I have to admit, all of the attributes I’m discovering in T.J. Brodie are the ones I expected to see out of Jay Bouwmeester when he came here from Florida in 2009.

A confident swagger into the offensive zone, patience with the puck, smoothness on the power play, creative instincts. It’s all coming from the 21-year-old rookie rearguard with just a dozen games NHL experience, not the 28-year-old big-ticket veteran of, big whoop, 500-plus consecutive games.

All of a sudden the No. 10 defenceman on the Flames depth chart at the start of the season is easily among the top six. GM Jay Feaster may as well draft the letter now: T.J., time to get yourself a permanent residence in Calgary. You’re not going anywhere.

Brodie and 27-year-old rookie Derek Smith have formed an impressive third blue-line tandem for the Flames. During a season in which offence is at a premium, it’s nice to see an injection of quick puck movement and frequent chance-taking in Brent Sutter’s game plan. At the pace Brodie and Smith are progressing, Cory Sarich will never get back into the lineup and the injured Anton Babchuk and Brett Carson will have to wait for some kind of forced personnel change.

It’s the kind of re-tooling Feaster has been hoping for. Develop the young talent and grow their experience without having to dynamite the aging lineup. As long as Flames fans see a modicum of progress in this department Calgary has failed so miserably at in recent years, they’ll be patient. But it has to keep coming.

So don’t pull back the reins on Brodie, even if one of his offensive pushes results in a bad giveaway and goal. Because Bouwmeester used to be like that in Florida before he turned into a rangy stay-at-home type with ham hands.

.650 HOCKEY: The Flames need to play about .650 hockey to get to 97 points. That’s something like 34-17-8 from here on in. Three wins in every five-game pack, with some of the losses coming in overtime or shootout.

The way I look at it, Chicago, Detroit, San Jose and Vancouver are shoo-ins for the playoffs and the way St. Louis has surged, the Blues are solid for the top five. So Calgary is battling seven other teams (Minnesota, Dallas, Los Angeles, Phoenix, Nashville, Edmonton and Anaheim) for just three spots.