Calgary Flames forward Jonathan Huberdeau is facing a longer road back than the team had hoped.
General manager Craig Conroy said Wednesday that Huberdeau has dealt with “a little bit of a setback” in his recovery from hip resurfacing surgery, raising the possibility that he may not be ready when the 2026-27 season opens.
Speaking with Jock Wilson on QR770 in Calgary, Conroy said the Flames aren’t going to push the veteran winger before he’s fully ready.
“This is a major surgery, so he had a little bit of a setback maybe two weeks ago with his skating,” Conroy said. “With that, we just want to make sure we do the right thing for him, and if it is to take a little bit more time and have him 100 percent feeling good about the hip, that’s what we’re going to do.
“In the gym, everything else is real positive. We just want to make sure that when he’s on the ice and taking that physical contact, that he’s ready.
But it’s coming, and it’s still on his schedule. We’re not going to rush him into something.
We feel that at the beginning of the [season], he’s going to be pretty close. It’s just when - we’re not 100 percent sure yet.”
Huberdeau, 33, had his season cut short after undergoing the procedure in March. He played 50 games in 2025-26, finishing with 10 goals and 25 points while managing hip pain through much of the year before being shut down in late January.
The challenge ahead is a serious one. Hip resurfacing has ended more NHL careers than it has extended, and only a small group of players have made it back and stayed productive. Chicago Blackhawks forward Patrick Kane is among the rare success stories, while players such as Ed Jovanovski and Ryan Kesler had far tougher returns.
Huberdeau still has five years and $52.5 million left on the contract he signed with Calgary in 2022. The Flames landed him, MacKenzie Weegar, Cole Schwindt, and a 2025 first-round pick in the deal that sent Matthew Tkachuk to the Florida Panthers. Tkachuk went on to win back-to-back Stanley Cups in his new home while Huberdeau has struggled to match expectations in Calgary.
Over four seasons with the Flames, Huberdeau has produced 65 goals and 194 points in 291 games. His strongest stretch in Calgary came in 2024-25, when he scored 28 goals and 62 points in 81 games and earned praise for playing a more physical, two-way style. Even so, the Flames missed the playoffs again, continuing a run that has stretched through every season of his tenure.
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