Brzustewicz Still Hasn't Registered a Point, and Calgary's Defense Depth Isn't Covering for Him

Hunter Brzustewicz is the Flames' top defenseman by playing time, and so far this season he hasn't produced. The depth chart has him first among Calgary's blueliners, but his output has been essentially nothing — well below what you'd expect from a starter at that position. Michael Benning, the second defenseman by minutes, is in the same boat. Kevin Bahl is the only one of the top three showing any meaningful production, and even that is modest.

I flagged Brzustewicz as a concern back at the end of September, when the opening-night roster was still sorting itself out. That piece noted the gap at defense before a game had been played. Three weeks in, the gap is still there, and it's the kind of thing that gets harder to paper over as the schedule piles up.

Captain Mikael Backlund is also day-to-day with an upper-body injury, which adds pressure to a forward group that can't afford to be shorthanded. The Flames called up Ben Jones from the Wranglers this week, which addresses some of that forward depth. The blue line is a different problem, and my read is it's the more urgent one — there's no equivalent call-up solution sitting obviously in the system the way Jones was for the forward group. That's the piece of this roster Calgary needs to figure out in the next stretch of games.