Brad Treliving, with a stroke of his pen Sunday afternoon, halved the number of everyday left wingers he needs to sign.
Andrew Mangiapane is now committed, agreeing to play for his $715,000 qualifying offer, which leaves only Matthew Tkachuk unhitched.
“Picking away at it, picking away at it,” Treliving, the general manager of the Calgary Flames, said of negotiations with Tkachuk’s agents. “Nothing new to report. We’re working on it.”
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The Flames’ remaining cap space, according to CapFriendly.com, is $6.34 million. (Worth noting: That figure includes Alan Quine’s $735,000 salary and doesn’t reflect the relief that Juuso Valimaki’s long-term injury will bring.) Given the monster contract the Toronto Maple Leafs handed restricted free agent Mitch Marner this weekend — a six-year cap hit of $10.89 million — Treliving has some dickering to do.
At least he can focus solely on Tkachuk now that, less than three weeks before the season opener, Mangiapane’s deal is firmed up.
“Good to get him back where he needs to be, which is back with the group,” Treliving said. “I’m excited to have him done, and I look forward to seeing him out with the guys.”
Mangiapane — who flew from Toronto to Calgary on Saturday night — goes through fitness testing Monday (when the Flames play split-squad friendlies against the Vancouver Canucks in Victoria and at the Saddledome). He’ll skate on his own Tuesday, a scheduled day off for the rest of the campers.
Wednesday, the 23-year-old will jump into team sessions. The Flames face the visiting San Jose Sharks that night.
“I’m excited — and excited to get going and get on the ice with all the guys,” said Mangiapane, who is represented by Ritch Winter. “It’s tough being away from all the guys. You see it on social media, they’re all together. You want to be there.”
On social media, too, are the benchmarks leading to a new season — news about the golf tournament, the rookies reporting, the main-camp invitations.
For Mangiapane, they were hard to avoid.
“You try not to look at all that stuff,” he said. “But even Calgary tweeting out (information) about the prospects games, you know, ‘OK, camp is ramping up,’ so you want to get there and be a part of the team.”
Staying at home and skating daily with his old junior club, the OHL Barrie Colts, while his employers moved briskly toward the NHL preseason schedule carried a certain risk for Mangiapane, who had been about to sacrifice his well-earned depth-chart foothold.
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After all, there is value to him in being present and (relatively) punctual. The young and talented likes of Dillon Dube and Austin Czarnik were actually on the premises. And hungry wingers such as Tobias Rieder, Devante Smith-Pelly, Zac Rinaldo are determined to make the most of their professional tryout agreements.
So forward spots were going to be nailed down whether No. 88 was aboard or not.
Now Mangiapane is in a position to create his own camp battles. With plans for a heady dose of experimentation in the coming weeks, these had been the lines Sunday morning:
- Johnny Gaudreau-Sean Monahan-Elias Lindholm
- Sam Bennett-Mikael Backlund-Michael Frolik
- Milan Lucic-Derek Ryan-Austin Czarnik
- Dillon Dube-Mark Jankowski-Tobias Rieder
- Zac Rinaldo-Alan Quine-Devante Smith-Pelly
With Tkachuk still off-campus, it is Mangiapane who perhaps stands the most to gain, deployment-wise.
His boss wants to see him push.
“That’s what we talked about (Sunday) — ‘Now there’s no dipping your toe in the water,’” Treliving said. “There’s an opportunity for him to grab more.”
Treliving went further, noting that when he hears people wondering how the Flames will to improve this season, Mangiapane is one of the names he always mentions.
“Everyone thinks you get better because you bring in all different guys,” said Treliving, who, in the aftermath of the postseason’s pratfall, had left his roster relatively intact. “You get better when your young guys progress. So here’s a guy who, two years ago, got a little cup of coffee. Last year, up and down a little bit, then got some stability and was grabbing some more.
“So you get all these young guys … the internal improvement, that’s how you grow as a team.”
Indeed, Mangiapane, especially late in the campaign, built considerable career momentum. On a line with Derek Ryan and Garnet Hathaway, he proved he could contribute regularly.
Summoned in December, he rustled up a single assist in his first 14 dates — then 12 points in his next 30 appearances. Modest totals, but certainly trending in the right direction.
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“When I got called up, I wanted to stay,” Mangiapane said. “I think I’m an everyday player.”
And in the playoffs against the Colorado Avalanche, he had been one of the few Flames not spooked by the stakes. In fact, Mangiapane authored the Flames’ lone winning goal of the postseason.
“He’s a good player, a totally good player,” Treliving said. “He’s a great example of a guy working his rear end off to make himself a player. He’s succeeded at every level. He’s put the work into his development.
“It’s a feather in the cap of our development staff and our development model.”
The Mangiapane story is a cool one. How the kid, not drafted into the OHL, walked on in Barrie and cracked the Colts. Passed over in his first year of NHL Draft eligibility, he was taken in the sixth round, 166th overall, by the Flames the following year, 2015. In the meantime, he posted 104- and 106-point seasons for Barrie.
As an AHL freshman, without a sniff of NHL time, Mangiapane collected 41 points in 66 games. Then, over parts of two winters, he gathered 63 points in his 54 outings for Stockton.
“By the time he leaves the American League, he’s a top player in that league,” Treliving said. “Then you saw him last year … by the end, he was earning more, right? He wasn’t just a guy filling a (spot).”
Said Mangiapane: “That’s my goal this year. To play more. To produce more. To be a better player, in general. I think I have that in me.”
To maximize his slender 5-foot-10 frame, Mangiapane spent his second summer working with conditioning guru Andy O’Brien, who’s trained everyone from Sidney Crosby to Nathan MacKinnon, from John Tavares to Hayley Wickenheiser.
“Every year, I feel I’m getting stronger, faster, quicker,” Mangiapane said. “That’s what you want.”
And now he says he’s prepared to squeeze the most out of the upcoming season.
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“This is a prove-myself kind of year. I think I have what it takes to be a great player in this league,” said Mangiapane, who, for the time being, is bunking with his old Barrie teammate Rasmus Andersson. “Just taking that one-year deal and moving forward from there, I think it was the right play … just to get back to camp.”
(Photo: Gerry Thomas / NHLI via Getty Images)