Craig Conroy will surely have a busy summer when the season ends. The Calgary Flames have a few key members of their team who will need a new contract for next season, and there are a few players that I am sure Calgary will try to get extended before they are eligible to hit the open market in 2026.
Connor Zary and Jakob Pelletier will be restricted free agents this summer while Dustin Wolf and Rasmus Andersson will be eligible to sign extensions as of July 1. However, maybe the most important negotiation the Flames will have this summer will be with Matt Coronato.
The scoring winger is enjoying a breakout season thus far and will be an RFA this summer. This will be a really important player for the team to handle as the Flames practically walked the last big American RFA they had to unrestricted free agency—we all remember how Matthew Tkachuk turned out. The Flames need to make a statement this summer and get Coronato locked in long-term, it is an absolute must.
Coronato’s breakout this season
There has been plenty of hype around Coronato since the Flames drafted him in 2021. He was a star at every level he played at—from his time in the USHL to the NCAA and his rookie season in the AHL, Coronato has done nothing but produce at a high level. That has given all of us reason to believe that he could do it at the NHL level.
Well, he is not quite a star yet, but there is the potential for Coronato to get there one day. After starting the season as the Flames’ 13th forward and then being demoted to the AHL for just two games, Coronato came back to the Flames with a chip on his shoulder and has been one of the Flames’ best skaters.
He is on pace for 20 goals and just under 50 points, Coronato is making the Flames look really silly for sending him down earlier in the year. It is even more impressive when you see that the Flames have an extremely difficult time scoring goals. For Coronato to be producing on a line with two guys in Blake Coleman and Mikael Backlund, who aren’t known for scoring goals, is impressive on its own.
Coronato is gaining confidence with each passing game and he is looking faster, stronger and more efficient with the puck on his stick than he did a year ago, this is just the beginning of the evolution of Coronato. He might be a budding star in the making.
Why the Flames need to go long-term with Coronato
After everything that has happened over the last few years with players leaving Calgary, and not only good players but star-level players, the Flames have to get a long-term deal done with Coronato as soon as they can.
When Matthew Tkachuk was an RFA in 2019, it was expressed many times that he wanted to sign a long-term contract. When the bridge deal was eventually signed, Tkachuk publicly said that he wanted a long-term deal until they knew they couldn’t make the cap space work. Well, three years later, Tkachuk was an RFA and was just one year away from UFA and he forced his way off the team. If the Flames handled Tkachuk correctly back in 2019, he is still a Flame. The Flames cannot let this happen with Coronato this time around.
Yes, I understand that Coroanto is not on the level of Tkachuk, but it should not be understated that Coronato can become a really good player and a really impactful player one day if he continues to progress the way he has this season. As a player in just his second season in the NHL, he already has the best shot on the team and he already may be the team’s best goal scorer.
Those traits will only continue to get better as the years go on. He has the potential to be a good top-line player down the line, that is someone the Flames have to put their faith in, and they need to commit to him on a long-term deal.
Never too early
If Coronato and his camp come to the Flames this summer and say they want to be in Calgary for the long haul, there should be zero hesitation from the Flames. The last thing the team needs is to upset Coronato and his camp; they already ruffled feathers earlier this season when he was sent down. This is a way to rectify everything by showing you are 100% behind the player. They need to be able to keep their young stars around and if you have to overpay to keep him here long-term—you do it. I would much rather the Flames overpay their stars as opposed to overpaying mediocre older players in free agency.
If we are talking about a potential deal, for me it would be fantastic if an eight-year deal can get done, and I think that could cost the Flames anywhere between $4.5 million to $5.5 million per year. It would be an overpay in the short-term, but the hope would be that he could outplay the contract very quickly, think of the Rasmus Andersson contract that was signed back in 2020, that one has aged pretty nicely if you ask me.
The future is now in Calgary
The tide is turning for the Flames, the young guys are taking over. Dustin Wolf has been the team’s MVP this year, before his injury Connor Zary was electric every night, and Rory Kerins and Jakob Pelletier have been quite good since they were both called up. Coronato might be right up near the top in terms of performance this year, and there is no better time than the present to commit to the youth that is here on this team.
