The Calgary Flames will close one more chapter at the Saddledome on October 1, 2026, when they host the Seattle Kraken in their final home opener at the arena they have called home since 1983. By October 2027, the Flames will be playing out of Scotia Place, which makes this one feel like a real end-of-era moment.
The Kraken, one of Calgary’s closest geographic neighbors, had never before been the Flames’ home-opener opponent. They’ll be the 16th different team to do it, and the last one to do it at the Saddledome.
That gives the matchup a place in a long line of Calgary season-openers that have ranged from rough to wildly entertaining. The very first one at the Saddledome came against the Edmonton Oilers, with Lanny McDonald scoring the Flames’ first goal in the building, only for Calgary to fall 4-3.
Two years later, the Flames finally got their first home-opener win in style, hammering the Jets 8-3. Detroit later came in and got buried 10-3, and the Oilers were on the wrong end of a 9-goal night two years after that.
Over the first 10 Saddledome home openers, Calgary went 4-6, with two of those losses coming in overtime.
Extra time has not been kind to the Flames on opening night. The most recent overtime loss came in 2021-22, a 3-2 defeat to the Ducks. The late 2000s were especially frustrating, with overtime losses to the Stars in 2005-26 and to the Canucks in both 2007-8 and 2008-9.
Shutouts, though, have been a different story. Calgary has picked up four home-opener shutouts and only been shut out once in those games.
More recently, the Flames have actually built a strong run at home to open the season. After dropping a 5-3 decision to the Oilers to begin 2016-17, Calgary won the next four home openers and has lost only once in regulation since. That lone regulation loss came last season against St Louis, the first time since the Ducks game that the Flames failed to take two points in a home opener.
The standout from that stretch came in 2022-23, when the Stanley Cup champion Avs came to town. They arrived as the clear favorite against a heavily changed Flames team and left with a 5-3 loss.
The Canucks, meanwhile, became a familiar October visitor in Calgary during the late 2000s and 2010s. The 2007-8 overtime loss was the first of nine home-opener meetings between the teams over 14 years.
Vancouver won five of the first six, with Calgary’s lone victory in that early run coming in 2009-10, a 5-3 win. More recently, the Flames flipped that script, beating the Canucks in three straight home openers from 2018-19 through 2020-21, including a 7-4 result and back-to-back 3-0 wins.
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For a club that has seen mid-round picks turn into real NHL players before, that kind of early production matters. Wyttenbach is still in the part of the process where development can go in a lot of different directions, and the jump from college dominance to pro impact is never simple. But when a prospect is already producing at that level in his first season, it gives the Flames another name worth watching closely as the system continues to take shape. [Read more 🡒]