Flames make tough call on Sean Monahan ahead of Battle of Alberta.

The Calgary Flames made headlines this week when they made the tough decision to bench long time Flames forward Sean Monahan. The move followed the acquisition of veteran centerman Ryan Carpenter ahead of the National Hockey League's trade deadline and although to some it may have seemed like an anomaly, the reality may have been that it was a sign of things to come.

On Saturday Sportsnet's Derek Willis is reporting that the Flames have once again decided to leave Monahan on the sidelines, alongside fellow Flames teammate Brett Ritchie, a sign that head coach Darryl Sutter may be preparing for a playoff push without Monahan as a core part of his lineup.

Monahan was drafted in the 1st round (6th overall) of the 2013 National Hockey League Entry Draft and has been an integral part of the Flames' core ever since. Recently however his contributions to the team have dropped off considerably with his last two seasons seeing significant declines in point production. This season Monahan has scored just 8 times while adding 14 assists for a combined 22 points over 63 regular season games, and given the current trend of healthy scratches it seems likely this will be the worst season of his NHL career.

The reality is that injuries appear to have put significant wear and tear on Monahan's body and that in turn resulted in a diminished role in the Flames lineup this season, one that Ryan Carpenter now seems poised to take over in his stead. Monahan was contributing on the powerplay despite his role in the Flames' bottom six, but with just one power play goal over his last 25 games and with his last goal at 5 on 5 dating all the way back to January 18th, you can hardly blame the Flames for looking at alternatives. In fact Monahan has not registered a single point for the Flames since the 21st of February.

Given the current trajectory for Monahan and the Flames the biggest question that may be ahead is what will the team do in the final year of his contract? Monahan will carry a cap hit of $6.375 million next season, the final year of his deal which includes a 10 team no trade list. It seems unlikely that the Flames will be willing to carry that deal into another season if their intentions are to continue making Monahan a healthy scratch moving forward.