One of the major factors that sunk the Calgary Flames’ 2022-23 season (besides the stunning production decline from team offensive centerpiece Jonathan Huberdeau) was the decline in goaltending quality coach Darryl Sutter’s team received. Jacob Markstrom was a Vezina Trophy contender in his first season as a Flame, posting a .922 save percentage in 63 games. Even backup Daniel Vladar was good, putting up a .906 through 23 starts after his offseason trade from the Boston Bruins. This season, though, both regressed significantly and played to save percentages below .900.
That reality facing the Flames in the crease makes today’s announcement that Calgary’s top prospect Dustin Wolf, 22, was named the league’s Les Cunningham Award Winner. (MVP) Wolf is the American League’s youngest MVP since Jason Spezza won it after his 117-point 2004-05 season, and it comes after he posted a near-bulletproof .932 save percentage in 55 games played. As FloHockey’s Chris Peters notes, this is the fourth straight season Wolf has won Goaltender of the Year in the league he’s played in, and his lowest save percentage as a junior or pro player has been a .924. Although there is much uncertainty facing the Flames organization in the aftermath of former GM Brad Treliving’s departure, Wolf is undoubtedly a player to be excited about.
Some other notes from across the NHL:
- According to calculations from PuckPedia, the New Jersey Devils will need to deal with an overage charge to next year’s salary cap. Because the team used long-term injured reserve to finish the season above the salary cap, performance bonuses earned by Dawson Mercer and Kevin Bahl will be applied to next year’s cap. As a result, the Devils will have a charge of $422.5K to work around. While that’s not a major number in the grand scheme of the salary cap, assuming the cap does not rise for another season, it will remain notable as long as teams look to maximize every last dollar of cap space.
- Another team that will have an overage penalty applied to their salary cap next season is the Vancouver Canucks. As PuckPedia notes, while offseason signing Andrei Kuzmenko provided incredible value for his $950k cap hit, that excellent performance actually earned him $850k in bonus dollars, which will result in a Canucks cap charge for next season. While that’s definitely not ideal for the Canucks’ financial picture, Kuzmenko scored 39 goals and 74 points this season and is under contract for another two seasons at a $5.5MM cap hit. It’d be hard to find a single team in the NHL who wouldn’t put up with a small cap overage penalty in order to have that type of production in their lineup.