We’re just moments away from the calendar turning to 2025 and now is a great time to make resolutions. Whether they are health, food, career, or fun-based, the new year is a great opportunity to commit to something new for the year.
The Calgary Flames also need to make a few resolutions going into 2025. Some players should probably resolve to play better—Yegor Sharangovich and Andrei Kuzmenko in particular—while others should resolve to not lose their newfound spark, namely Jonathan Huberdeau who is on track for a career year in terms of goals.
However, across the organization, the Flames should make a few about the path forward this year. Now is the time for Craig Conroy to sit down with his team and resolve to make this a better year across the organization. We turned to you, our readers, to provide him some help, given he is a very busy man. Here is what you suggested.
Stick to the rebuild
By far, the most popular resolution we received was that the Flames need to stick to their rebuild plan:
This probably checks out. Stuck in the mushy middle, the Flames sit 16th going into their New Year’s Eve game against the Vancouver Canucks. Now is the time for the team to rebuild—drop in the standings in the second half of the year to try and win the NHL Draft Lottery to select first overall in the 2025 NHL Draft. The team needs a game-breaking talent up front, particularly at centre, and to be able to get an elite player like James Hagens in the draft this year would be enormous.
While there were a few suggestions to win every game, the overwhelming majority were to tank.
Trade away players
Likely related to the first point, there were numerous suggestions to trade players away. It was a wide list of players that were suggested but included many of the names that have been circulating in rumours of late including Nazem Kadri, Daniil Miromanov, Yegor Sharangovich, Rasmus Andersson, and Dan Vladar among others.
While some suggestions were simply to get rid of them due to their poor performance, a few were more tactical to augment the tanking for a draft pick.
Again, similar to the above, the fans want this team to rebuild properly for a year or two before coming back with elite talent to compete for the Stanley Cup. There is little belief in this team’s core players beyond simply a whim and prayer that they can sneak into the playoffs before losing in the first round.
Time to bring up the kids
The Flames have gotten immense production from their young players this season, with Dustin Wolf, Connor Zary, Matt Coronato, and recently Jakob Pelletier adding a good deal to the lineup. However, there were a number of suggestions to add more to the group.
The Wranglers have Rory Kerins in the lineup, who has been one of the best players in the AHL this year. The former Soo Greyhounds centreman has 19 goals and 30 points this year, good for second in goals and third in points in the entire AHL. He is overdue for a call-up.
The Flames also haven’t really experimented with any of their young defencemen this season, with Hunter Brzustewicz, Jeremie Poirier, Ilya Solovyov, and Yan Kuznetsov all in line for a call-up. As with above, this would mean clearing space in Calgary for them to have a spot. The Flames are rolling with eight defencemen currently, and need to make a move to give their young guys a shot.
There is a clear direction the fans want to see in Calgary
Aside from a few whacky suggestions (including finding a new GM), the fans clearly have a direction that they want to see this franchise take and it doesn’t include the playoffs this year. This team needs to endure a little bit of pain as it rebuilds its core around young future stars. After an outstanding 2024 Draft, the team has a number of promising players in the pipeline, including OHL leading defenceman Henry Mews, but still needs more in order to compete with the likes of the Edmonton Oilers.
The team has never picked higher than fourth overall when they selected Sam Bennett in 2014—could 2025 be the year that this franchise gets some lottery luck? Hopefully, this year is the year we all look back on that started the path to the Stanley Cup.
From our family to yours, Happy New Year! All the best for 2025.
