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Three caveats to kick off today’s piece on the player deployment choices of Calgary Flames head coach Ryan Huska.
#1. Huska gets a full endorsement
Ryan is a brilliant individual when it comes to coaching as well as the intricate responses he provides to the media and public. It’s hard to find a head coach in the NHL that breaks down the game in such detail.
He’s accountable, he’s direct, he balances patience and pushes players often at the right time.
#2: His job is hard and no one is perfect
Some of the most winningest coaches in NHL history built up a seemingly bottomless list of gaffes, misplays, and oopsie daisies.
Sitting 9th, 10th, and 15th in wins among NHL coaches all-time are John Torterella (770), Darryl Sutter (737), and Mike Keenan (672) respectively. Those three have a reputation for driving players both up and through the wall. Their approach towards younger players has often been criticized.
Being a head coach in the NHL and dealing with the inter-roster politics is hard. Everyone wants to play.
#3. We don’t have all of the information
Maybe a player gets hurt between plays. Maybe there is conflict on the bench. We, as the public, are privy to about 1% of what is going on between the glass and the player gates any time the Flames play.
With that said, let’s talk about last night’s 2-1 shootout win over the St. Louis Blues.
Breaking the Streak
The Calgary Flames broke a long, painful habit on Wednesday night as they grinded their way through 65 minutes of attrition against the St. Louis Blues.
Settled in the shootout, 26 year old Joel Farabee and 20 year old Matvei Gridin solved Blues goaltender Joel Hofer to take the extra game 2-0.
The Blues, who had been 8-0-0 against Calgary in the Ryan Huska Era, fell to 8-0-1.
The story of the night was the resurgence of Connor Zary.
The 24 year old Saskatoon product opened the scoring off a beautiful play from recent acquisition Ryan Strome.
The goal served as Zary’s first point in 10 games. A few minutes later, Zary nearly found his first assist in 10 games until his set-up for Yegor Sharangovich was deemed a high stick.
Three Flames goals justifiably called back aside, the game was a slog. Neither team’s offence was clicking. The issue of the day comes in overtime, so let’s do a beat-by-beat.
Bear with us; it’s worth it.
Overtime: Breakdown
-Backlund-Farabee-Bahl start, lose the face-off and defend the entire shift.
-The Flames finally take possession 1:30 into overtime. Matthew Coronato and Victor Olofsson get a 2-on-1 chance that results in a shot from the latter. St. Louis takes back possession.
-Matvei Gridin, Connor Zary, and Zayne Parekh, Calgary’s three most dangerous players and with an average age of 21.33, manage to corral a beautiful deflected save from Devin Cooley and charge up the ice. They make an inspired east-west play up the neutral zone and draw a penalty via a high stick on Zary deep in the Blues D-zone.
-The Flames head out on the power play after a Blues timeout.
Frost, Coronato, Olofsson, Parekh.
-The power play gets a few shots. None that one would consider a high quality chance.
-59 seconds into the power play, Huska calls a timeout after Hofer freezes the puck and a scrum ensues.
That unit stays on the ice.
Morgan Frost, one point and a -2 in his last six games.
Coronato, two points and a -6 in his last 11 games.
Olofsson, one secondary assist in his six games as a Flame and a –2, serves as the triggerman on the right side. Calgary’s newest Flame has two power play goals in 144:04 of ice time with the man advantage this season.
Parekh, who looked solid and made a few nice plays along the the blue line.
You can see it on the faces of that power play unit with six seconds remaining on the power play. They are too gassed to make anything of a sneaky point shot from Zayne Parekh.
42.5 seconds left in overtime and out goes Ryan Strome, Kevin Bahl, Hunter Brzustewicz, and Matvei Gridin.
The Flames find the puck in their end with 16 seconds to go. Strome takes a few slow strides with possession and fires a completely off-target pass three steps behind a pinching Kevin Bahl. The Blues take possession and get one more on net before the buzzer.
What Are We Doing Here?
That kind of deployment has a lot of Flames fans questioning Huska’s choices in the extra period.
For one, Connor Zary was stapled to the bench after just a 30 second shift where he drew a penalty.
Zary scored Calgary’s only goal, almost earned a primary if not for a high stick, and was easily Huska’s most dangerous option. Stapled to the bench.
Victor Olofsson, who very likely will not be a Calgary Flame beyond the final 14 games of the 2025-26 regular season, was double-shifted for nearly an entire power play.
Despite the fact that Huska had a full timeout to put out another unit.
Yegor Sharangovich and Martin Pospisil, who both had goals called back earlier in the game, didn’t get even a sniff of deployment. Both are signed with the Flames for, at minimum, three more seasons.
A head-scratcher of an overtime period.
Moving Forward
Is this an opportunity to learn and adapt? Perhaps that strange OT will serve as a “we gave you a chance” card for Huska to play when he gets push-back from veterans.
Doubtful.
We’ve seen overtime deployment serve as a source of resentment in the past. Most notably, Matthew Tkachuk expressed his resentment of Darryl Sutter’s lack of trust in him at 3-on-3 in his final season with the Flames.
Right before he let the organization know that he would not be signing an extension with the Calgary Flames.
Tkachuk was traded to the Panthers and has appeared in three straight Stanley Cup Finals, winning the last two. Him and former Flame Sam Bennett rank third and fourth respectively in OT time on ice per appearance at 1:21 and 1:12 respectively.
This isn’t the first time that we’ve seen this story play out.
The issue moving forward is whether the Huska and the Flames will start to rely on their younger players more frequently at 3-on-3. Parekh’s 2:40 was encouraging. As was Gridin’s two shifts totaling 1:22.
As for the rest of the younger players deserving of ice time, it’s worth asking:
Why are the Flames going so vet-heavy in overtime despite a lack of results?
Statistics courtesy of Cap Wages, Natural Stat Trick, and the National Hockey League.
Keep Reading:
[Do the Calgary Flames Have a Meritocracy Problem?]
Tap of the Stick, Whack of the Pads: Flames Late-Season Blues
Will Calgary’s NHL-Worst Offense Improve Post-Kadri?
Would Arber Xhekaj be a Fit With the Flames? Deadline Rumors
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