The Calgary Flames didn’t have an eventful offseason, but one of the team’s strongest attributes is the amount of cap space they have. The Flames currently rank 6th in teams that have the most amount of cap space heading into the 2025-26 season. Cap space is always a hot commodity among NHL teams, as simply the more you have, the better. While the Flames aren’t in a cap crunch, questions still arise on how the team will utilize their space moving forward.
Flames are in a favourable position right now
As mentioned, the Flames have a pretty favourable cap situation heading into this season. The team has approximately $11.7 million in cap space, and that’s after signing all their RFAs. The team’s highest contract at the moment is Jonathan Huberdeau’s, which carries a cap hit of $10.5 million. The highest-paid players after him are Nazem Kadri and Matt Coronato. Their highest-paid defenceman is currently Mackenzie Weegar, who is on a steal of a deal.
As for retained money, the Flames are paying Jacob Markstrom $1.875 million for this season, but it’ll be the last year before his contract expires, and his salary only takes up 2% of the Flames’ total cap. In general, Craig Conroy has done a good job in providing the Flames with some financial flexibility. The focus now is on how the team will utilize the amount of cap space they have.
The top five highest Flames’ contracts
Jonathan Huberdeau: 10.5M AAV
Nazem Kadri: 7M AAV
Matt Coronato: 6.5M AAV
MacKenzie Weegar: 6.25M AAV
Yegor Sharangovich: 5.75M AAV
Will the Flames “weaponize” their cap space?
A hot topic of debate within the fanbase has been the Flames’ lack of “weaponizing” their cap space. This essentially occurs when teams take on bad contracts from other teams in exchange for draft capital or other assets. While Flames management has stated that they’re open to the idea, we haven’t seen them do it yet.
I definitely feel it’s a missed opportunity if the Flames don’t utilize their cap space at least once. Many teams around the league are desperate to offload salary, and the Flames could take advantage of this. If they could get additional draft capital or tradable assets from a move like this, it’s a no-brainer. Obviously, the deal would need to be worth pursuing, but it’s a path the Flames should definitely look to take.
When can we expect the team to use more of their cap space?
The Flames are in no position to be right against the cap, so when can we expect the team to start making more moves? Well, there’s no definite answer to that as we don’t know how long this rebuild/retool phase will take.
We know the Flames want a quick turnaround, but in reality, it’s not that easy. Until this team is confident that they are playoff-bound, we likely won’t see any big additions via trade or free agency. But of course, anything can happen. The team is relying on bounce-back seasons from some of its current players. If that doesn’t occur, the Flames are bound for regression.
Overall, I’m glad the Flames didn’t sign any players to big contracts, but they also didn’t really improve. The team is going to run back the same group, thinking they can replicate some of their success from last season. Only time will tell…
