‘That’s the first time we’ve used him in three-on-three, so we’ll probably do it again,’ said Flames head coach Ryan Huska
Head coach Ryan Huska gave him a shot in overtime on Monday night, though, and liked what he saw.
With proceedings all tied up against the Seattle Kraken and headed towards a shootout, Kuzmenko pulled off a dazzling bit of trickery to shake off Andre Burakovsky and feed the puck to Nazem Kadri for the Flames’ OT winner.
It was the type of play that’s going to get any coach imagining the possibilities.
“That’s the first time we’ve used him in three-on-three, so we’ll probably do it again,” said Flames head coach Ryan Huska.
Kuzmenko is one of the great curiosities of this year’s Flames team. His offensive skill set is undeniable. He scored 39 goals in his first NHL season with the Canucks in 2022-23 after tearing up the KHL. After a start-stop half-season in Vancouver last season, he joined the Flames and immediately scored 14 goals and added 11 assists in 29 games.
He’s quick, shifty and can stickhandle out of a phone booth.
That’s a skill set that makes him extremely dangerous on the power-play and in overtime, as he proved on Monday night.
“I like three-on-three,” Kuzmenko said Tuesday from the Saddledome. “I like it, there’s a lot of space and it’s interesting because every moment is so different.
“I (waited) last season for three-on-three, but we don’t have a game or a shootout after the overtime.”
So far this pre-season, Kuzmenko has mostly been on a line with Nazem Kadri and Yegor Sharangovich.
That’s a trio that has potential to put up some serious numbers.
Remember that Kadri led the Flames last season with 75 points (29 goals and 46 assists). Sharangovich was the team’s top-scorer in 2023-24, with 31 goals, and was second in points with 59. And Kuzmenko, of course, was just short of a point per game in the 29 games he played with the Flames.
There’s firepower there, to be sure.
And while Kuzmenko’s got a well-earned reputation for having a mean shot, his abilities on the puck should open up opportunities for the other two, as well.
That definitely happened in overtime on Monday. Kuzmenko picked the puck up in the Kraken’s corner and carried it back to the blue-line before making a sharp cut to lose Burakovsky, hesitating for just a second — which drew the Kraken’s other two defenders towards him — and then casually fed the puck to Kadri, who had a wide-open net in front of him.
“He certainly has that skill set,” Kadri said. “I saw him round the corner up top and realized he had beat his guy, so I put on the brakes up front and good things always happen when you do that.
“Great vision by him, great pass, great to finish it off.”
Kuzmenko is an unrestricted free agent next summer, so there will be trade rumours surrounding his name if he gets off to a hot start this season.
But for a Flames team that doesn’t have a tonne of proven high-volume goal-scorers, he’s a guy they need to be productive.
The knock on the 28-year-old has been his defensive play, but right now that doesn’t seem to concern the Flames coaching staff all that much.
“I think everybody looks for a reason at times for where they don’t like a player or they think a player isn’t that good, ‘Yeah, he’s offensive but he doesn’t come into the defensive side of the game’, “ Huska said. “Well, everybody plays it different and that’s why teams are made up of different people. You have to find people like Kuzy, he’s tried to get better on the defensive side of the game, he thinks about his details a lot, he asks questions a lot, but his special area or his area of expertise is what he does with the puck.”
Around the ice
Flames fans suffered a little scare on Monday night when Mikael Backlund missed the third period, but he was back on the ice at Tuesday’s practice and appeared no worse for wear … The Flames placed 24-year-old defenceman Ilya Solovyov on waivers on Tuesday. The Belarusian played 10 games for the team last year and will report to the Calgary Wranglers for some AHL action if he clears waivers on Wednesday morning.