At the start of the season, the Flames looked like they could have had a formidable top nine. The caveat: it relied on several players needing to meet, and in some cases exceed, career expectations, with little room for error.
There were a lot of errors.
Jaromir Jagr’s signing was supposed to be a boon for the Flames. Yes, he was old; he was also coming off of a 46-point season in which he put up outstanding numbers with younger players. At the time, I forecasted a top nine that looked as such:
| Johnny Gaudreau | Sean Monahan | Micheal Ferland |
| Matthew Tkachuk | Mikael Backlund | Michael Frolik |
| Kris Versteeg | Sam Bennett | Jaromir Jagr |
So, what happened?