Should the Calgary Flames buy out Yegor Sharangovich?
The Calgary Flames have one contract that stands out as the obvious problem child, and that’s Jonathan Huberdeau’s $84M deal at an AAV of $10.5M. But Yegor Sharangovich isn’t far behind in the conversation. His $28.75M contract, which pays him $5.75M annually, has become a major issue of its own, especially for a 28-year-old Belarus native who arrived in Calgary as the main piece of the Tyler Toffoli trade in 2023.
For a while, it looked like Sharangovich might be on the rise. He opened his contract year in 2023-24 slowly, then caught fire once December 2023 hit and finished with a career-best 31 goals and 59 points. That breakout season was enough for the Flames to reward him with a new 5-year deal.
Since then, though, the production hasn’t matched the paycheck. Over 151 games after the extension, Sharangovich has managed just 32 goals and 62 points.
Instead of holding down a bigger role, he’s been mostly parked on the Flames’ third and fourth lines. For a player earning nearly $6 million a year, that’s a tough look.
Calgary has seen this movie before, too, with Andrew Mangiapane.
Mangiapane put together a huge 2021-22 season with 35 goals and 55 points, then signed a 3-year contract carrying a $5.8M cap hit. The comparison is hard to ignore: both players showed real finishing ability, then ran into trouble after getting paid. Mangiapane is now a top-nine winger for the Chicago Blackhawks after being traded by the Edmonton Oilers eight months into his two-year contract.
Sharangovich’s own slide has been a little of everything - injured, healthy, scratched, and pushed aside in favor of younger players. His shooting percentage dropped from 17.3% in 2023-24 to 10.6% this past season.
The earlier version of Sharangovich was letting it rip every chance he got. Lately, he’s looked far more cautious.
That fits the pattern he’s shown going back to New Jersey: bursts of scoring, followed by stretches of inconsistency.
So does a buyout make sense? The Flames now have players like Matvei Gridin, Matt Coronato and Joel Farabee earning spots in the top 6, which leaves Sharangovich on the outside looking in.
His contract appears unmovable, and a buyout may be the only real path for both sides to move on. There’s also the question of whether the money itself has weighed on him, with the possibility that he feels pressure to justify every dollar of that $5.75M salary.
There’s still talent there, but it may fit better as depth scoring on a contender rather than in a role that asks him to be a franchise sniper on a team in transition. NHL rules don’t allow a buyout during the regular season, so the earliest the Flames could take that route would be June 2027.
A mutual contract termination could happen at any time, though that remains unlikely and would send Sharangovich to free agency. In that scenario, he might be better suited at a much lower cap hit in a bottom-six role for a team like Minnesota, Florida, Vegas or Edmonton.
If a trade or termination never comes together, the Flames may need to seriously consider a buyout this upcoming June.
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