After Conroy’s interview on Barnburner, Rhett remarked that Conroy had a “glint in his eye” when talking about one of the prospects - who do you think it might be and who do you think are the two players Conroy is talking about when saying he would be “super excited” about at 6?
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FlamesNation Mailbag: The calm before the storm…
Photo credit: Mike Gould
Pals, it’s gonna be a busy week around the National Hockey League, with the first round of the 2026 NHL Draft on Friday night and the remaining six rounds unfolding on Saturday morning and afternoon. And then qualifying offers are due to pending restricted free agents by next Monday.
And then free agency opens next Wednesday.
And then it’s development camp and the Stampede and salary arbitration season and pretty soon we’ll blink and it’ll be time for training camp again.
Before this wacky train leaves the station, let’s dive into the mailbag!
First of all, everyone go over to the Barn Burner YouTube feed to check out the 45-minute interview Boomer and Rhett did last week with Craig Conroy. It rules.
This is me guessing: I think the Flames would be ecstatic to get Carson Carels. He fits their needs like a glove, he’s a western kid, and his style of play fits how they would like things to go. If he’s unavailable, they would also be jazzed about Keaton Verhoeff quite a bit. So if I had to guess, the two guys they’re most excited about are Carels and Verhoeff. But I don’t know which prospect specifically that Rhett was referring to with the glint in Conroy’s eye.
Lets pencil in a D for first Flame pick. Name three players they are targeting with second first round pick?
30th overall could be chaos because there’s no general consensus in the first round after around 16th or 17th overall in terms of who’s definitely expected to be a first-rounder or not – there’s something like 30-35 players that could conceivably go in that mix. Assuming that the Flames get Carson Carels or Keaton Verhoeff at sixth overall, I would go with a forward, and ideally someone like – off the top of my head – J.P. Hurlbert, Liam or Markus Ruck, Mathis Preston, Maddox Dagenais or Gleb Pugachyov.
Who could be the Ethan Wyttenbach of this draft?
I’ve read really impressive things about Blake Zielinski. He’s a right-shot forward from suburban Philadelphia – the New Jersey side – and he’s played two seasons in the USHL with Des Moines and impressed, and now he’s headed to Providence College in the fall. Oh, and he followed in Ethan Wyttenbach’s footsteps to win the Gaudreau Award. He’s someone that probably goes in the second or third-round mix, but he’s really promising.
What’s more likely, Flames trade up to get a second pick in the top 12-13 Or Flames draft the twins
Could you see Conroy making multiple moves with his late 1st round pick to try and snake it up higher up in the draft?
I think the Flames are hoping to make an impact at this draft, so I think they’ll try to move up from 30th overall. I also wouldn’t expect them to use all four second-round picks to select players, so I wouldn’t rule out them trying to get more first-round picks. I think getting into the teens would be a tall order, but we’ll see if they can get into the 20s a time or two.
Ryan, realistically speaking what could you see the flames doing at the draft that would make them the biggest story Rolf the draft and excite the fan base? Loving the new arena coverage btw!
I’m very unimaginative, but I’m also curious what they end up doing. They have oodles of picks and I suspect they’ll be trying to move up a bit from their current draft slots. But part of the fun of the draft process is the surprises that happen along the way.
Let’s go rapid fire:
I think the Flames will make eight picks.
I think the Flames will draft a goalie in the fifth round.
I think the Flames will not make any trades involving roster players.
I think the Flames will not draft Joe Iginla.
How about July 1 for Calgary? Any names on Conroy's radar?
I think it’ll be a quiet July 1. The Flames basically have all their NHL roster slots either spoken for, or in a position where they have a handful of players jostling for those spots. I don’t see them making significant veteran additions via free agency.
16 months from now... Parekh, Verhoeff, Landon DuPont, Makar, Brzustewicz... All RHD. Who plays their off-side on opening night in Scotia Place?
At most they’ll only have three of those player on their roster, so potentially nobody is playing their off side.
Will Huska finally allow the kids to play, or will he keep holding them down. Parekh came with such high praise, yet he wasn't allowed to show it. Yet look at kids like Schaffer, Hutson and how they excelled because they were allowed to play without fear of being benched.
I understand where this idea comes from, but I really disagree with it.
As head coach of the Flames, especially at the beginning of the 2025-26 season coming off the playoff near-miss, Ryan Huska’s job is to win hockey games. So he’s putting a lineup out there with the goal of winning enough hockey games to play after Game 82. And even within a season where they were chasing a playoff spot for the duration – and the team didn’t really throw in the towel until late in the year on competing for a playoff spot – we saw Sam Honzek in a prominent position with Mikael Backlund and Blake Coleman, we saw Yan Kuznetsov in a prominent position with MacKenzie Weegar, and we saw Matvei Gridin, Hunter Brzustewicz and Zayne Parekh in prominent positions for much of the year.
So for a guy that apparently hates using kids, he sure did use a lot of kids last season. As young players earn more trust from the coaching staff, they get more opportunities. We saw it this past season. I suspect we’ll continue to see it going forward.
Got a question for a future mailbag? Contact Ryan on Twitter/BlueSky at @RyanNPike or e-mail him at Ryan.Pike [at] BetterCollective.com! (Make sure you put Mailbag in the subject line!)
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