The Calgary Flames are a team in transition. Call it a rebuild, a retool, or (as we are), a re-(verb), but the Flames are going to be a much different team in a year or two than they are right now.

And that puts a few of their players in a uniquely challenging position.

The Flames have added some promising young players at a lot of their positions. In a short while, there will be young faces knocking on the door for key roles. In the interim, five players in the Flames system are facing very important 2024-25 seasons.

Man, Duehr had a really fun run with the Flames for awhile there, didn’t he? Originally signed as a college free agent, Duehr broke onto the Flames’ roster in 2022-23 and really impressed with his speed, poise and tenacity. He posted 11 points in 27 games after his mid-season call-up, earning him a two year, one-way deal from the club.

Based on how superb his initial rookie run was Duehr had nowhere to go but down, but I don’t think anybody really anticipated his game taking such a significant step back. On one hand, he dressed for 40 games with the Flames in 2023-24, but he posted seven points and his game lacked the bite it had in his rookie season. He was even demoted to the AHL for a week in January, ostensibly to get his mojo back.

Duehr’s 26 and a pending unrestricted free agent at the end of the 2024-25 season. The upcoming campaign could potentially decide his NHL future.

A sixth-round pick by the Flames back in 2020, Kerins is a really peculiar player.

He went pro in 2022-23 and played primarily in the ECHL with Rapid City, where he was just shy of a point-per-game when he was healthy. He spent 2023-24 in the AHL with the Wranglers, where he had an uneven year. There were stretches where he was awesome. And there were stretches where he was very ordinary, to the point of becoming an occasional healthy scratch.

When the 2024-25 season ends, Kerins will become a restricted free agent. But he’ll be in a system that has a lot of promising players coming up behind him, primarily on the wing. If he can prove himself as a centre, suddenly he becomes a fairly valuable commodity. If he can’t… he’s somebody in a very crowded mix on the wing.

A second-round pick by the Flames in 2020, Kuznetsov has been a really solid player in the Flames system. The problem for him is that solid might not be enough to avoid getting lost in the shuffle.

Kuznetsov signed a new one year, two-way deal earlier this week, coming on the heels of his entry-level deal expiring. He spent two seasons as a full-time pro, both with the Wranglers. He’s been a really useful defensive player and a rock-solid penalty killer. He played a game in the NHL.

But the Flames have a few players of a similar archetype as Kuznetsov, namely Artem Grushnikov and Ilya Solovyov. (And heck, Axel Hurtig is biding his time with the Hitmen in the WHL.) Kuznetsov will need to display his upside, relative to Grushnikov and Solovyov, or else he might get lost in the mix after this season.

The Flames landed the 24-year-old Pachal via the waiver wire last season. A Stanley Cup champion from his time in Vegas, Pachal is a physical, defensive-minded right shot blueliner who has served as a captain both in major junior (with Prince Albert) and the AHL (with Henderson).

The challenge for Pachal is carving out a regular role for himself. He’s suited up for just 62 NHL games thus far – more than half during his time with the Flames – and while he’s got more of a track record than Kuznetsov, he’s another player that probably needs to lay claim to a regular NHL gig before the kids behind him arrive.

The Flames don’t have a defined starting goaltender for 2024-25. The 26-year-old Vladar is the incumbent, but he’s coming off of hip surgery in the spring – after playing for an injury for parts of two seasons – and we’ll see how he looks.

Vladar will be an unrestricted free agent when his deal expires. Yeah, he’s going to be battling Dustin Wolf and Devin Cooley for NHL games. Will he return to his promising early form that he showed upon his arrival in Calgary? Or will it take him awhile to get his mojo back, and potentially get lost in the shuffle?

Goaltending analysts were excited about Vladar when the Flames traded for him. Can Vladar get back to being the goaltender that elicited that type of enthusiasm?