How do Flames, now nearing a little-known franchise record ...

Hard to believe, but it’s not a franchise record … yet.

The Calgary Flames have dressed 15 different defencemen during the 2023-24 campaign. The leaguewide average is 10.

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“I honestly didn’t know that we’ve used that many. That’s crazy,” said MacKenzie Weegar, the only Flames rearguard to suit up for every game so far this season. “There has been a lot of turnover and obviously a lot of new faces. But I think, in a way, you can get a spark from that. Because they’re so excited to play, right?”

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Calgary’s current blue-line brigade includes just three dudes who started the season with the club — Weegar, Rasmus Andersson and Dennis Gilbert.

Oliver Kylington returned in late January after an extended leave for mental-health reasons, while Brayden Pachal was plucked off the waiver wire in early February.

Over the past week and change, they’ve claimed Joel Hanley via waivers and welcomed Daniil Miromanov and Nikita Okhotiuk in separate trades.

The Flames now have one of the NHL’s most inexperienced defence corps. Their three in-season farewells — Nikita Zadorov, Chris Tanev and Noah Hanifin, who visits the Saddledome on Thursday with the Vegas Golden Knights (7 p.m. MT, Sportsnet West/Sportsnet 960 The Fan) — had combined for upwards of 2,000 career appearances. Among the additions, only Hanley has played more than 100.

“You gotta deal with what you’re faced with. And you know what? We’ve done that,” said Flames assistant coach Dan Lambert, who heads the department of defence at the Saddledome. “If you would have asked me how many, I wouldn’t have said 15. I don’t know that number. But to me, it doesn’t matter how many it is. You have to coach the players that you have.

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“There is no doubt we’ve had a few injuries, but that’s kind of normal. Now obviously, with the changes, that’s a little bit different, but that’s the way it is. So we’re going to deal with it. I think it’s important that I’m patient, the coaching staff is patient, with some of these new guys. And hopefully we’ll get ’em dialled in here quicker than not.”

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Okhotiuk, acquired in a deadline-day swap with the San Jose Sharks, was the latest to log his team debut.

The initial plan was to give this newest arrival a few days to settle in before he would be pressed into action, but that changed when a couple of forwards — Andrei Kuzmenko (upper-body injury) and Andrew Mangiapane (illness) — were ruled out for Tuesday’s clash with the Colorado Avalanche.

The 23-year-old Okhotiuk, just hours after he was introducing himself around the locker room, registered three hits, two blocked shots and an even rating in 8:23 of ice time during a 6-2 shellacking from the Avs.

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“We are hockey players, same as warriors. Any time, you have to be ready,” Okhotiuk told reporters after Wednesday’s practice. “After warmup, I got undressed and got told I might play, so I started dressing slowly and then I was told I am playing.

“It’s important, what’s right here,” he added, tapping the logo on his jersey. “So just play for the team, do my best and show what I can do.”

On Tuesday morning, during a one-on-one meeting, Lambert was showing Okhotiuk some of the details of the Flames’ defensive structure. It was a crash course, similar to Lambert’s meet-and-greets last week with both Hanley and Miromanov.

Calgary Flames defenceman Joel Hanley skates during warm-up before NHL action against the Colorado Avalanche at the Scotiabank Saddledome on Tuesday, March 12, 2024. Gavin Young/Postmedia

“I think the first thing is you want to make ’em feel comfortable,” said Lambert, explaining his strategy for onboarding any of the new blue-liners. “It’s introducing yourself and just having that short conversation, seeing how they’re doing, seeing how the transition has been for them and getting to know them a little bit that way.

“And then I’ll put together usually around 10-12 video clips of different things that we do. I usually focus on the defensive zone, the neutral zone and then breakouts. Those are the things that are most important for the D. And then it creates conversation. You typically ask how did they play where they were, and how different is it? It’s a little bit of a process. You don’t want to overwhelm them because then it’s paralysis by analysis, and I think you have to be careful with that.

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“And you have to be patient. I think that’s important. There will be some small corrections along the way. It took us a while as a team to get better at (the system), so you have to understand that there are going to be some bumps along the road.”

It’s certainly been bumpy of late.

The Flames have suffered three straight lopsided losses, outscored by an 18-5 count over that span.

While head coach Ryan Huska stressed that the new faces “are not the issue,” there have been moments of confusion in their own territory.

That’s to be expected.

It can be a challenge to break in a just-arrived blue-liner, let alone several at the same time.

Calgary Flames defenceman Brayden Pachal and Colorado Avalanche forward Brandon Duhaime collide along the bench during NHL action at the Scotiabank Saddledome on Tuesday, March 12, 2024. Gavin Young/Postmedia

For perspective, consider that it has been three decades since the Flames deployed this many defencemen in a season. During the 1993-94 campaign, they tried a total of 16 different dudes on the back-end. That’s a franchise record that will soon be matched, since this current regime will undoubtedly want a peek at top prospect Jeremie Poirier — now back in action with the Wranglers after recovering from a scary skate laceration — during the stretch run.

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(Interested in a trip down memory lane? Calgary’s posse of point-patrollers in 1993-94 featured, in alphabetical order: Peter Ahola, Kevin Dahl, Chris Dahlquist, Len Esau, Dan Keczmer, Al MacInnis, Brad Miller, Frank Musil, Lee Norwood, James Patrick, Michel Petit, Brad Schlegel, Gary Suter, Kevin Wortman, Trent Yawney and Zarley Zalapski. If you’re already losing track of this current crew, it has also included Nick DeSimone, Yan Kuznetsov, Jordan Oesterle and Ilya Solovyov.)

“It’s obviously a young defence core now that is eager and ambitious, which I love,” Weegar said prior to Tuesday’s loss to the Avalanche. “They’re excited to play in these games. They’re big games. They’re getting more ice time. They’re getting more opportunity.

“The big thing is they’re going to make some mistakes here and there. It’s a new system. It’s a new team. But just move on from that, forget about it. I’m going to make mistakes too, and we have to be there for each other. I think communication is key. For me, it can be constructive criticism or it can be positive reinforcement — you know, ‘Keep making those plays. Keep doing your thing. It’s fun watching you.’ It goes the same for me. I want them to get up in the rush, which means that I’ve gotta make a play in the defensive zone. Just little things like that to make them have a good time and enjoy it here. I want to keep a good environment, a good culture.”

WHO’S ON BLUE?

So far this season, 15 different defencemen have suited up on behalf of the Flames. The complete list …

MacKenzie Weegar, 65 GP

Rasmus Andersson, 61 GP

* Noah Hanifin, 61 GP

* Chris Tanev, 56 GP

Dennis Gilbert, 33 GP

* Nick DeSimone, 23 GP

Jordan Oesterle, 22 GP

* Nikita Zadorov, 21 GP

Oliver Kylington, 18 GP

Brayden Pachal, 16 GP

Ilya Solovyov, 6 GP

Joel Hanley, 4 GP

Daniil Miromanov, 2 GP

Yan Kuznetsov, 1 GP

Nikita Okhotiuk, 1 GP

* No longer in the Flames organization

[email protected]

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