A few days after a busy stretch that included the 2026 NHL Draft and a round of roster decisions on Monday, the Calgary Flames’ organizational picture is starting to come into focus.
The Flames made nine picks over Friday and Saturday, then chose not to tender qualifying offers to seven pending restricted free agents. With unrestricted free agency set to open Wednesday morning, the roster math for both Calgary and the Wranglers is getting a lot more interesting.
In goal, the NHL situation looks pretty straightforward. Dustin Wolf and Devin Cooley are the clear tandem, while Kirill Zarubin and Arsenii Sergeev appear lined up to handle the AHL work. The system also includes Daniil Chechelev in the VHL, plus Tobias Trejbal and Yegor Yegorov at the NCAA level.
Flames director of goaltending Jordan Sigalet told Sportsnet’s Pat Steinberg on Flames Talk on Monday that Owen Say is likely to be brought back on an AHL deal once he’s medically cleared from surgery he had last season. Sigalet also indicated another goalie will probably be added on an AHL deal.
The blue line is where things start to get crowded. Kevin Bahl, Olli Maatta, Zach Whitecloud, Simon Nemec, Zayne Parekh and Yan Kuznetsov look like the NHL locks, leaving Joel Hanley, Brayden Pachal and Hunter Brzustewicz to battle for what could be one or two remaining spots. Brzustewicz has the easiest path to the minors because he’s waiver exempt, but that doesn’t guarantee anything.
There’s a strong chance the Wranglers will need outside help on defence, too. Axel Hurtig and Abram Wiebe are the only clear AHL names currently in the mix, which means a lot of the depth chart still needs to be filled in.
Up the middle, the veteran trio of Ryan Strome, Morgan Frost and Mikael Backlund are the obvious NHL certainties. After that, the picture gets hazy.
Sam Morton and Tyson Gross are in the conversation for the fourth-line centre job, but the Flames could also try an NHL winger there, such as Yegor Sharangovich or Martin Pospisil. Rory Kerins is another option, since he has been used at both centre and wing in the AHL.
Calgary could also still add someone from outside.
That question may not be settled quickly. The exhibition schedule is only four games this year, and veterans are limited to two appearances, so there isn’t much runway before the games start counting in the standings in late September.
For the Wranglers, Jonathan Castagna is the main centre already in place, with Morton, Gross and Kerins likely rotating through the rest. Theo Stockselius is being assumed to go back to his Swedish club for now unless that changes.
On the wing, the Flames have an abundance of NHL options. Jonathan Huberdeau, Matt Coronato, Yegor Sharangovich, Joel Farabee, Blake Coleman, Connor Zary, Martin Pospisil, Maxim Tsyplakov and Adam Klapka are the one-way names that stand out. Flames general manager Craig Conroy said on Saturday that Huberdeau is on track to return at the same start of the season.
That still leaves Calgary with more wingers than places to put them. Matvei Gridin looks extremely hard to keep off the NHL roster, and Sam Honzek is not far behind.
That gives the Flames 11 wingers for eight NHL spots, even before considering whether one of them might line up at centre. If someone struggles in camp, waivers could come into play for one of the last three players, though that’s a bridge for later.
The AHL wing group looks far more settled for now, with Andrew Basha, Aydar Suniev, Rory Kerins, Dryden Hunt, Brennan Othmann and William Stromgren giving the Wranglers a group that could form a strong top two or three lines. Kerins can move between wing and centre as needed, which only adds to his usefulness in the lineup.
The organizational board is still going to change once free agency opens, but after the draft and Monday’s qualifying-offer decisions, the Flames are already deep enough at several positions that the squeeze is obvious.
In Other News...
Flames Linked To Two Trade Targets Fans Did Not Expect
The Flames are already being talked about as a team to watch in the 2026 offseason, and the early buzz is a little different than expected. A report from David Pagnotta tied Calgary to two names that do not fit the usual rebuild shorthand, with one profile suggesting a player who could grow into a long-term top-line piece and the other looking far less likely to match what the roster has become after recent changes.
Boston also lingers in the background here because of the failed trade-deadline framework that once had Rasmus Andersson heading there before it unraveled, and that history adds another layer to Calgary's offseason intrigue. For now, none of this is close to turning into action, and the bigger point is simply that the Flames are being linked to options that say a lot about how they may want to shape the next stage of the roster, even if a deal is not expected anytime soon. [Read more 🡒]
Why Are The Flames Being Linked To This Veteran Idea
The Flames are heading into free agency with a fairly clear message from Craig Conroy: this is not shaping up as a summer for aggressive shopping. Calgary has already created two retention slots through recent contract expirations and trades, but the clubs bigger priority still appears to be keeping its roster flexible while the youth movement takes hold. Around the league, that naturally leaves room for speculation about whether the Flames could still find a short-term veteran fit if the price and the role line up.
TSN floated one such idea, but the fit looks imperfect on paper. The player in question is a wing, and that is already one of Calgarys deeper areas, which makes the match harder to justify for a team trying to sort out its long-term roster balance. Even with a solid recent season behind him, the more realistic path for the Flames may be to wait out the market unless a much cleaner opening develops. [Read more 🡒]
Flames Just Sent A Clear Message About Which Young Players Matter
The Flames made one of those quiet but telling roster-management moves that can shape the summer, issuing qualifying offers to Simon Nemec, Brennan Othmann and William Stromgren as the organization sorts out which young pieces it wants to keep under contract. At the same time, Calgary laid out its 25-man prospect development camp roster, a mix of recent draft picks and undrafted invites that gives a fresh look at the pipeline before the real business of free agency and offseason add-ons heats up.
Development camp runs this week at WinSport, with young players getting an early chance to show where they fit in the organizations plans. The larger picture is still fluid, and theres plenty of speculation about what Calgary might do next in free agency, but the list of who got a qualifying offer, and who didnt, already says plenty about which players the club views as part of the conversation going forward. [Read more 🡒]