FLAMES RETOOL TRACKER: Could Carter King be solution at centre?
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The Denver Pioneers have provided a consistent pipeline of NHL talent for years.
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Now, the question around Calgary is whether Carter King might be next.
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For a Flames team that is short on young depth at the centre position, it was a big deal that they managed to convince the 23-year-old to put pen to paper on a contract when he finished his time at the University of Denver this spring.
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A born-and-raised Calgarian who had captained the NCAA powerhouse while playing on the power play, penalty kill and serving as the Pioneers' first-line centre? Yeah, that sort of sounds like a potential X-Factor, doesn't it?
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David Carle, the Pioneers head coach, has watched King develop over four years in one of American college hockey's elite programs and fully believes he can make an impact at the pro level.
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'He's going to gain the coach's trust with his consistency and trustworthiness on the ice,' said Carle, whose name has consistently come up during NHL head coaching searches over the past few years. 'That'll be how he gets his foot in the door and then his offence will continue to grow at that level, as well.'
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The Pioneers head coach has seen lots of his players go on to pro careers and, this year alone, King saw former teammates like Zeev Buium and Bobby Brink playing with NHL teams.
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So, could he be next?
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There are a few things that repeatedly come up when hockey people talk about King. They talk about his impressive faceoff abilities, his sky-high hockey IQ and his work on special teams — especially the penalty kill.
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And those attributes are absolutely a big part of what sets him apart.
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He took more faceoffs than anyone in the National Collegiate Hockey Conference this past season, winning 54.4% of the 979 draws he took. When you consider that the Flames had the third-worst faceoff percentage (46.2%) in the NHL last season, his proficiency could obviously become attractive.
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'We always tell our centremen, 'You win faceoffs, you're gonna play. The coach wants to win faceoffs, so get really good at that,'' Flames director of player development Ray Edwards said. 'And he's a good student of the game. He studies it and wants to learn. So we're expecting Carter to have a great summer and be ready to go and have a great camp and see where it takes him.'
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Faceoffs alone won't get King into the NHL lineup, of course, but nobody is saying that's the only attractive part of his game.
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And while there's been a lot of focus on his penalty-killing and two-way instincts, Carle watched as King evolved over his four years with the Pioneers, who won two NCAA championships in his time with the program.
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