There is a lot to like about the direction the Calgary Flames are taking. The problem is the part that matters most in the standings.
Craig Conroy spent the offseason reinforcing a blue line that could grow into one of the NHL’s best young groups, and Dustin Wolf gives Calgary something rebuilding teams usually spend years trying to find in goal. That side of the roster looks promising. Up front, the picture is much murkier.
The Flames made their biggest swing on Simon Nemec, and they did not make it quietly. Calgary sent New Jersey two conditional first-round picks, a second-rounder and prospect Etienne Morin for Nemec and Maxim Tsyplakov, then locked Nemec into a five-year deal worth $36.25 million. That is a major investment in a 22-year-old defenseman, and it tells you exactly how much the Flames believe in his ceiling.
Nemec, the second overall pick in 2022, scored 11 goals last season. Calgary is banking on a bigger role helping him become the player New Jersey once projected.
Slot him alongside Zayne Parekh, Kevin Bahl and veteran Jake Middleton, and the Flames suddenly have real heft on the back end. With Wolf behind that group, the defensive foundation starts to make sense.
The forward group is where the strain shows.
Calgary finished last in the NHL in scoring last season at 2.54 goals per game, then dealt Blake Coleman, one of only two players on the roster to hit 20 goals. The move made sense in the larger picture. Coleman is 34 and in the final year of his contract, and the return from Minnesota - Middleton plus three draft picks - fits a team that is still working through its timeline.
But draft picks do not fill the net in October.
Matt Coronato led the offense with 18 goals last season and, at 23, may still have another gear. Even so, asking him to carry the attack would be too much.
Morgan Frost, Joel Farabee and Connor Zary have flashed ability. Yegor Sharangovich has already shown he can score 30 goals, though that season was followed by a steep drop-off.
The pieces are there, but the Flames still do not have a true difference-maker up front.
And then there is Jonathan Huberdeau, the name that always seems to hang over these conversations.
Huberdeau had hip surgery in March and is trying to restart a career that has never really settled since leaving Florida. He still has five seasons left on his deal at a $10.5 million cap hit. Calgary does not need him to be the 115-point player he once was, but it absolutely needs more than the uneven production he has delivered since arriving.
If Huberdeau comes back healthy and productive, the forward group looks a lot different. Betting on that outcome, though, is a risky way to open a season.
The Flames may be good enough to stay in the mix. They probably are not scoring enough to get where they want to go. Conroy would be wise to resist the temptation to chase a quick fix and spend premium assets on an aging forward just because the Saddledome’s farewell season brings extra pressure.
Calgary has spent too many years living near the playoff line without becoming a real threat. Doing that again would not solve much.
The outline is finally there: Wolf in net, Nemec and Parekh on the back end, and a defense that could be a strength for years. What the Flames still need is the player who can become the face of their offense. Until he arrives, this is a team built to keep the puck out of its own net while politely declining to score much of its own.
In Other News...
Morgan Frost Faces Huge Chance In Calgarys New Top Center Role
Morgan Frost is headed into a very different kind of season in Calgary, one that could define how the Flames are built down the middle after Nazem Kadris departure. The expectation is that Frost will slide into the top-center job and pick up the kind of ice time and responsibility that comes with it, a major shift for a player whose last three seasons have shown enough production to suggest there is more to unlock if the role expands.
The appeal for Calgary is obvious: a healthy Frost playing all 82 games would get a full runway to show whether his game can translate when the workload rises and the matchups get tougher. The projection built around his recent track record points to a real opportunity rather than a finished answer, which is exactly why this season feels so important for the Flames as they try to figure out what their center group looks like next. [Read more 🡒]
Flames Nearly Pulled Off Star Trades That Could Still Haunt Fans
A few of the biggest what-ifs in Flames history keep circling back because the franchise has spent years coming close to headline-grabbing moves without ever fully crossing the line. The latest reminder comes from the old trade chatter around Jack Eichel, when Calgary was right in the mix during the 2021 sweepstakes and the clubs willingness to chase a true No. 1 center fit a long-running pattern of aggressive, high-stakes discussions that also included near-deals involving Matthew Tkachuk, Jarome Iginla and Miikka Kiprusoff.
What makes those rumors linger is how much they could have altered the arc of the team, especially with different eras of the roster hanging in the balance. Calgary fans have lived through enough near misses to know that some of the most painful moments in hindsight are not the trades that happened, but the ones that were close enough to imagine in full detail and yet still slipped away before the finish line. [Read more 🡒]
Flames Could Face A Tough Expansion Choice Around Dustin Wolf
A fresh mock expansion draft from The Athletic has put a spotlight on one of the trickier roster questions facing Calgary as the club continues to build around Dustin Wolf. Based on projected 2026-27 rosters, the exercise suggests the Flames would be in position to protect Wolf and the rest of their rebuilding core, but the goalie picture would not come out perfectly clean if a new team were to enter the league.
The wrinkle is the kind of depth issue contenders and rebuilders alike hope to avoid: a valuable backup or organizational insurance piece could become the odd man out in a theoretical expansion scenario. There is no official NHL expansion draft on the calendar, but the discussion is still useful for Calgary because it shows how quickly goalie depth, contract timing and long-term planning can collide when a team has one clear starter and a young core worth shielding. [Read more 🡒]