{"id":461539,"date":"2025-01-29T19:12:39","date_gmt":"2025-01-30T00:12:39","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/hockey\/?p=461539"},"modified":"2025-01-29T19:12:39","modified_gmt":"2025-01-30T00:12:39","slug":"calgary-flames-lack-of-defence-depth-exposed-by-injury","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/hockey\/2025\/01\/29\/calgary-flames-lack-of-defence-depth-exposed-by-injury\/","title":{"rendered":"Calgary Flames Lack of Defence Depth Exposed by Injury"},"content":{"rendered":"

Saturday night in Minnesota, the <\/span>Calgary Flames<\/span><\/a> top-four defenceman, <\/span>Kevin Bahl<\/span><\/a>, left the game due to injury and did not return. During the second period, Bahl took a big hit behind his net from Wild forward <\/span>Jakub Lauko<\/span><\/a>. Bahl attempted to play the puck as Lauko hit him in the numbers, driving his upper body directly into the boards. Bahl stayed down on the ice and appeared to be dazed. As he finally left the ice, Bahl also indicated that his shoulder was in discomfort, which means he may have sustained multiple upper body injuries.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

The hit was initially called a significant penalty for boarding. However, following a video review, officials reduced it to a boarding minor. Later, the Flames’ <\/span>Ryan Lomberg<\/span><\/a> challenged Lauko to a <\/span>fight<\/span><\/a> to get even for the hit.<\/span><\/p>\n

Bahl’s Become Key Defenceman In Calgary<\/span><\/h3>\n

Kevin Bahl<\/span><\/a> is having a great season so far in Calgary. Bahl and partner <\/span>Rasmus Andersson<\/span><\/a> have played themselves into the top pairing in Calgary. Bahl and Andersson have played the 8th most minutes this season among defence pairings. Most nights, they have been given the heavy defensive assignments of matching up against the other team’s top lines. Bahl’s steady presence has been a key component to the success of the Flames this season. Bahl has been averaging over 21 minutes a night for the Flames, the third most on the team. He also sits third on the team in blocked shots and has become a key penalty killer.<\/span><\/p>\n

Alongside Andersson, Bahl has also provided more offence than expected. He and Andersson have the 11th-most goals among defensive pairings. Bahl has scored 14 points in 47 games, which is already a career-high. He has quickly become the Flames’ third-best defenseman after being acquired via trade this past offseason. Without Bahl in the lineup, the Flames will have to rely more heavily on unproven, third-pairing defensemen.<\/span><\/p>\n

Who Fills The Void<\/span><\/h3>\n

The Flames lost Bahl during a busy stretch of hockey. <\/span>Jake Bean<\/span><\/a> will draw into the lineup after being a healthy scratch recently. The unknown is who will play alongside <\/span>Rasmus Andersson<\/span><\/a> now, as he has played the entire season with Bahl. <\/span>Joel Hanley<\/span><\/a> would make a lot of sense as he primarily plays the left side, the same as Bahl. This would leave Danill Miromanov and Brayden Pachal as the Flames remaining six defencemen.<\/span><\/p>\n

The Flames also recently recalled veteran <\/span>Tyson Barrie<\/span><\/a> after a short conditioning stint in the AHL. This injury means the Flames may recall Barrie to provide insurance now that they are short a defenceman. Barrie hasn’t played since November 12th, despite being with the Flames the entire time. Barrie has become the Flames 8th defenceman. However, this injury could be his opportunity to draw back into the lineup.<\/span><\/p>\n

Regardless of how the Flames choose to deploy their defence, it’s clear that without Bahl, the depth on the backend is glaring.\u00a0The Flames have four or five players who can play in a bottom pairing role, but outside of <\/span>Rasmus Andersson<\/span><\/a> and <\/span>MacKenzie Weegar<\/span><\/a>, they have no proven top-four defenceman. They will need <\/span>Jake Bean<\/span><\/a> to finally reach his first-round potential or for <\/span>Tyson Barrie<\/span><\/a> to turn back to the player he once was, or they could be in trouble.<\/span><\/p>\n

Where Can Calgary Go From Here<\/span><\/h3>\n

First and foremost, Calgary has to hope that <\/span>Kevin Bahl<\/span><\/a> can return to action shortly. The longer he is out, the longer the Flames will be relying on an unproven defenceman. If Bahl misses significant time, this group for the Flames may get exposed.<\/span><\/p>\n

The Calgary Flames could have more defensive breakdowns with the unproven group and new pairings. This means rookie <\/span>Dustin Wolf<\/span><\/a> may have to be even better than he has been. Wolf is having an incredible rookie season and is the Flames MVP. It’s hard to imagine him doing more than he has for this team, but if Bahl misses time, he may have to for Calgary to make the playoffs.<\/span><\/p>\n

The Flames are fighting for a Wild Card spot in the Western Conference. General Manager <\/span>Craig Conroy<\/span><\/a> has hinted that his team may deserve to have him make a move to improve this roster. Although we aren’t expecting Conroy to make a move for a veteran or expiring contract, this injury could motivate him to look to add on the backend. Could Conroy find a younger defenceman who could fit with the Flames rebuilding and has more upside and experience than the Flames’ current backend? This would be a big ask, but this may be necessary for Calgary if others don’t step up in Bahl’s absence.<\/span><\/p>\n

Main Photo: Sergei Belski- Imagn Images<\/em><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

<\/h3>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Saturday night in Minnesota, the Calgary Flames top-four defenceman, Kevin Bahl, left the game due to injury and did not return. During the second period, Bahl took a big hit behind his net from Wild forward Jakub Lauko. Bahl attempted to play the puck as Lauko hit him in the numbers, driving his upper body […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":5244,"featured_media":461696,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_lmt_disableupdate":"no","_lmt_disable":"","sfio_featured_image":false,"sfio_embed_code":"","_ef_editorial_meta_date_first-draft-date":"","_ef_editorial_meta_paragraph_assignment":"","_ef_editorial_meta_checkbox_needs-photo":"","_ef_editorial_meta_number_word-count":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[22,4547,4548],"tags":[3326,1421],"class_list":["post-461539","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-flames","category-hockey","category-nhl","tag-kevin-bahl","tag-rasmus-andersson"],"modified_by":"Andrew Willis","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/hockey\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/461539","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/hockey\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/hockey\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/hockey\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/5244"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/hockey\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=461539"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/hockey\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/461539\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":461697,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/hockey\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/461539\/revisions\/461697"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/hockey\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/461696"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/hockey\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=461539"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/hockey\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=461539"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/hockey\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=461539"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}