The Flames will kick off the final stretch of the regular season tonight on the road in San Jose to face off against Olympic standout Macklin Celebrini and the Sharks. With the NHL back in action and the Olympic roster freeze lifted Monday, the Flames appear committed to moving out veteran talent ahead of the trade deadline on March 3rd. Calgary is 11 points outside of a wildcard spot, needing to jump six teams. Their performance this season thus far has also earned them 29th overall in the league standings.
As we shift our focus from International hockey back to the NHL, it seems the front office in Calgary is finally coming to understand how impactful this deadline could be in the longterm. If the Flames trade away the likes of Nazem Kadri, Blake Coleman, or Mackenzie Weegar, I think we can finally graduate the “re-biggle” to a “re-build”.
In the first edition of our weekly series, let’s take a look at the current 2026 first-round draft picks owned by the Flames and where they would project if the draft were today.
2026 First-rounders the Flames own
Calgary currently holds three 2026 first-round picks:
- Their own pick, which would be 4th overall if the season ended today.
- The Vegas Golden Knights’ pick, which would be 21st overall
The Flames will hopefully add to their pool of 2026 first-rounders before the deadline at Noon next Friday. Their only trade of the season brought back Vegas’ 2027 first-round pick in a package for Rasmus Andersson. It seems reasonable to assume Craig Conroy will be asking for a first-rounder plus, per Weegar, Kadri and Coleman.
The Flames’ second-rounder would also be 36th overall at this point, leaving them with three picks in the top 40. With the quality of Conroy’s drafting in his tenure, one can only hope that it continues, while another lottery pick could bring home a bona fide superstar the franchise has desperately needed since Johnny Gaudreau and Matthew Tkachuk’s departure in 2022.
Upcoming Games
Included tonight’s game, the Flames will play three times before our next update, facing off against San Jose, the LA Kings, and the Anaheim Ducks. The California road trip will offer the Flames an opportunity to earn six points against teams all ahead of them in the Western Conference Wildcard race, or to fall even further behind the chase.
Vegas kicked things off against the Kings and will play Washington, Pittsburgh, Buffalo and Detroit all before next Thursday. It would be surprising to see the Golden Knights lose more than one of those four contests; however, their showing at the Olympics was substantial, with five players representing their countries. Vegas rested Mitch Marner, Marc Stone, Shea Theodore, Jack Eichel and Noah Hanafin in their game last night.
26 Games left, too early to call it?
I’m sure Murray Edwards thinks so. He’s done everything in his power to maintain a mediocre, budget-friendly roster that is only competitive enough to fill seats and squeak into the playoffs since he purchased the Flames in 1994. The 2004 Cup run was a Cinderella story, and only helped scam fans for 20 more years. Seeing “Will the Flames buy or sell at the deadline?” headlines in February has become an inevitable, annual alarm bell for tax season, with disappointment soon to follow. For anyone who thinks that aforementioned headline is a positive indication of a sports franchise’s success, focus on the “will” and “or” of that statement. Absolute language isn’t common in the Flames market unless it’s used to diminish any thoughts of retention, spending to the cap, or planning more than a season ahead.
Fans are desperate for a fresh start, and players are too. They don’t leave Calgary because of the weather or the taxes; they leave because the owner is among the cheapest in the league and doesn’t incentivize playing for his franchise beyond “giving it all we got every year”. There may be 26 games left on the schedule, but there would have to be multiple catastrophic slides and a comeback unbeknownst to man by the Flames with the strength of schedule they have left.
As Jeff Goldblum said in Jurassic Park, “Life, uh, finds a way,” and in our context, the rebuild is life.
Stay tuned for weekly updates on the Flames’ 2026 first-rounders throughout the remainder of the season.
