2025–26 NHL team preview: Calgary Flames
LAST SEASON
Death, taxes, and the Calgary Flames finishing ninth in the Western Conference. Last season, the Flames became one of only a handful of teams in NHL history to miss the playoffs despite amassing 96 points, typically the universal benchmark for postseason qualification. It was a bittersweet outcome for a team widely expected to finish near the bottom of the league, as they ended up giving their own first-round pick (No. 16 overall) to the Montreal Canadiens as recompense for the ill-fated Sean Monahan trade. To add insult to injury, the Flames ended up settling for the very last pick in the first round from the Florida Panthers to complete the Matthew Tkachuk trade — although most Flames fans were plenty satisfied that the Edmonton Oilers lost in the Stanley Cup Final once again.
The Flames still ended up picking two highly skilled centers in the first round of the 2025 draft. If anything, there’s a strong case to be made that Cole Reschny and Cullen Potter would’ve been their top targets regardless of their draft positioning. The Flames entered the draft in desperate need of talent down the middle, and they came away with two of the most skilled centers on the board. They may not have a cornerstone piece up front just yet, but the Flames are undeniably much better situated to make noise in the future with Reschny and Potter joining forces with Zayne Parekh, Dustin Wolf, and Matt Coronato.
With only two seasons left at the Saddledome, the Flames haven’t shown any signs of deviating from their stated plan to compete once again when their new arena opens. Most of the old guard is gone, with Rasmus Andersson almost certainly next out the door. Another high pick would be ideal, but if Wolf keeps playing like he did in 2024–25, the Flames will have a tough time staying out of the mushy middle. If anything, they could end up overachieving once again if the puck starts going in for them a bit more — their 9.11 team shooting percentage ranked 31st in the league last season.
KEY ADDITIONS & DEPARTURES
Additions
Ivan Prosvetov, G
Nick Cicek, D
Departures
Dan Vladar, G (PHI)
Anthony Mantha, RW (PIT)
Tyson Barrie, D (retired)
Kevin Rooney, C (UFA)
OFFENSE
The Flames had two 50-point scorers last season: Jonathan Huberdeau and Nazem Kadri. That’s it. Both players are on the wrong side of 30, signed for a considerable length of time to come, and are best suited on a good team’s second line at this point. They’re the offensive focal points by default in Calgary, which says a lot about why the Flames finished with just 225 goals in 82 games last season. The five teams below them in that category all finished well outside the playoff picture.
Of course, it’s not all bad. Just because Huberdeau and Kadri are miscast as top-line options doesn’t mean they aren’t valuable players who performed well last season. And they’re not alone: Matt Coronato appears primed to take another step forward after breaking out with 24 goals and 47 points in 2024-25. No, he isn’t the game-breaking center the Flames sorely need, but every team needs a Coronato or two, and Craig Conroy made out well in extending the 22-year-old righty for seven years at a $6.5 million cap hit.
The rest is all up in the air. Yegor Sharangovich battled through injury to score 17 goals in 2024-25 but finished well short of the 31-goal, 59-point benchmarks he set the previous year. Morgan Frost and Joel Farabee both struggled to produce after being acquired from the Philadelphia Flyers in a mid-season trade, managing just three goals apiece down the stretch. Connor Zary, who remains unsigned as an RFA, missed 28 games with various injuries and was brutally snakebitten when he did play. A bit more fair fortune for those four, coupled with Blake Coleman and Mikael Backlund continuing to hum along, could result in the Flames finding more success in 2025-26.
And there’s something to be said for adding a natural power-play quarterback into the equation …
DEFENSE
Zayne Parekh is here, and there’s a very good chance he spends the majority of the season with the Flames after racking up 107 points with the OHL’s Saginaw Spirit last year. He made his Flames debut in the 2024-25 season finale and scored his first NHL goal for good measure. It’s reasonable to say the Flames haven’t had a defensive prospect of this stature since Al MacInnis was breaking into the league four decades ago. That’s a high bar, but it’s not like expectations for Parekh weren’t already sky-high — after all, he’s the only OHL defenseman to score 30 goals in back-to-back seasons since Bobby Orr.
Of course, the Flames aren’t going to task Parekh with being their No. 1 option in all situations right out of the gate. That responsibility will surely rest with MacKenzie Weegar, who has flown under the radar as one of the league’s top defensemen ever since arriving from the Panthers in the Matthew Tkachuk trade. In fairness, it’s easy to be overshadowed by a two-time Stanley Cup champ and the NHL 26 cover athlete, but Weegar is an extremely valuable player in his own right who makes just $6.25 million a year. It’d be neat to see him spend time with Parekh both at 5-on-5 and 5-on-4.
The rest of the Flames’ defensive group is a bit of a hodgepodge, especially if Andersson — coming off an injury-hampered year in which he posted a brutal -36 rating — ends up being traded. Kevin Bahl is a decent second-pairing shutdown option being paid a lot of money for the next six years; Brayden Pachal and Joel Hanley were waiver claims who have punched above their respective weight classes the last two seasons; and Daniil Miromanov and Jake Bean are both classic tweeners. With no shortage of top defensive prospects gunning for NHL jobs in Calgary, don’t be surprised to see plenty of turnover at the position going forward.
GOALTENDING
If there’s one area where the Flames are set, it’s between the pipes. Wolf put together a Calder-worthy year with the Flames in 2024-25, going 29-16-8 with a .910 save percentage on a team that shouldn’t have been anywhere near the playoff picture. With a lesser goalie in Wolf’s place, the Flames would’ve been light years away from finishing ninth in the West.
Wolf is due for a new contract after the 2025-26 season and will undoubtedly command a huge raise over his current salary, a paltry $850,000. He’s the man of the moment in Calgary and looks to have complete control over one of only 32 highly prestigious starting gigs for the foreseeable future. If the Flames do finally turn the corner and become a contender over the next few years, Wolf will assuredly play a key role in that.
But who will serve as Wolf’s backup this year? The Flames have three goalies on one-way contracts but just two spots, with Ivan Prosvetov and Devin Cooley tasked with battling it out for bench duty. Prosvetov, 26, was a highly touted prospect in Arizona years ago and won 20 games in the KHL last season; Cooley, 28, was an AHL All-Star last year but fell off in the map in the second half while dealing with injuries. Prosvetov looks to have the edge for now.
COACHING
Ryan Huska is back for his third season behind the bench in Calgary. The Flames have not made the playoffs with Huska in his current capacity, but he previously served as an assistant for multiple successful Flames teams between 2018 and 2023. The Flames hired Huska to replace Darryl Sutter as head coach prior to the 2023-24 season.
Some good news: Brad Larsen will return to his post as assistant coach under Huska for the 2025-26 season after missing almost all of 2024-25 while attending to a family matter. Larsen previously served as head coach of the Columbus Blue Jackets from 2021 to 2023.
Cail MacLean and Trent Cull, both former head coaches of the Flames’ AHL affiliate, round out Huska’s coaching staff. Jordan Sigalet and Jason LaBarbera are the team’s goaltending coaches, while Jamie “Chips” Pringle is entering his 15th year as video coach.
ROOKIES
Parekh is the big one, and unless he really struggles to keep up with the pace of the NHL, he’ll be given every opportunity to prove his worth in Calgary right from the beginning. The Flames sorely need a star skater and he looks to be their best bet to become just that. Fellow 2024 first-round pick Matvei Gridin is also eligible to turn pro this year, but he’ll likely spend the entire season in the minors.
If the Flames do end up moving Andersson, it wouldn’t be surprising to see Hunter Brzustewicz and Yan Kuznetsov in the running to fill his spot. Brzustewicz — a skilled righty — and Kuznetsov — a rugged lefty — formed a strong pairing last year with the AHL’s Calgary Wranglers and both project to be everyday NHLers. Brzustewicz was the main piece from the Vancouver Canucks in the Elias Lindholm trade back in January 2024.
The Flames’ forward group is mostly set, with Klapka the least established of the bunch (more on him in a second). If someone goes down with injury, we could see one of a handful of unproven farmhands claim a spot. Sam Honzek, Rory Kerins, William Stromgren, and Sam Morton are all candidates to graduate from the Wranglers to the Flames this year; combined, they have just 11 games of NHL experience.
BURNING QUESTIONS
1. When will Rasmus Andersson be traded? Rumors swirled around Andersson pretty much incessantly in the days and weeks leading up to the draft, to the point where everyone seemed to think he was going to the Los Angeles Kings. But that all appears to have cooled down, with Andersson using his leverage as a pending UFA to indicate he won’t sign a contract extension with certain teams, severely limiting the market. The Flames might have to wait until the season starts to work this one out. Either way, it sure doesn’t look like Andersson is staying in Calgary past 2026.
2. When will Connor Zary re-sign? One of only a half-dozen notable RFAs still without a contract for the 2025-26 season, Zary is a good player, but he hasn’t proved enough for a long-term deal. He managed a respectable 13 goals and 27 points in 54 games last year, but he struggled to stay in the lineup due to a pair of scary-looking knee injuries. Drafted as a center, he hasn’t spent much time playing that position with the Flames. It’s a tough one, but it feels like a two-year deal makes the most sense for both parties.
3. Is Adam Klapka primed for a breakout year? Standing in at 6’8″ and 235 pounds, Klapka is one of the largest players in NHL history, and certainly one of the biggest forwards. Unlike many of his 6’8″ brethren, however, he isn’t a goon. The smooth-skating Czech has scored at an impressive clip in the AHL over the last two seasons and managed six goals and 10 points in 31 games with the Flames last year, sometimes playing with Huberdeau and Kadri on the top line. At his size, it’d really be something even if he turned into a legit middle-six option.
PREDICTION
The Flames overachieved in 2024-25. There’s no way around it. Bolstered by excellent goaltending and a defensive group that vastly exceeded the sum of its parts, they finished one point outside the playoffs when they were widely expected to miss by a whole lot more.
But projecting how they might fare in 2025-26 isn’t as simple as saying they’re due for regression. While it’s true that Wolf and the defensemen might not play as well as they did, it’s also unlikely they’ll have as much trouble scoring as they did. Zary, Sharangovich, Farabee, Frost, and Martin Pospisil are all coming off down years, and the Flames finished with the second-worst team shooting percentage in the league. That could change just as easily.
We’ll say that Wolf maintains a certain standard of competence but is unable to completely replicate his stellar rookie year, while the Flames end up with five 20-goal scorers — including a couple of 30-goal guys. They’ll finish 15th in goals for, 16th in goals against, and 17th in the league standings.
Advanced stats courtesy of Natural Stat Trick and MoneyPuck
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