The Calgary Flames have moved past the teardown stage and into the part of the process that actually tests an organization.
That became clear on July 2, when general manager Craig Conroy dealt Blake Coleman and Olli Maatta to the Minnesota Wild for Jake Middleton, a third-round pick in 2027, a fourth-round pick in 2028 and a second-round pick in 2029. It was a notable follow-up to a quiet July 1, when the NHL’s free agency window opened without much noise from Calgary. Coleman had been in trade chatter all last season, and the move came after Conroy had already sent out Rasmus Andersson, Mackenzie Weegar and Nazem Kadri within the last calendar year.
At this point, the message is hard to miss: the teardown is done. What comes next is the grind of building a roster from the bottom up, and that’s where the hard decisions really start.
The 2026-27 season looks like the one that will tell the Flames what they actually have. On paper, this is not a group built to win many games, and fans would be well within their rights to brace for a rough year.
But from the organization’s perspective, that may be the point now. After the return for Coleman, management appears to be leaning into giving young players real NHL minutes and sorting out who belongs and who doesn’t.
The numbers tell the story. Calgary could have 18 forwards and 10, maybe 11, defensemen who deserve at least a look this season, not counting Connor Zary amid the trade rumours.
With a 23-man roster, injuries and any midseason movement involving the six players on expiring contracts should give head coach Ryan Huska enough room to rotate players through and get a better read on the group. That should help the front office identify the gaps, especially with all of their first-round picks currently playing outside the organization.
There’s also more help coming. The Flames have made it clear they expect Carson Carels, the sixth-overall pick in the 2026 NHL Entry Draft, along with Cole Reschny and Cullen Potter, their two first-round picks in 2025, to sign once their NCAA seasons are over. Conroy said, “I have to save contracts for them,” and added, “they said the same thing to me: ‘We all want to come out (of college hockey) after the year.’”
That group could grow even more. Ethan Wyttenbach, a Hobey Baker finalist last season, is showing more than the usual fifth-round pick upside, and Jack Hextall and Chase Harrington, both selected in the first two rounds of this year’s draft, are in the mix too. Then there’s the likelihood that Calgary will add another prospect, probably a top-10 pick and maybe even a top-five one, after another difficult 2026-27 season.
None of that makes the rebuild easy. In fact, the NHL has plenty of examples showing how messy these projects can get.
Ottawa drafted Brady Tkachuk in 2018, found Shane Pinto in the second round in 2019, then landed Jake Sanderson and Tim Stutzle in the first round in 2020. Even with that talent, the Senators have made the playoffs only twice and lost in the first round both times.
This summer, they traded Tkachuk to the Florida Panthers per his request.
Anaheim’s path has been just as bumpy. The Ducks had a top-10 pick every year from 2019 through 2024, using those selections on Trevor Zegras, Jamie Drysdale, Mason McTavish, Pavel Mintyukov, Leo Carlsson and Beckett Sennecke.
They finally got back to the playoffs last season for the first time since 2018-19 and looked like they were turning the corner, but now they have traded McTavish to the St. Louis Blues for draft picks and must match the Philadelphia Flyers’ $18 million annual offer sheet to keep Carlsson for the next five seasons or lose him for more picks.
Calgary knows this game can drag on, too. The Flames drafted Sean Monahan, Sam Bennett, Rasmus Andersson and Matthew Tkachuk in consecutive drafts while having Jonny Gaudreau, and only Andersson stayed put.
After moving out the veterans who still had trade value, there’s nothing left to strip away. What’s left is a strong prospect pool and a long list of decisions that have to be made carefully.
That’s the real challenge now. One offer sheet, one trade request, one wrong move, and the whole thing can tilt.
The Flames are not in panic mode, but 2026-27 is where the rebuild gets serious. Conroy’s job is to steer it toward a Utah Mammoth-style rise, not the endless loop Ottawa and Anaheim seem stuck in.
In Other News...
Steve Staios Just Faced A Huge Claude Giroux Test
When free agency opened, Steve Staios made it clear he did not want to treat Claude Giroux like just another name on the board. The Senators executive kept a roster spot available for the veteran, a sign Ottawa valued more than production from a player who has become one of the teams most trusted voices and a steadying presence in the room.
The push to keep Giroux around has been going on for months, with the Senators even putting a contract in front of him before the trade deadline. His role has only grown more important as leadership questions have sharpened around the roster, and Giroux has repeatedly sounded comfortable in Ottawas locker room, where he has said he enjoys being around the group. [Read more 🡒]
Wild Quietly Secured Important Right Side Blue Line Depth
Arthur Kaliyevs season in the Senators organization was productive enough to turn heads in the AHL, where he piled up goals and points for Belleville before Ottawa decided not to tender him a qualifying offer. He also barely saw NHL ice with the Senators, which made his situation one of the more notable roster decisions of the summer for a club trying to sort out its depth and decide which players fit into the long-term picture.
Now the next chapter is already drawing interest overseas, with multiple KHL clubs watching the wingers market as he moves into unrestricted free agency. For Ottawa, it is another reminder that a player can be useful at one level and still end up somewhere else entirely when contract decisions have to be made. [Read more 🡒]
Oilers Power Play Could Be Headed For A Risky New Direction
The Senators made sure Claude Giroux isnt going anywhere after all, bringing him back on a one-year deal that keeps a familiar veteran presence in the room as Ottawa continues to build around its young core. Its a move that fits the clubs broader approach: keep enough experience around to steady the lineup while still giving the next wave of players room to grow.
Girouxs return also gives Ottawa a little more certainty in a summer where veteran pieces around the league are still shifting, from coaching changes in Toronto to roster tweaks in Edmonton. For the Senators, the appeal is straightforward enough, but the structure of the contract shows there was more going on behind the scenes than a simple reunion, and the final terms say plenty about how both sides viewed the fit. [Read more 🡒]