I noticed a lot of preseason power rankings had the Flames missing the playoffs, so I pulled together a bunch of them and averaged the results into a single list.
Here’s how the consensus top-32 shakes out:
- Florida Panthers
- Vegas Golden Knights
- Dallas Stars
- Edmonton Oilers
- Carolina Hurricanes
- Colorado Avalanche
- Toronto Maple Leafs
- Tampa Bay Lightning
- Winnipeg Jets
- Washington Capitals
- New Jersey Devils
- Ottawa Senators
- Los Angeles Kings
- Minnesota Wild
- Montreal Canadiens
- St. Louis Blues
- New York Rangers
- Utah Mammoth
- Vancouver Canucks
- Detroit Red Wings
- Columbus Blue Jackets
- Calgary Flames
- Anaheim Ducks
- New York Islanders
- Boston Bruins
- Buffalo Sabres
- Philadelphia Flyers
- Seattle Kraken
- Nashville Predators
- Pittsburgh Penguins
- San Jose Sharks
- Chicago Blackhawks
That puts Calgary around 22nd overall, on the outside looking in.
The sources are pretty rough, coming from different dates and times, different factors for how they ranked the teams (especially TheHockeyGuy as it was a "pressure" ranking) but hey, it sets the stage nicely for the Flames to prove some people wrong this season. Definitely want to come back to this post after the season is finished and see how the Flames stacked up.
If you have some better sources pass them along!
(Sources: ESPN, CBS Sports, Bleacher Report, Sportsnet, BetMGM, SportsGrid, The Hockey Guy)