Gang, July 1 is an important day on the calendar.

It’s Canada Day! It’s Jarome Iginla’s birthday! It’s the day that NHL contracts expire and free agency begins! And for players who suddenly are entering their final year of their current contracts, it’s the first day those players become eligible to sign extensions.

For the Calgary Flames, there are seven current roster players who will become eligible for extensions as of July 1. Here’s a rundown, sorted mostly by points registered in 2024-25.

Back in 2019, the Flames saw the Western Hockey League’s leader in most goaltending categories available when they selected fourth-from-last in the seventh round. They opted to select the youngster, a fresh-faced California product named Dustin Wolf, and it may go down as one of the better decisions they’ve made in franchise history from a drafting perspective.

Six years later, Wolf has established himself as the Flames’ undisputed starter, and one of the NHL’s most entertaining and fascinating netminders. He’ll be 25 when his deal expires at the end of 2025-26 and he’ll be a restricted free agent eligible for arbitration. We suspect the Flames will do what they need to do to lock him down for a long, long time, because he’s really, really good.

While Wolf was one of the Flames’ biggest drafting home runs, Backlund is one of their better “be patient with development” success stories. Backlund has emerged as one of the defining figures of the last 10-15 years of Flames hockey, an extremely reliable 200-foot forward that basically allows the team to use their less-rounded forwards in offensive situations. He’s also their captain.

Backlund is eligible to become a unrestricted free agent at the end of 2025-26 at the age of 37. Based on Backlund’s reputation, importance and status as the club’s leader, we suspect that as long as he wants to play NHL hockey, it’ll be with the Flames. Though he may be entering the era where he keeps signing one-year deals due to his age.

Oh boy.

Well, we’ve discussed Andersson’s future a lot here at the site. And we’ll do so for awhile yet. Probably until Andersson either has a new contract or a new home. He’s eligible to become a UFA at the end of 2025-26, when he’s 29. He’s been leaned on heavily over the past season and a half as the Flames blueline has been hollowed out by the departures of Nikita Zadorov, Noah Hanifin, Chris Tanev and Oliver Kylington. And you can make an argument that he’s been miscast as a shutdown defender lately.

He’s still doing a lot of good stuff on the ice, but given his experience level, performance, and how a long-term extension could age, there’s a case to be made for his departure. On the other hand, Andersson is another important player in the Flames room, wearing a letter for the past several seasons and capital-C caring about the team, its players and its direction. Even if it makes sense for him to go elsewhere to cash in, he’d be a tough player for the team to lose.

Quietly, Pospisil has become a pretty important player for the Flames. He’s one of the handful of players that displays the concept that Kent Wilson termed “functional toughness”: he can throw his body around and make the other team mad, but that’s not his only purpose. Pospisil’s not a player you build a line around, but his inclusion on a line can nudge a good line to being very good.

Pospisil is eligible to become an RFA (with arbitration rights) at the end of 2025-26 at the age of 26. He hasn’t put up eye-popping offensive numbers yet and could be destined to be a complimentary piece, so we’ll curious what his next Flames deal looks like.

Is Lomberg overpaid relative to his modest offensive production? Well, yeah, probably. But you probably don’t hear Flames coaches, management, players or fans complaining one bit about it. Lomberg has been a really important player for the Flames over the last year, both in terms of vibes and in being a leader and role model for the team’s bottom-six youngsters.

Lomberg’s current deal expires at the end of 2025-26, when he’s 31, and he’s eligible to become a UFA. Depending on the state of the Flames’ system – and whether there’s anybody that can walk in and play a fourth-line role on the wings – there’s a good chance that Lomberg re-ups.

What is Daniil Miromanov? He began 2024-25 on the second pair with MacKenzie Weegar, but he soon slumped and was swapped out for Joel Hanley, who fit like a glove. From that point on, Miromanov was sort of a spare part, bouncing between the third pairing and the press box.

He was scratched 38 times last season and had two goals and nine points when he did dress. Miromanov’s deal expires at the end of 2025-26 at the age of 28. We’ll see if he can hold onto an NHL roster spot, or if the potential arrivals of Zayne Parekh or Hunter Brzustewicz dislodges him.

The good news is that Bean seemed to find a nice niche for himself on the third pairing alongside Brayden Pachal down the stretch, building some momentum and playing regularly for the Flames. However, the challenge is this: Pachal is a good penalty-killer and so he has a special teams role that cements him in the starting six blueliners. Bean’s not good enough defensively for a shutdown gig, nor is he strong enough offensively to get into the power play mix. So it’s challenging to project him as a full-time member of the Flames blueline because of this lack of obvious role.

Like Miromanov, Bean’s deal expires after 2025-26 (at the age of 28) and he’s eligible to become a UFA. Like Miromanov, we’re not confident that Bean is a no-doubt NHLer next season with so many young faces potentially pushing for NHL duty.