Patience is key for the Flames’ offseason

The Calgary Flames took a significant step back in 2025-26, although last season was more about how much they overperformed instead of this season being an underperformance. While they were hoping their struggles would net the franchise their first top-three pick at the NHL Draft, the Toronto Maple Leafs and San Jose Sharks winning the lottery means the Flames have moved down to sixth.

So how should the Flames approach their offseason? Tyler Yaremchuk and Carter Hutton talk about how Calgary’s summer shouldn’t be flashy on Daily Faceoff Live.

Tyler Yaremchuk: I’ll be honest with you, [the Flames are a] pretty boring team to preview the offseason for because I don’t know how much they’re going to get up to. They are firmly in a rebuild. They have a whole bunch of draft picks. Two first rounders this year. They actually have multiple first-round picks in each of the next three first rounds. They have four second rounders this year. They’re going to be going up to the podium eight times in the first three rounds as of right now.

As lame as this is, I think the number one thing the Flames must do this offseason is just nail those draft picks. I don’t think you need to start spending these assets and bringing in players in their late 20s or 30s to try to be a quick fix. You just need to sit, make the picks and be patient.

Carter Hutton: Yeah, I think that’s an important factor, patience, right now. Where they’re at and what they’ve built and what they’re into. There’s a few question marks. I think the way Zayne Parekh’s season went, how him being a big part of that future and it was an ugly year the way he was distributed. Would he have been better in the minors developing his game instead of playing 37 games, having nine points, where if he would have been able to play more of a full season in the minors and keep developing.

And the other one for me is Matt Coronato. He took a big step back this year. In 80 games, only 18 goals. He’s at [$6.5 million] a year, where he scored 24 the year before. At some points, he was a healthy scratch during the season. So that is a big factor.

I know Blake Coleman’s name has been thrown around a lot in the trade market. I think Dustin Wolf needs to play a little less. And I think Cooley did a really good job of playing that. So it’ll be interesting to see how they platoon them out into next year.

But that being said, it seems like the draft and developing is where this team is going to hopefully turn around, so when that new arena is built, they got a reason to put fans in it.

You can watch the full episode here…