from Daniel Austin of the Calgary Herald,

The Calgary Flames want Johnny Gaudreau to leave last season in the past.

It’s time to move on, so learn whatever there is to learn from an underwhelming season and focus on helping the Flames take another step in their quest to becoming a true Stanley Cup contender.

After the Flames crashed out of the Edmonton bubble with a first-round playoff loss to the Dallas Stars, Gaudreau became the focus of some pointed criticism from both media and fans. Long a darling to the Flames faithful and the scribes who cover them every day, articles were written about whether GM Brad Treliving should consider trading the left-winger. The social media backlash wasn’t pretty, either.

It’s probably inevitable that Gaudreau saw and heard some of that criticism, but as training camp got underway at the Scotiabank Saddledome this weekend, Flames head coach Geoff Ward said his all-star winger’s head was right where it needed to be.

“He’s coming in with a big smile on his face, that’s for sure. There seems to be a weight lifted off his shoulders,” Ward said. “I think that naturally happens with a new season and we’re not really concerned about what happened last year or what those thoughts are.

“We left those things last year after we had our final calls. We had our exit meetings, so that’s all forgotten.We talked about the importance of moving forward. I know he’s put an awful lot of time into preparing himself for this year. We put a lot of time into just making sure that we’re not talking about the past. We’re talking about the future and we’re looking forward to that.”

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