After a disappointing end to the 2022-23 season, Calgary Flames fans will have more hockey to cheer for. Starting May 12, 2023, the annual IIHF World Championships. This year, four Flames will represent their countries on the international stage: Tyler Tofoli, Mackenzie Wiegard and Milan Lucic will play for Team Canada, while Matt Coronato will play for Team USA. Weegar will be making his international hockey debut, while the other three men have played for their countries before. Let’s take a look at what each player brings to the proverbial table for their team as well as details of their past experiences.
Mackenzie Weigher, Dr
Weegar came in exactly as announced by the Flames this season. Captured in blockbuster movies Matthew Tkachuk vs. Jonathan Huberdeau Trade This past summer, Weegar made a name for himself alongside perennial All-Star defenseman Aaron Eckbald with the Florida Panthers. Weegar was strong enough to work his way to 14th and 8th in Norris Trophy voting for the 2021-22 and 2020-21 seasons, respectively. In 2022-23, after moving across the continent and giving up the Sun for the year, Weegar put up a respectable 31 points in 81 games with the Flames. He posted a whopping 61.2 Corsair percentage (CF%), which means the Flames control puck possession whenever he’s on the ice. Fortunately, he was on the ice at 21:06 at night, good for third on the team.
Weegar is the epitome of a two-way defensive lineman. He makes a powerful job of closing down opposition attackers but can also jump into play and contribute offensively from the blue line. He’ll block opposition shooting lanes, as evidenced by his career high 186 putouts with the Flames this season. As mentioned earlier, Weegar has never fit into Team Canada before, but he won’t be looking for a spot. He is the fourth oldest player on the Team Canada roster and will likely handle the top duo duties due to his status and quality of play in the NHL.
Milan Lucic, F
That’s right, 1,173-game veteran Milan Lucic and Flames fan favorite would also be a good fit for Team Canada. While he’s played less of a role now in the twilight years of his career, he can still be an effective physique up front at 6-foot-3 and 240 pounds. Lucic can also be used as a large presence in front of the net on the right line of power play. Unfortunately with this size, other areas like foot speed tend to lack, and his age (he turns 35 in June) doesn’t help either. With the Flames this season, he put up the lowest offensive totals of his career with seven goals and 19 points in 77 games. Once the most feared fighter in the game, he’s only dropped the gauntlet three times in 2022-23. To his credit, Losek still tosses around his body a fair amount as he hits 168 hits this season and uses them to protect the puck; He has never put a CF% below 50 in his career and has only had 27 presents this year.
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Internationally, Losek has represented Canada once and in a very unique setting. In 2007, the powers that be in the hockey world decided to attempt to recreate the infamous Summit Series between Canada and Russia as that year would mark the 35th anniversary of the 1972 event. They did so and called it the Super Series, and later named Losek the captain of Team Canada. . Rather than compete, Team Canada crushed Russia in the eight-game series, winning seven and drawing one. Lucic recorded three assists and 16 penalty minutes in the series.
Tyler Toffoli, F
As the Flames’ leading scorer from 2022-23, Tyler Toffoli has been one of the only positives from this season. The Canadian winger has scored 34 goals and 73 points in 82 games as he seems to keep aging like fine wine and only get better with age. The 31-year-old Stanley Cup champion also led the Flames in shots on goal and shooting percentage while playing just 16:37 on the night. He’s also responsible defensively, finishing second on the team in a plus-minus rating at +16 and scoring just 32 tackles for 41 tackles. An effective and consistent scorer, 2022-23 marked the second time Toffoli had scored 30 or more goals in a season and he scored at least 20 goals in a season on five other occasions in his 11-year career.
Toffoli has played twice for Team Canada, having first donned the Maple Leaf in the 2009 World U17 Hockey Challenge for Team Ontario. In six games at that tournament, Toffoli scored four goals and nine points as Canada Ontario won the gold medal against Canada Pacific. Subsequently, Toffoli played for Team Canada in the 2015 edition of the same World Championship event. He put up two goals and five points in 10 games for Canada’s undefeated team to take the gold. This team was relatively stacked with names like Sidney Crosby, Brent Burns, and Ryan O’Reilly among others dressed for the Canadian team. This year, Tofoli will undoubtedly be a more prominent figure as no other member of Canada’s Team of the Year has come close to his NHL offensive totals this season. will be too Third largest player in the list.
Matt Coronato, F
And finally is Flames quarterback Matt Coronato, who will represent Team USA for the second time in his hockey career. The Flames’ first round pick (13th overall) in the 2021 NHL Draft, Coronato has starred for the Harvard Crimson in the NCAA the past two seasons. He scored a total of 72 points in 68 games, most notably leading them to victory in the 2022 ECAC Championship for which he was named Most Valuable Player. He is also a Clark Trophy winner as the USHL Champion when he played with the Chicago Steel from 2019-2021. He recently signed his entry-level three-year contract with the Flames His NHL debut In the team’s regular season finale. Coronato didn’t score a point but went plus-one and committed a minor penalty kick in a 3-1 win over the San Jose Sharks.
Previously, Coronato wore the red, white and blue at the 2022 IIHF World Junior Championships. There, he scored four goals and seven points in five games as the USA team earned a disappointing fifth-place finish. Coronato will join fellow former Harvard student and Montreal Canadiens prospect Sean Farrell in the World Series, and the two teams could capitalize on their pre-existing chemistry. With names like Alex Tuch, Nick Bonino, and Conor Garland up front, Coronato probably won’t be hard-pressed to tackle opposing top lines or lead the team in scoring. However, perhaps by starting more of his bouts in the offensive zone and possibly getting a spot on the team’s powerhouse, he could do well. It will be interesting to see if Coronato plays center or wing for Team USA as he has experience in both positions.
In the end, all four men would make valuable additions to their teams. Everyone is a competitor at heart and will be driven to succeed after the NHL season ends on such a rough note. Armed with that bad taste in their mouths as well as their unique skill set, look for these four flames to make big impacts at this year’s World Championships.