Craig Conroy and the rest of the Calgary Flames’ management team came to a decision at this year’s NHL trade deadline to sell off any expiring assets who were not interested in signing long-term with the Flames. At this point in time, the news of Tyler Toffoli, Nikita Zadorov, Elias Lindholm, Chris Tanev and Noah Hanifin is in the past and the team is moving forward. What this will mean is that the Flames are going to have tons of cap space this summer because extensions were not given out.
The team is in a transitional period, but it will still be tempting for Conroy to use the money he has to spend to bring new players into the organization; the question will be, who will Conroy and the Flames decide to target? The Flames will have to be careful with who they use their cap space on, but it is still a discussion worth having as the summer is not too far in the distance.
How much cap space will the Flames have?
The first question to answer is: how much money will the Flames have to spend? Well, according to CapFriendly.com, with all the players on the Flames’ main roster that are signed through next season, they have a projected cap hit of $68,800,833.
The cap is expected to rise to $87.7 million next season, which will leave the Flames with about $18,899,167 of cap space to spend. Quite a bit more than they had to work with a year ago. That is also not taking into account a potential trade of goaltender Jacob Markstrom, which—with zero retention—will give them an extra $6.0M.
Current Flames set to become free agents
The first order of business for Conroy and the rest of the management team will be deciding who they will want to bring back and what kind of new deals some of the players will get.
Going into the summer, the Flames will have three unrestricted free agents: Oliver Kylington, Dennis Gilbert, and A.J. Greer. I would imagine Kylington will be back, and I can see a scenario in which Gilbert and Greer both return, as they both have been solid in their roles this season when called upon. Jordan Oesterle—who is with the Calgary Wranglers right now—will also be an unrestricted free agent by year’s end but will most likely not be brought back.
The Flames will also have three restricted free agents: Jakob Pelletier, Nikita Okhotiuk, and Dustin Wolf. All three players will be back with the team and will probably get a slight raise on their entry-level deals. There are obviously going to be a bunch of restricted free agents who are currently with the Wranglers, and it is anyone’s guess as to who will be brought back and who will go unqualified.
Who could the Flames target?
There will be a few roster spots that will need to be filled next season, primarily on the blueline. We don’t know what moves will be made prior to July 1, but it is important to keep in mind that if the Flames do not finish in the bottom ten of the league-wide standings next year, they will lose their first-round pick to the Montreal Canadiens as part of the Sean Monahan trade made in the summer of 2022.
So, Conroy will have to be careful about who he decides to pursue. If the Flames are not a contender next year and are still in a middling position, there is a decent chance they could lose their first-round pick. That would be a major blow to a franchise that absolutely needs it.
When talking about free agents, the name I have seen pop up the most is Sam Reinhart, who is enjoying a career season with the Florida Panthers. Let me first say that I am in no way advocating for the Flames to pursue Reinhart as a target. He is a good player, no doubt, but this is a player playing on a loaded Panthers team and shooting at the highest percentage of his career. For a guy who may demand upwards of $11 million on the open market, the Flames should stay away. He is from western Canada and has played with Jonathan Huberdeau in the past, but that contract is a disaster waiting to happen.
I think the Flames will be interested in depth pieces more than anything when it comes to free agency. When looking at available forwards, I can see players like Sam Lafferty, Jordan Martinook, and Dakota Joshua being potential options to help fill out the bottom-six and on the penalty kill. I don’t think there are any high-end forwards on the market who would be interested in playing for a retooling Flames team, or any players who fit the Flames’ current landscape, which should be getting younger.
On the backend, I would not rule out a possible reunion with Chris Tanev, especially if he goes on to win a Stanley Cup with the Dallas Stars this season. As of just a couple of weeks ago, the Flames only had three defencemen signed through next season; today, they will have six. They would still need a couple of extra bodies, and that does not include possible extensions for Kylington or Gilbert or the emergence of players from the Wranglers. I wonder about Mark Giordano coming back to Calgary to finish his career where it started, or someone like Tyson Barrie to help the power play, which has been a disaster once again this season.
Flames should proceed with caution
We have seen it plenty of times in the past where teams who have so much cap space spend it all on players that they did not need. I think of Brad Treliving and what he did with the Toronto Maple Leafs just last summer, and I think of Ken Holland and what he did with the Edmonton Oilers in the summer of 2021.
Conroy has to enter this summer with some caution; he cannot sign any deals that will hinder the team’s long-term outlook, and he has to ensure that he is doing something that will have the team retain their first-round pick in 2025. Conroy has done some good things so far, but this summer will be the test of what he is really made of.
Photo by Brett Holmes/Icon Sportswire
