The Calgary Flames have gone from looking like a team headed straight for the bottom of the standings to one that suddenly has people wondering if they’re winning a little too much.
That’s the twist after a brutal start that saw Calgary open the season on a four-game losing streak, fall to a minus-19 goal differential, and look completely uncompetitive. Since then, the Flames have flipped the script with a 7-4-0 run and climbed to within one point of a playoff spot.
What makes that run so notable is where the Flames were supposed to land before the season. They entered the year viewed as one of the favorites to finish with the NHL’s worst record and put themselves in position for the best odds at the number one overall pick in the 2027 NHL Draft next June. Instead, solid goaltending and strong play from a defense loaded with young talent have helped push them into a far more surprising place.
That tension was the focus on Wednesday’s episode of Daily Faceoff LIVE, where host Tyler Yaremchuk and former NHL goaltender Carter Hutton talked through what Calgary’s hot stretch could mean for the bigger picture.
Yaremchuk pointed to the Flames’ win over the San Jose Sharks on Tuesday night and the fact that it moved them within striking distance of a playoff position. He framed the dilemma from both sides, noting that Calgary can’t afford to be a team that gets blown out night after night, even in a rebuilding phase. At the same time, he raised the question of whether the Flames are drifting into the same territory they’ve occupied in recent seasons: not good enough to make the playoffs, but not bad enough to land a premium draft pick.
Hutton said that’s exactly the concern. He pointed to Connor Zari being sent down, along with Devin Cooley getting hot and then getting injured, which he said almost repelled Dustin Wolf, while the team has continued to play a strong brand of hockey. From his view, that puts Calgary in a tricky spot if the goal is to improve without sacrificing the future.
He described the danger as ending up in the middle again - stuck around ninth or 10th in the Western Conference, missing the postseason and missing out on the kind of draft position that could change the trajectory of the franchise. Hutton also brought up the Toronto Maple Leafs as an example of a different path, saying, “The first team that comes to mind for me is the Toronto Maple Leafs, where you look at, they have one bad year and they win the lottery and they get Gavin McKenna, and now they’re right back in the hunt again?”
For Calgary, the question now is how long this run can last, and what it means if it does. The Flames have gone from looking like a safe bet to finish near the bottom to a team that’s suddenly making the standings a lot more complicated than expected.
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Matt Coronato, Matvei Gridin, Zayne Parekh, Aydar Suniev, Jonathan Castagna and Joel Farabee have all played a part in the recent push, giving the Flames something more valuable than a temporary hot streak. For fans who were already eyeing draft position, the standings have made that debate messier, because the teams progress is starting to look less like a detour and more like evidence that the rebuild may be moving faster than expected. [Read more 🡒]