After slow start, Flames' Yegor Sharangovich has stepped up his game

When Calgary Flames head coach Ryan Huska would get asked about Yegor Sharangovich’s early-season struggles throughout the first six weeks of the season, his answers never focused on the lack of offensive production.

That wasn’t the concern.

Even if he only scored twice and picked up two assists through the team’s first 20 games of the season, that wasn’t where the Flames were focused.

It was Sharangovich’s competitiveness. Huska wanted to see him going into corners, winning puck battles and just generally fighting a little harder. At one point early in the year, Hockey Night in Canada’s Kevin Bieksa questioned whether Sharangovich hated to lose.

A couple of months later, though, things look a lot different for the Belarusian.

He’s ramped up his work along the boards and his defensive play to the point where he was the man tapped to replace the injured Blake Coleman on Mikael Backlund’s line this weekend against the Pittsburgh Penguins. That’s a line that goes up against opposing teams’ best players, which speaks to how far Sharangovich has come.

“I think my game is a little better right now,” Sharangovich said last week before the Flames took off for a five-game road trip. “I’m playing better than I was at the start of the season and I’m helping more, for the team to win games. I’m taking more shots, better skating and I just need to keep going.

“I still think I have another level to play better.”

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Sharangovich’s numbers this season still don’t pop. He’s managed only eight goals and six assists through 41 games. Five of those lamp-lighters did come in December when there was a notable uptick in his performance, although critics would point to him having only one point in five games in 2026.

The offence does matter for a guy like Sharangovich. He’s in the first year of a five-year deal that pays him US$5.75 million annually. The deal was signed after he put up 31 goals and 28 assists in his first year with the Flames in 2023-24, and it would obviously be great if he could replicate that production throughout the length of his contract.

But when he was struggling early in the season, the first step was stepping up the competitive side of his game.

“He’s a very streaky scorer, too, that’s something we’ve all known about him for the last few years,” said Huska. “When he’s around it and he’s competitive the way he is now, he’s going to start putting it in the back of the net with more consistency.

“For me, the next phase for him is the power-play. We’re looking for him to grab hold of pieces of the unit, two units, whatever that case may be, and be the difference maker there. That’s probably what the next step would look like for him.”

If there was a turning point in Sharangovich’s season, it likely came in mid-November when he was scratched for back-to-back games. When he returned to the lineup, he was put on a line with Nazem Kadri and Joel Farabee. The trio remained together for over a month as the Flames started to turn their season around — temporarily, at least.

It’s not as simple as Sharangovich benefiting from good linemates, though. He did make changes and improvements to his game. Shooting the puck more was a priority, and the numbers show he’s been doing just that.

In his first 16 games of the season, before he was healthy-scratched in mid-November, Sharangovich was averaging 1.37 shots per game. In the 25 games since he returned to the lineup, he’s been averaging 2.16, the sixth-most on the Flames roster.

For a guy with a dangerous shot, that matters. There’s still room for even more, of course, but the improvements have been notable.

“I just had a talk with the coach,” Sharangovich said about the change in his game. “Win more battles, be more aggressive with the puck, hold the puck, take more shots and good things will happen after.

“When you have more shots and win more battles, you play more with the puck and you feel better.”

daustin@postmedia.com

X: @DannyAustin_9