A brief history of first Calgary Flames goals of the season

The Calgary Flames are entering their 51st season as a National Hockey League franchise, dating back to their start in Atlanta, and they begin their season on Wednesday night when they host the Winnipeg Jets.

There’s always a lot of speculation and excitement regarding which Flames player will score the first goal of the campaign – and when – so we put together a few tidbits about the history of the opening Flames goals.

Fastest Flames goal to start a season

In 1991-92, Theo Fleury scored against Edmonton just 16 seconds into the season-opener.

The Flames scored opening minute goals on two other occasions: Richard Kromm scored 27 seconds into the 1984-85 season, and Fleury scored 45 seconds into 1994-95.

Latest Flames goal to start a season

The flip-side of opening minute goals are ones that take awhile. The Flames have been shut out in their season opening game on four occasions. The longest Flames fans have had to wait to see the first goal for their team has been 91:31, when Curtis Glencross scored midway through their second game of 2010-11.

These late goals are definitely outliers, though. In 50 season-openers, the Flames have gotten a goal in the first period 33 times.

Flames with multiple first goals of the season

On the current Flames roster, only Andrew Mangiapane (2021-22) has scored a first goal of the season.

Looking back in franchise history, eight players have done the honours more than once:

• Hilliard Graves (1974-75 and 1976-77)
• Theo Fleury (1991-92, 1993-94 and 1994-95)
• Cory Stillman (1995-96 and 1999-2000)
• Jarome Iginla (1996-97, 1997-98 and 2006-07)
• Jason Wiemer (1998-99 and 2000-01)
• Daymond Langkow (2005-06 and 2007-08)
• Curtis Glencross (2010-11 and 2011-12)
• Matthew Tkachuk (2018-19 and 2020-21)

Fleury and Iginla each opened the season’s scoring on three occasions.

And for you trivia buffs: Morris Stefaniw scored the first goal in Atlanta Flames history, while Guy Chouinard scored the first goal in Calgary Flames history.

Who will score the first Flames goal of 2023-24?