It’s been a relatively quiet summer for the Calgary Flames, and it sounds like that is exactly what management envisioned. On the latest episode of 32 Thoughts, Elliotte Friedman and new co-host Kyle Bukauskas went over and gave their thoughts about each team. Here are their touchpoints on the Flames and where they stand heading into the 2024-25 season:
The Flames are in a rebuild but want to keep some veterans around
“Craig Conroy clearly has a plan. His plan is to start turning over his team a little bit. We talked before about teams getting completely run over and not being competitive and your young players getting manhandled. He’s stopped short of that. He said I’m not going to bring in veterans. I’m going to keep them. Yes, he brought in a couple, but he kept a couple. And that was what he wanted to do. I don’t think he wanted to completely tear it down. I think we can all see where the flames are going. They are in a rebuild. But he didn’t want to do it to where the young players starting up would get completely destroyed on ice.” – Elliotte Friedman
This is a great mindset from Conroy and the Flames management. Fans have been asking for a rebuild for several seasons now. But that doesn’t mean tearing everything down to nothing. Keeping some veteran players around is important. I still think the Flames can and will shed a few more of their veterans during this process. But it’s essential to keep some of that veteran leadership around if those players want to stay.
Calgary wants a quiet start to the season, but there could be some noise if they get off to a rough start
“There have been some rumors about some of the Flames players. This is what I believe is going on. I think there are some players who are still there have said, look, if this is a complete teardown, I’d like you to think about something else for me. Craig Conroy has said, look, last year was a really difficult summer for us. This year’s been a much better summer. It’s been a lot quieter. I’d like to keep it that way. Plan is to start the year, see how it goes, and then decide what he’s going to do with some of these players. He’s asked these players to keep an open mind, see how it goes and then he’ll start looking at what he might need to do or what they want to do. I think those players said okay we will do that. So I think that’s where we are with the Flames. Let’s start the year. See how it goes and then we’ll talk about what the future of some of these players might be. But I know Conroy told teams that, I heard he told players that, and I believe that that is his plan. Now, if somebody steps up with a huge offer for something, that may change everything.” – Elliotte Friedman
This makes a lot of sense. Friedman didn’t list the veteran players, but we can certainly have our suspicions. Regardless, this is a similar ideology to last year. They were in contract talks with a few of their pending UFAs before both sides decided to pause things. Things played out how they did, and the Flames embraced the situation they now find themselves in. So, I like that they are going to take their time with things. The great thing about not having too many pending UFAs is that they can take their time. They’ll have to make decisions on guys like Andrei Kuzmenko and Anthony Mantha before the trade deadline.
But other veterans like Rasmus Andersson, Nazem Kadri, and Blake Coleman still have some term left on their deals. There’s no rush to moving those guys – if you’re going to move them at all – unless things get off to a rough start and they ask out. I look at Andersson, who has two years left on his deal and has been in Calgary for some time, as a guy who could look to move on if the team is bottomed early on. Same thing for Nazem Kadri, who will be 34 by season start and may welcome a move to a contender. Ultimately no one knows what’s going to happen until the season starts.
