Top 3 Differences for the Calgary Flames Going into 2023

The Calgary Flames will go into 2023 quite differently than they went into 2022. No season is the same, but this year may be the largest switch-up the Flames have had in quite some time.

The core of the team took a big turnover over the summer and other players in the organization have taken their chance to emerge. Here are the top three differences the Flames have going into the new year.

3. Rising Prospects

Gaining and losing players in free agency or as trade pieces has given the opportunity for players working through the AHL system to come up and earn their spots in semi-permanent to permanent roles. The player who has taken the biggest jump is Adam Ruzicka.

Ruzicka was a full-time AHLer in the 2019-20 and 2020-21 seasons. After these two years, he was only up to three games with the Flames, games that took place when the Flames were statistically out of the playoffs.

The Calgary Flames will go into 2023 quite differently than they went into 2022.

2021-22 was the biggest opportunity for the 6”4 forward to really emerge as a useful piece to the Flames roster. He started the season in Stockton and a couple of months into the season, he got called up and was only sent down later in the year for a handful of games.

This season, he has not spent any time in the AHL with the Calgary Wranglers and has turned into a full-time NHL player that has even gotten a few games on the top line. He is seventh on the team in points, playing in 27 games to date and scoring six goals and assisting on 14.

Other prospects have had bigger opportunities this year like Nick DeSimone, Dennis Gilbert, Connor Mackey, Radim Zohorna, and Matthew Phillips, but Ruzicka has ultimately had the most success.