Lack of Elite Talent Drives Flames’ Need to Adjust Offensive Philosophy

However, with Dustin Wolf emerging between the pipes, the Flames cannot afford another woeful offensive season. Despite lacking high-end offensive talent, the Flames’ scoring issues are solvable with some minor tweaks in philosophy.

Flames Need to Focus On Quality Chance Generation

Last season, the Flames averaged 10.57 high-danger chances and 28.96 scoring chances per game. It has been a steady drop since 2022-23, when they averaged 12.98 high-danger chances, ranked 13th in the NHL, and 32.84 scoring chances per game, ranked 7th. In 2024-25, the Flames were at or below the league average in both categories.

Calgary’s struggles to create chances may come as a surprise, considering they ranked fifth in shot attempts and ninth in shots on goal per game last season. However, this was helped by ranking fifth in low-danger shots and 11th in medium danger shots.

The Flames subscribe to the ‘get pucks on net and good things happen’ theory. Generally, it’s a good way to play, funnelling pucks to the net puts pressure on the opposing team’s goalies and defenseman. But, just like everything in life, moderation is the key.

How The Flames Can Generate More Quality Scoring Chances

Despite their speed, the Flames averaged the fourth-fewest scoring chances coming off zone entries per 60 minutes and had the worst shooting percentage off the rush last season at just 5.59%. This is shocking, considering they averaged the eighth-most shots off the rush per 60 minutes (All Three Zones, Team Pages, July 14, 2025).

The only way to make sense of their lack of quality chances off the rush while still averaging among the most shots per game off the rush is that their players must be passing up chances to drive the puck into high-danger areas and opting to flip it towards the goalie to make something happen.

Whether it’s coming from the coaches or the players, settling for low-danger shots off the rush needs to stop. Rush chances are among the best opportunities to score, as the attacking team usually has an advantage, moving up the ice in numbers and with speed. Without an elite goal-scorer, the Flames have to make up for it by getting the puck to the dirty areas of the ice, even if it means losing a couple of shots per game. More creativity and the drive to get pucks to the high-danger areas will make their offensive group much more potent.

Who Has to Lead The Charge on Flames Offensive Improvement

In 2024-25, the Flames’ top four goal scorers were Kadri, Jonathan Huberdeau, Matthew Coronato and Yegor Sharangovich. It was encouraging to see Huberdeau find his scoring touch again, but the team needs more shot volume and chance creation overall. They also need Kadri, Huberdeau and Coronato to improve at getting to the high-danger areas of the ice. While they were three of the four leaders in shot attempts on the team last season, they all averaged a high-danger chance on less than 20% of the shot attempts they took, and that was a big reason the Flames finished dead last in the league in high-danger chance per shot attempt percentage at 16.93%.

While I can applaud the Flames’ more traditional philosophy of getting pucks to the net to create havoc, they have leaned too heavily on this game plan over the last two seasons. It is time for them to start passing up some of these low-danger shots and start playing with more creativity and grit to allow more chances to be created in the high-danger areas of the ice, rather than relying on low-danger shots that had less than a five percent chance of going in the net last season.

All stats via Natural Stat Trick unless specified.