The Flames under review.

[Calgary.Flames]

After a pretty good regular seaon, this team advanced to the 2nd of the playoffs for the first time in EHEC history but failed to win a game at that level. Going into offseason, the need was better offense and the strong asset was the defensive squad specially since Braydon Coburn joined the team. Dion Phaneuf's return from injury is somehow interesting; the team did fairly well last season even with him playing only 12 games, so what's to be expected from an already good defensive corps who will now benefit from the services of their true no.1 guy.

Key acquisitions: David Krejci, Alex Tanguay, Kevin Shattenkirk
Notable acquisitions: Max Gardiner, Quinton Howden

Lost during the process: Brad Richards, Kris Letang, Luca Caputi, John Negrin, David Elsner and some picks ...

We followed our train of thoughts adding offensive dynamo, David Krejci, into the mix.
Alex Tanguay's return to Calgary promises to be a good one as he's projected to play on Krejci's line.
Kevin Shattenkirk has a canon of a shot from the blue line and he's joining 3 other great defenseman.
Letang will be replaced by a young kid with lots of offensive skills, team's first round pick in 2011, Ryan Murphy.
Negrin became available with the return of Dion Phaneuf, and neither of Elsner and Caputi would've cracked the top 9.
Max Gardiner and Quinton Howden will become valuable assets to my team if they continue on that learning path that they're on. Brad Richards is the biggest offseason loss, thankfully his offensive talents will be replaced by Krejci's but the lost of leadership might end up costing us, this team is full of talent, but it's also really young.

Draft Day.
Going in, Calgary only had two 2nd round picks and after that they fell off to like 146th pick.
As it was my first draft, I realized I had not done a good enough job scouting the draft, so I wanted out of those earlier rounds. Bern had his sight on some guys and he wanted Shattenkirk out, so there was my opportunity.
It gave me some more time to take a look at the bottom of the draft class and I think I did a good job at finding some players that probably should've been taken earlier than they were.

Pick #95, acquired in the Letang deal, Cameron Darcy. The 6'0, 189lbs, rugged right winger is a Flames-type player. He's got offensive skills and he is responsible defensively. If he develops properly, he'll find his ways to the big league.

Pick #146, Kenton Helgesen. He's a crowd favorite. He's playing his junior hockey in the city, for the WHL's Calgary Hitmen. I like his size, his 83 CON and his overall defensive game. He does not play offense at all, but could be a penalty killer someday.

Pick #176, Brian Hart. Big winger, big shot, loves to throw the body around. I like those guys (if they develop properly). We'll figure a way to turn him into a steal. We managed to get Zherdev going, so it was worth the shot.

Pick #206, Justin Auger. Big body, huge presence on both wings, decent shot, good defensive game... He's the kind of guy, you want to get around, he provides leadership in the locker room. Again, I like his 6'6", 216lbs frame, I just can't deny.

The Flames are looking at a couple UFAs to fill in AHL spots and also a couple more moves are in sight.
Other than that, I'm pretty happy with where this team stands.

Shawn Horcoff is available. He has been for a while. Talks on Phaneuf have gone down a little. Okposo could be dealt to open a spot for Max Gardiner. Marc-Edouard Vlasic could be dealt, not cause I don't like him, cause he's fallen out of the top 4 on my team, and I can't afford a bottom pairing guy at 3,1MS. He's a 88CON and paired with a good player, he plays well.

I wish everyone a good and entertaining 2013 campaing, I'm really looking forward to it.