A lot of attention around the Calgary Flames is being paid to the upcoming 2026 NHL Draft. And with good reason! The Flames own 11 picks, including two first-rounders, and it could be a very important two days for the future of the organization.

But in less than two weeks, the annual free agency period opens on July 1, and we could see the Flames go through some interesting changes.

The Flames have eight pending unrestricted free agents on July 1: goaltender Ivan Prosvetov, defencemen Jake Bean, Nick Cicek and Daniil Miromanov, and forwards Ryan Lomberg, Justin Kirkland, Clark Bishop and Victor Olofsson. Right now, all eight seem to be trending towards testing the market.

On Wednesday afternoon on Flames Talk on Sportsnet 960 The Fan, Pat Steinberg and co-host Logan Gordon chatted about what Steinberg’s been hearing regarding the pending UFAs.

“The expectation is that Ryan Lomberg and the Flames will be going their separate ways,” said Steinberg. He added that there’s a similar expectation for Justin Kirkland and Victor Olofsson, too, later adding Wranglers captain Clark Bishop as someone that could be trending towards the market. He cautioned, though, that circling back between player and team can happen – he specifically noted that’s what happened with Joel Hanley last summer when pending free agent blueliner Ryan Lindgren ended up signing elsewhere and the Flames wanted to shore up their left side.

We’ve haven’t heard anything from our own investigations that contradicts what Steinberg and Gordon discussed on the show. We’re not quite sure what the fit would be, for player or team, in bringing many of the pending UFAs back for another season.

We’ll add, though, that Nick Cicek feels like the most likely of the eight pending UFAs to potentially return for the 2026-27 season. He’s a pretty versatile, savvy veteran that can play on the left or right side, and with the Wranglers’ left side having youngsters in Etienne Morin, Abram Wiebe and Axel Hurtig, having Cicek on the right side might make a lot of sense. But from Cicek’s perspective, perhaps he would want to be in an organization with a clearer path to getting an NHL call-up.

We’ll see how things unfold between now and the free agency frenzy on July 1.