Atlanta Flames The Atlanta Flames were a professional ice hockey team of the National Hockey League based in Atlanta , Georgia . Founded in 1972 along with the New York Islanders , the franchise relocated in 1980 to Calgary , Alberta , becoming the Calgary Flames . History . The early years - 1968 to 1972 . In 1968 , businessman Tom Cousins and former Georgia governor Carl Sanders bought the St . Louis Hawks , a National Basketball Association team , to install it in Atlanta . In order to give a proper home to the team , the third major pro sports team in the city , Cousins and his group , the Omni Sports Group Consortium , had the Omni Coliseum built in the city . But the new building was also intended for another purpose than being the Hawks ' new home : it was also a key part of the bid submitted by the Omni Sports Group Consortium to acquire a National Hockey League franchise . The construction of the Omni ended in April 1971 ; nine months later , in November , the National Hockey League announced that the city of Atlanta had been granted an NHL franchise for the 1972 - 73 NHL season , allowing ice hockey to take a first step in its attempt to colonize the South of the United States of America . Initially , the league had no expansion plans for that year , but back then , with the league in war against the upstart World Hockey Association , they decided it was best for their interest to prevent the WHA from establishing franchises in the newly built Nassau Coliseum in Long Island , New York ; since this addition would leave the league with an uneven number of teams , in order to balance the conferences and the schedule , they also granted Atlanta a team . Atlanta ' s arrival in the league was widely criticized by many hockey observers who called the expansion , and especially the inclusion of Atlanta , a ludicrous and foolish move - hockey , they said , was a nordic sport , and repeated expansions , combined with the arrival of the WHA , were diluting the talent pool . But these criticisms in no way halted the arrival of the new team in the league . Named the Atlanta Flames in honor to the Great Atlanta fire of 1917 , the team hit the ice in 1972 , with the young Cliff Fletcher as general manager and former Montreal Canadiens star Bernie Geoffrion . The Atlanta Flames , 1972 to 1980 . Fall 1972 , the Flames began playing in the league . They turned out to be a rather pleasant surprise in their debut year , led by a skilled goaltending tandem made of Phil Myre and Dan Bouchard , some solide defending by Randy Manery and Pat Quinn and a good attack relying on Rey Comeau , captain Keith McCreary , Larry Romanchych and Bobby Leiter . Though a pretty unexperienced team , the Atlanta Flames had a succesful first half of season with a 20 - 19 - 8 record , especially thanks to the excellent play of the two goaltenders . Unfortunately for them , 19 defeats in the last 31 games cost them a playoffs spot - the team finished its first season with 65 points , an honorable performance , especially considering the very poor results of their expansion - mates , the New York Islanders , who finished the season with 30 points fewer than Atlanta and offered one of the worst records in NHL history . While the team fared well on the ice , it did equally well of the ice . The Flames management did an excellent work in the 1973 NHL Amateur Draft , selecting forwards Tom Lysiak and Eric Vail . They both quickly established themselves as the team ' s best forwards - if Vail played only 23 games with the club for the 1973 - 74 NHL season , Lysiak , on the other hand , did , and led the team in scoring in his Rookie season . The young Flames improved and secured a fourth place finish in the Western Division , accessing ot the playoffs for the first time of their young history . The feat was particularly contrasting with the Islanders , who once again performed very poorly in the East ) . The Flames adventure in the playoffs was however short lived , as they were swept in the first round by the mighty Philadelphia Flyers who were on their way to their first Stanley Cup . The Flames ' third year was disappointing . After their initial successes , the team stepped back a bit and failed to reach the playoffs . General manager Cliff Fletcher , who had picked players who could ( and did ) immediately step in and contribute in the 1973 Amateur Draft , did not do as well in 1974 , with only Guy Chouinard ( the youngest player ever drafted ) and Pat Ribble standing out . Injuries plagued key players like veterans Leiter and Romanchych as well as Jacques Richard , their first draft pick ever . The very popular Geoffrion , after finishing as the runner - up for the previous year ' s coach - of - the - year vote , resigned ; Cliff Fletcher replaced him by Fred Creighton , who at the time was coaching the Flames ' affiliate club in the Central Hockey League , the Omaha Knights . The season , however , was not a pure disaster , as there were some bright spots worth of mention . Tom Lysiak kept improving and Eric Vail , who had splitted the previous year between the NHL and the Central Hockey League , became an NHL regular and did it with a bang in 1974 - 75 , scoring 39 times and winning the Calder Memorial Trophy . 1975 - 76 saw the team improve a fair bit . Creighton was a demanding coach , and the Flames reaped the rewards of the new regime with a first winning season and a second playoffs berth in four years . Cliff Fletcher had done a good job bringing in new players to add depth at every position , notably forwards Bill Clement , Claude St . Sauveur and Bill Flett and defensive stalwart Larry Carriere . Eric Vail failed to shine as bright as he did in his rookie season because of injuries . Again , the team was quickly eliminated from the playoffs as the Los Angeles Kings beat them in the first round . Off the ice , the Flames ' fire began extinguishing as 1 , 000 people less attended to home games , on average . In 1976 - 77 , the Tulsa Oilers , the team ' s new affiliate , fed the Flames with some very good young players : Guy Chouinard finally evolved into an NHL - caliber player , and both defenceman Ken Houston and forward Willi Plett , two players playing a strong physical game , began terrorizing the opposition . Plett wasn ' t initially scheduled to make his NHL debuts as a regular , as he bagan the season in Tulsa . However , he earned a call up with the big club , making a totally unexpected impact ; he scored 33 times in 64 games . This strong performance was crowned by the Calder Memorial Trophy at the end of the season . While young players established themselves in Atlanta , the older veterans , on the other hand , had all been discarded . The likes of Pat Quinn , Randy Manery , Larry Romanchych , Bobby Leiter and Kerry Ketter all moved to a new address , while the young core of the team , made up of Lysiak , Vail , Plett and Chouinard took all the place . Meanwhile , the team ' s playoffs struggles continued as they fell once again to the Kings in the first round . Dan Bouchard , who had been outstanding so far for the Flames , publicly announced his refusal to keep on sharing the duties between the pipes with Phil Myre - he wanted to be the clear number 1 goaltender of the team . Atlanta ' s management agreed to satisfly Bouchard ' s demand , and on December 12th 1977 , Myre was traded to the St . Louis Blues along with Curt Bennett and Barry Gibbs for Bob MacMillan and Dick Redmond . But off the ice , things changed , but not for the better , as the Flames ' attendence kept dwindling . One thing remained unchanged , though - the Flames kept underperforming in the playoffs , again downed in the first round , this time by the Detroit Red Wings . The Flames strongly began the 1978 - 79 season with an impressive 12 - 1 - 2 record , including 10 straight wins . Of course , the team couldn ' t keep cruising at that speed for the whole season , but it nevertheless finished with a good 41 - 31 - 8 record , good for 90 points , a franchise record . Tom Lysiak was a key contributor to the Flames ' successes early in the season , but his first injury in career slowed him down ; he was later traded to the Chicago Blackhawks that brought in Atlanta the excellent Yugoslavia n center Ivan Boldirev , the fast Darcy Rota and a reliable defenceman in Phil Russell . Guy Chouinard finished the season with 50 goals , becoming the first and only player in the Atlanta Flames history to reach this plateau . Bob MacMillan was awarded the Lady Byng Memorial Trophy . But history repeated itself - although successful in the regular season , the Flames collapsed in the playoffs , swept by the Toronto Maple Leafs . The last season in the history of the team proved to be 1979 - 80 . Creighton ' s lack of playoffs successes had him fired ; Al MacNeil came in to replace him . Cliff Fletcher kept doing a good job in adding talent to his team . The magnificent Swedish forward Kent Nilsson , rookie defenceman Paul Reinhart , finnish defenceman Pekka Rautakallio and veteran forward Don Lever all joined the team and no matter how good the Flames were , they couldn ' t shake off their playoffs jinx as the New York Rangers beat them three wins to one in the first round . Sale and aftermath . With the attendence falling season after season and the operation costs rising , financially support the Flames became extremely difficult for the Omni Sports Group , especially since the team lacked a major television contract . Needless to say that when a group of Canadian businessmen , led by Nelson Skalbania , made the Cousins and the consortium an offer , they were very interested . Cousins sold the Atlanta Flames franchise for the sum of sixteen million dollars , a record at the time ; the sale marked the end of the Flames in Atlanta , as the new owners moved the team to Calgary , Alberta . The Atlanta Flames , despite the initial criticism , proved to be a pretty succesful club . They reached the playoffs six times out of their eight years of existance ; only the Quebec Nordiques , the Edmonton Oilers and the New York Rangers did better than that in their respective debuts in the history of the league . The team also maintained a winning record for every single season after 1974 . The Flames carried their successes with them in Calgary . They even managed to get rid of their playoffs jinx and , in 1989 , with the Stanley Cup . After the Flames relocated to Calgary , a new team in Atlanta would form in 1999 , being called the Atlanta Thrashers . The Thrashers only went to the playoffs 1 time , which was back in 2007 , losing to the New York Rangers in a sweep . First round draft picks . Please note that this list excludes draft picks by the Calgary Flames .