Daniil Miromanov was a nice surprise for the Calgary Flames in 2023-24

Of all the moves made by Craig Conroy maybe the most unexpected was getting relatively unknown commodity Daniil Miromanov in a trade at the deadline. He was acquired as part of the trade that sent Noah Hanifin to the Vegas Golden Knights.

Since then Miromanov has signed a 2 year deal with an annual average value of $1.2 million per season and appears to be a player of intrigue as the team goes forward in their “re”-whatever they’re calling it now.

The season

Prior to being acquired by the Flames, Miromanov had played 9 games in 2023-24. He had 5 with Henderson of the AHL and 4 with Vegas in the NHL. It took him a long time to come back after suffering from an undisclosed injury in December of 2022. He was cleared to play from that a full 2 years later in January of 2024 and then traded to Calgary as he couldn’t crack the deep top 6 defence of the former Stanley Cup Champions.

After coming over Miromanov was paired predominantly with MacKenzie Weegar – and the two thrived. Miromanov brought his unique skill set from years as a forward and added an element of attack to the rush the Flames hadn’t had… well really ever. He read rebounds differently, made good bluelie reads of the attacking zone, pinched into open areas some defenceman wouldn’t, and made opposing wingers lives more difficult than one would expect. With Weegar as a safety net – one capable of also jumping in- the two ended up being the clear cut number 1 defence pair the Calgary Flames could trust down the stretch.

Now it was only a 20 game sample, but as you will see it was a pretty darned great one.

The numbers

Boxscore stats are the most easily translatable to all readers. 20 games played – three goals, four assists, seven points. It’s a 29 point pace over an 82 game season and it came facing the other teams best players as he played next to Weegar.

Not bad at all, but what about his defence and play driving. Luckily I’ve got the advanced stats there too.