Munnich’s Musings: The Flames are losing with a purpose

You don’t see players with this elite offensive skill set come around often. The Flames have a special player on their hands and I can’t wait to see what he turns into over the coming seasons.

Sam Honzek looks like an NHLer

One of the other few bright spots through three games this season is the play of Sam Honzek. The soon to be 22 year old has already established himself as one of the biggest, fastest, and most physical players on the roster. I have been so impressed with his ability to use his speed to cause chaos on the forecheck, create chances in the offensive zone, and his ability to shut things down on the penalty kill.

Honzek is massive, has a long reach and some skill. That combination as already made him an effective player for the Flames this season. The key is for the young Slovakian to stay healthy, something he hasn’t been able to do since being drafted in the first round of the 2023 NHL Draft.

Find a way to get Suniev in the lineup

Aydar Suniev had an outstanding training camp scoring four goals across three rookie/exhibition games and deserved to make the team. I had no issue with him starting in the AHL because there was going to come a time where this Flames team was going to struggle to score goals and they were going to need his services. That ended up happening quicker than I expected.

The question is how can you get him into the top nine? Because this is not a player you want playing on the 4th line.

The current wingers in the top nine are Matt Coronato, Joel Farabee, Matvei Gridin, Sam Honzek, Yegor Sharangovich, and Connor Zary. In theory, the easiest thing to do would be for Conroy to make a trade. But you need two to tango and I don’t know how much value guys like Zary and Sharangovich have on the trade market.

The other option is to have Zary and Sharangovich split time. Who ever is playing the best will get in the lineup. It’s become clear that both Zary and Sharangovich will not be part of this team when they get good again, so it doesn’t really matter if they are a healthy scratch every now and then.

The key is to get Suniev in the lineup and start to turn him into an everyday bottom nine winger.

Othmann in, Tsyplakov out.

The Maxim Tsyplakov experiment needs to come to an end. He provides little to no value on the ice for the Flames.

He is a 28-year-old pending UFA who scored two goals last season between the Islanders and Devils. I’m not sure exactly why he was included in the Simon Nemec trade. Maybe it was to make the money work. Or New Jersey wasn’t going to do the deal without Tsyplakov involved. There is a 99.9% chance that he will not be back with the Flames next season. So why is he playing over a 23-year-old Brennan Othmann?

Othmann could potentially be part of this Flames team for a long time playing the role of a fourth line pest and penalty killer. And he could come up with this young core of players and help build the culture and identity of this team moving forward.

I would like to see Tsyplakov put on waivers. There is no need for his services at this time.

What do you think of the Flames through the first few games?