As the Calgary Flames’ 2019-20 season chugs along, we’re beginning to get a sense of the different moving contractual pieces on their blueline moving forward. Of the seven defenders on the current roster, five of them are on expiring contracts.

The Flames currently have Mark Giordano, TJ Brodie, Noah Hanifin, Travis Hamonic, Oliver Kylington, Rasmus Andersson and Michael Stone on their NHL roster (along with Juuso Valimaki on the injury reserve).

Giordano is the captain and has two seasons left on his contract after the current one. Hanifin has four seasons left. They’re the anchors of the left side of the blueline going forward, along with Valimaki, who has a season left after this one.

The right side could be a bit chaotic.

Here’s what we know:

Brodie was nearly traded a couple times over the summer – to Toronto and, per TSN’s Frank Seravalli, to New Jersey – indicating one (or both) of two possibilities: the Flames wanted to give Andersson a bigger role and/or move on from the player to open up cap space. That seems to suggest that he might walk at the end of the season.

TSN’s Insider Trading panel reported this week that Hamonic’s camp won’t be negotiating a new deal in-season. That suggests the possibility that he walks at the end of the season. The Flames reportedly had chats with his camp during the off-season, though, suggesting that there’s interest in retaining him.

Kylington would need a new contract for 2020-21, a season that would see him become waiver eligible.

Barring trades and presuming they don’t want to lose anybody for free on waivers, the 2020-21 Flames blueline seems likely to be built around Giordano, Andersson, Hanifin, Kylington and Valimaki. Beyond that quintet, there are a lot of possibilities and question marks that will become clearer as this season moves along.

Among them? Where does the salary cap go? If the cap only goes up to $83 million – a similarly small bump as we saw this past summer – is there enough cap space opening up with Brodie’s potential departure ($4.65 million) to lock Andersson down long-term and try to retain Hamonic? Would other summer departures make that possible?

With a lean and fairly untested defensive group in Stockton, the Flames will have a ton of tough decisions to make as they try to maximize their 2019-20 season while also setting the table for 2020-21.