It has been plainly obvious to everyone in the wider National Hockey League world that the Calgary Flames has an incredibly poor campaign on the ice at the last time of asking – finishing near the bottom of the standings and ultimately retaining the sixth overall pick in the NHL Draft was a testament to the season that was had.
The summer of 2026 needed a rebuild of the roster and that is exactly what The Red Mile hopeful have seen so far this summer. With a number of trades already completed, we are now in No 8 in the NHL Pipeline Rankings as many in the wider hockey media believe that we have one of the best collections of young and potential defensemen in the division. Carson Carels, Zayne Parekh and Simon Nemec should have a great future ahead of them. Our young forward group is equally as strong, and with future middle six players, we have a great foundation to build from.
Add in the likes of Cole Reschny, Jack Hextall, Chase Harrington and others, it is easy to see why many believe the future will be bright if even only a handful of these youngsters reach their potential future levels. A handful truly coming good and repaying the faith that is already being lent their way by the management, would be akin to winning the jackpot on a Betpanda casino crypto offer, and whilst our luck is unlikely to be in to that degree, seeing signs of that faith coming good this campaign would be a boost to everyone.
However, given there is such a heavy future focus here, many are also expressing their concerns as to whether or not we have done enough for the more immediate campaign at hand – particularly when it comes to our punch up front, the ability to regularly score goals and then win games on a more consistent basis.
The Bleacher Report for one were not convinced on this front, and taking the longer term future out of the equation they did not believe that we have done enough to take a meaningful step forward in the immediate future.
The reasoning for their determination were multiple. The future of Jonathan Huberdeau and the veteran forwards contract is very front and centre given our desire to refresh and rebuild. The 33 year old Quebec native carries a $10.5 million cap hit through until the 2030/31 season, leaving him as the highest paid player on a rebuilding roster that could again find themselves in the NHL Draft Lottery.
It clearly effects our flexibility moving forward (both roster numbers and cap space) and moving him on would be difficult for a number of reasons. There continue to be doubts about the futures of Connor Zary and Zach Whitecloud, as more recently both have featured on the speculation rumor mill when it comes to potential future trades. There is also the Dustin Wolf question. Having emerged as one of hockey’s top young goaltenders, he clearly needs greater support to reach his full potential and that means adding to and improving the quality of the offense to generate more opportunities for him.
Our final season at the Saddledome adds an extra pressure to the campaign, we will want to go out after more than four decades on a high and a clear upward curve for the future, but as things stand our immediate rebuild could span stadium moves.
No one expected this to be a single summer plan for change, but with so many outstanding questions, surely there is a lot more we plan to achieve this year before taking care of snagging issues at the end of the calendar.
