when the Flames look like a rebuilding team. There will be bad stretches. There will probably be plenty of games when the standings don't make for particularly pleasant reading.

If the Flames Do This Right, Their Young Stars Will Improve.

But if the young players are getting better, if roles are becoming clearer, and if the organization is learning which pieces belong in the next version of the team, then the season isn't being wasted. That's probably the best way to look at Calgary this year. The scoreboard still matters. Of course it does.

But sometimes the most important score is the one that doesn't show up on the scoreboard at all.

Related: The Calgary Flames Have More Than One Reason for Hope