The busy off-season continues for the Calgary Flames. Coming off a successful 2025 draft, Craig Conroy and his management team are now focused on unrestricted free agency.

Starting on Tuesday at 10 a.m. MT, the Flames will have the opportunity to sign UFAs to fill out their 2025-26 roster.

What sort of players are the Flames going to target on day one of free agency? Let’s take a look at the current depth chart as of June 28 and see what type of player they need to add to their lineup.

There isn’t much room to make additions up front for the Flames. The forward group is full at the NHL level and there are a lot of young players who are going to make to make a push to play NHL games throughout the 2025-26 season.

But that won’t stop Conroy from taking a big swing. Look for the Flames to at least reach out to Mitch Marner’s agent on July 1. It’s highly unlikely that the Flames would even get a meeting with the top free agent on the market. But Conroy is going to try.

Aside from that, the Flames are going to be quiet when it comes to the forward free agent market.

This is where things get interesting. First, the Flames need to figure out what they want to do with Rasmus Andersson. Either they are going to trade him this summer, or some time between the start of the season and the trade deadline.

Because of the uncertainty around Andersson’s timeline with the Flames, adding a right shot might not be a priority for Conroy.

However, the Flames should add at least one left handed blue liner to round out the group. The left side of the defence is lacking in talent to say the least.

The Flames need to bring in a defensive minded left shot defenceman who can compliment the games of their offensive minded right shot defencemen.

Who are some possible free agent targets for the Flames to consider? Here are a couple.

Bringing back Joel Hanley is something this management team should seriously consider doing. He is respected in the locker room. He has solid chemistry with MacKenzie Weegar. And he could potentially be had on a one or two year contract. He is exactly what this team needs right now. And that’s crazy to say considering he was the eighth defenceman on the Flames depth chart to start last season.

Brian Dumoulin is a two time Stanley Cup champion that could bring a veteran presence to the Flames blue line. Dumoulin can defend, penalty kill, block shots. He has the potential to be a good partner for Zayne Parekh in his rookie season.

Some other left handed defencemen on the free agent market include Jon Merrill, Calvin de Haan, Brendan Smith, Mike Reilly, Matt Grzelcyk, Oliver Kylington, and Dennis Gilbert. The issue with these players is that they either don’t fit the description for what the Flames need, or they aren’t a big enough upgrade over Jake Bean, Ilya Solovyov, or Yan Kuznetsov to make the signing worth it.

If it’s not Hanley or Dumoulin, then the Flames should look at the trade or offer sheet market to find a left handed defenceman.

The other position where the Flames need to sign a free agent is in the crease.

In an ideal world, the Flames would sign a goalie who will compete with Devin Cooley for the backup role in the NHL.

If they win the backup role, that’s great. If they don’t, they need to go through waivers to play in the AHL.

There are a lot of goalies that fit that description on the free agent market.

The Flames have been connected to KHL goalie Ivan Prosvetov for weeks. Prosvetov played in 24 NHL games over four seasons with the Arizona Coyotes and Colorado Avalanche putting up a 3.70 GAA and an 0.881 SV%. He went back to the KHL for the 2024-25 season and rebounded nicely putting up a 2.23 GAA and a 0.920 SV%.

Could there be a reunion between the Flames and David Rittich? He has been all over the NHL and AHL since being traded by the Flames in in 2021. Rittich has spent time in Toronto, Nashville, Winnipeg, Los Angeles and in the AHL with the Ontario Reign. Could he be a good partner for Dustin Wolf?

Some other names on the free agent market include Vitek Vanecek, Anton Forsberg, Ilya Samsonov, and Alex Lyon.

Any goalie listed above fits the description of what the Flames are looking for. Look for Conroy to get pen to paper with one of these puck stoppers.

Get ready for wall-to-wall coverage of one of the biggest days in the calendar — the Daily Faceoff Live Free Agency Special goes live on July 1st at 11 AM EST. Host Tyler Yaremchuk is joined by Carter Hutton, Matthew Barnaby, Jeff Marek, Hart Levine, Colby Cohen, Jonny Lazarus, and insiders from across the Network for three hours of in-depth analysis, live reactions, and real-time updates on every major signing and trade. From blockbuster deals to under-the-radar moves, we’re breaking it all down as it happens. Don’t miss a minute — catch the full special live on DailyFaceoff.com and Daily Faceoff’s YouTube.