The Flames need to figure out their fourth line

When it comes to hockey teams, there are certain players that play in depth roles. And as the saying goes, there are no small parts, just small actors.

For the Calgary Flames, the club’s depth units have been anchored by two players. The third defensive pairing has been almost exclusively the territory of Brayden Pachal (and a few different defensive partners). And the fourth line has primarily featured Ryan Lomberg… and a bunch of other players.

The Flames’ most-used forward line has been Mikael Backlund, Matt Coronato and Blake Coleman, and it’s been arguably their best and most consistent. But the fourth line has seen a tremendous amount of turnover and, with a few exceptions, some pretty rough performances as a unit.

Through 52 games, the Flames have used 11 different players on the fourth line, in 14 different combinations. The following players have played at least a game on the fourth line: Lomberg, Kevin Rooney, Walker Duehr, Justin Kirkland, Jakob Pelletier, Adam Klapka, Andrei Kuzmenko, Matt Coronato, Clark Bishop, Anthony Mantha and Martin Pospisil. Lomberg has been the constant for the majority of the season, aside from the two games he missed when his wife was about to give birth and the one game he spent on the third line.

Via Natural Stat Trick, here are the 14 combinations, from most used to least used.

That’s a lot of fourth line combos. How many of them were, well, good?

• In terms of good results, four trios out-scored their opponents: Lomberg-Rooney-Kirkland (3-1), Lomberg-Kirkland-Coronato (3-0), Lomberg-Rooney-Pelletier (1-0) and Lomberg-Kirkland-Klapka (1-0).
• In terms of good process, three trios had an expected goals percentage north of 50%: Lomberg-Bishop-Pelletier (88.62%), Lomberg-Kirkland-Coronato (67.17%) and Lomberg-Kirkland-Pospisil (52.07%).
• Weirdly, the most-used fourth line – Lomberg-Rooney-Duehr, were the one that had the worst results, being out-scored 5-0 when they were on the ice.

You might notice a common thread in both combinations of “good” lines: three of the four lines that out-scored their opponents featured Kirkland, the other featured Pelletier. And two of the three lines that had strong possession numbers featured Kirkland, the other featured Pelletier. So… the big problem right now is that the players that helped elevate the fourth line into a pretty strong unit… well one’s out for the season with a knee injury and the other one plays for the Flyers now.

Lomberg’s a good player. He’s almost the ideal fourth liner; his physicality and pace gives that unit a bit of an identity whenever he’s on the ice. But they just haven’t found the right players yet to slot in with him to make the fourth line as effective as it can be. We imagine that the coaching staff will continue to experiment with different looks, especially after Connor Zary returns to action later this season and a player gets bumped out of the top three forward lines.

Which players do you think would make the ideal Flames’ fourth line?