Negatives and Positives

The new season is still two months away, but the pessimism regarding Calgary’s chances is already rife. Approaching the final year in the Saddledome, the Flames are many people’s favourites to finish at the bottom of the pile.

There are some reasons for optimism, however, with a youthful and skilful core coming through the ranks. A finish in the NHL’s bottom-four again this coming season would add another young stud to that list.

So, let’s look at the main arguments for and against the belief that the Flames will struggle.

The main argument for struggling

Craig Conroy has stockpiled first-round draft picks in recent years by removing all valuable veterans. Last season alone saw the departures of Nazem Kadri and Mackenzie Weegar, and Blake Coleman left during the summer.

While losing veterans for picks has many advantages, it does remove valuable experience. Young players, unless they are of an exceptional standard, often take a while to get going. This team already struggled with scoring last season: no player ended the year with more than 50 points.

A fine example of young players needing time is Matt Coronato. Many are still tipping him for a bright future, especially as he is only twenty-three years old, but his numbers haven’t been impressive yet in his career. He has returned season totals of 42, 47, and 45 points. Don’t get me wrong – that’s 42, 47, and 45 more than I have – but it’s not particularly impressive for a leading scorer.

When your leading scorer only achieved 45 points last season, that’s not a great indicator going forward.

And finally, the harsh truth we have to accept is that the veterans we have left simply aren’t anything more than a mediocre standard when it comes to scoring. Mikael Backlund has only breached the fifty-point mark twice during his long tenure with the Flames. Jonathan Huberdeau, despite being deemed a flop by many, has hit at least fifty points in three of his four seasons. For what we’re paying him, however, those numbers should be far higher.

And finally, for the veterans, Yegor Sharangovich has been trending downwards in points since joining from New Jersey.

The main argument for hope

Honestly, the main reason hinting at realistic optimism is a surprisingly strong goalkeeping tandem.

Whilst Dustin Wolf had a relatively quieter season in 2025–26, he is still deemed to have the potential to be an elite goalkeeper. The 25-year-old achieved a .910 save percentage in 2024–25, before going down to .899 last season. A lot of this could be put down to inconsistent defensive partnerships in front of him; however, that may now settle down.

With arguably no assets of worthwhile trade value in the defence, other than the young players (the trade of whom has already been ruled out), the positions should settle down. The acquisition of Simon Nemec will add some much-needed mobility and puck movement to the defensive lines.

Devin Cooley is an understudy to Wolf. Cooley surprised many in his first season in the Flames lineup. He put up a .909 from 31 games, an excellent return. He arguably outshone Dustin Wolf regularly, with many online Flames fans claiming he was ruining the tanking.

The positive about Cooley is that even if Wolf has a downturn in form again, or gets injured, we have a very reliable backup.