After the 2022 offseason, the Calgary Flames looked poised to remain contenders despite icing a new-look roster. The departures of Johnny Gaudreau, Matthew Tkachuk, and Sean Monahan were mirrored by the arrivals of Jonathan Huberdeau, Nazem Kadri, and MacKenzie Weegar. Lengthy contracts were given to the trio and the future of the Flames was already determined before any of them saw a minute of NHL ice time in a Flames jersey. They were supposed to be contenders.
Fast forward two years later, and the Flames are knocking on the door of a rebuild. Two straight seasons with disappointing finishes took the team much closer to being a rebuilding team than a competing one. Whether management, ownership, pundits, or players want to call it that or not, the actions taken by the team speak louder than the words.
Calgary’s cap situation
As of July 9, the Flames are 32nd in the league in terms of projected cap hit as per CapFriendly.com. With a roster size of 21 players, their cap hit currently totals out to $66,250,833. This includes Jacob Markstrom‘s retained salary of $1.875M, as well as contracts to be determined for restricted free agents (RFAs) Dustin Wolf and Nikita Okhotiuk. Even after tending to their two RFAs here, the Flames will be well below the salary cap.
The Flames are one of three teams with over $20.0M in cap space, and they will realistically be entering the 2024–25 ranked 31st overall in terms of total cap hit. Only the Anaheim Ducks and Detroit Red Wings join the Flames in this regard. The Ducks already have 23 of 23 roster spots filled and they come in at a cap hit of just north of $67.0M, while the Red Wings have 19 contracts with a cap hit of just under $68.0M.
A change of heart in contending
Throughout the 2023–24 season, the Flames were very much in the mindset of one foot in, one foot out in terms of whether they could make the playoffs. They held onto Markstrom past the trade deadline just in case they could sneak into the clearly elusive second wild card spot. Despite that, the Flames acquired plenty of draft capital for their slew of pending free agents and came out of the 2024 NHL Draft with a haul.
Then they entered free agency successfully selling the idea that they’re rebuilding to incoming players. The contracts of Anthony Mantha, Ryan Lomberg, and Jake Bean don’t exactly scream “playoff team,” instead it very clearly spells out what this team is trying to do here. These short-term contracts are to fill roster spots and potentially act as trade deadline assets. If say Mantha has high outputs on the scoresheet, he could be an attractive deadline add for a contending team.
Somehow, a team that is paying Huberdeau $10.5M only has about $46M committed to 13 forwards. Their defence corps should total somewhere in the range of $17.0M–18.0M, and their goalies will come in under $5.0M.
The Flames came out of free agency with a clear sign and direction and they’re now playing for their future and not their present.
Using the cap space
The Flames are poised to be in a very good position to utilise their cap space to acquire more assets for the rebuild. There are plenty of teams that will struggle to navigate the salary cap despite the increase to $88.0M this season. When those teams need to ice NHL-ready rosters, they should be calling the Flames to make deals.
Calgary needs to know that they’re not going to be winning too many games with this roster and it’d be a surprise if they don’t finish in the bottom 10. Using their cap space to get more draft capital—especially looking toward a deep 2025 draft class all while still having uncertainty around their 2025 first-round pick when they traded Monahan to the Canadiens—will be a wise move for Craig Conroy and Co.
A new era is coming for Calgary
The Flames not-so-quietly started making moves that spell out “rebuild” in bolded, italicised, underlined, and highlighted letters. The first few days of the offseason proved that this team is now looking at a different window to contend for the Stanley Cup, one that perhaps builds around Dustin Wolf, Zayne Parekh, and Matt Coronato. The Flames will still have veteran players in Huberdeau, Kadri, Weegar, etc., but no one would have predicted that they’re going to play the mentor roles for the up-and-coming Flames instead of being the star players they were brought in to be.
Whatever happens in the next few years really does start this offseason. The Flames picked a direction and are seemingly committing to it, and they’ll have plenty of options to work with when it comes to using the salary cap to their advantage.
Let’s hope it works out in Calgary’s favour.
