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Flames draft day: the 2026 NHL Draft, Round 1 (5pm MT, SN)
Friends, it’s time for the craziness.
After months and months of scouting one of the most fascinating draft classes in recent memory, and one defined by distinctly disparate opinions of prospects across the board, it’s finally time for the picks to be made at the 2026 NHL Draft.
Once again, this year’s draft is set up in a decentralized manner, with league officials and the top prospects in Buffalo, New York, and the hockey braintrusts of 32 National Hockey League clubs operating out of their home cities. The league has insisted after the slog that the initial 2025 decentralized broadcast turned into, there will be tweaks made to smooth out the rough spots. We’ll see how that goes!
The first 32 selections begin just after 5 p.m. MT and you can catch the excitement on Sportsnet!
Here’s what you need to know for the first round of the draft!
When do the Calgary Flames pick?
The Flames have 10 picks over the next two days as general manager Craig Conroy helms his fourth draft as head honcho of hockey operations:
- 6th overall (1st round)
- 30th overall (1st round) – from Vegas (Noah Hanifin trade)
- 36th overall (2nd round)
- 51st overall (2nd round) – from Utah (MacKenzie Weegar trade)
- 55th overall (2nd round) – from Ottawa via Utah (Weegar trade)
- 65th overall (3rd round) – from Vancouver (Nikita Zadorov trade)
- 68th overall (3rd round)
- 100th overall (4th round)
- 132nd overall (5th round)
- 164th overall (6th round)
The Flames previously had the Rangers’ second-round pick, sent to them by Utah in the Weegar trade, but they sent it to New Jersey earlier this week as part of the Simon Nemec swap. They are also without their own seventh-rounder, sent to Detroit last year for their 2025 seventh-rounder.
If nothing changes, it’ll be the sixth time in franchise history (and fourth time since the relocation to Calgary) that the Flames select with multiple first-round picks:
- In 1973 they selected Tom Lysiak (2nd) and Vic Mercredi (16th)
- In 1976 they selected Dave Shand (8th) and Harold Phillipoff (10th)
- In 2013 they selected Sean Monahan (6th), Emile Poirier (22nd) and Morgan Klimchuk (28th)
- In 2024 they selected Zayne Parekh (9th) and Matvei Gridin (28th)
- In 2025 they selected Cole Reschny (18th) and Cullen Potter (32nd)
The last two multi-pick first rounds seem to go pretty well for Conroy and the Flames. We’ll see if that hot streak continues.
How is the Calgary Flames’ 2026-27 roster shaping up?
The Flames have 20 players that can reasonably be projected as NHL players based on being on one-way NHL contracts:
- F Jonathan Huberdeau – $10.5 million
- G Dustin Wolf – $7.5 million
- F Matt Coronato – $6.5 million
- F Yegor Sharangovich – $5.75 million
- D Kevin Bahl – $5.35 million
- F Ryan Strome – $5 million
- F Joel Farabee – $5 million
- F Blake Coleman – $4.9 million
- F Morgan Frost – $4.375 million
- F Connor Zary – $3.775 million
- D Olli Maatta – $3.5 million
- F Mikael Backlund – $3.25 million
- D Zach Whitecloud – $2.75 million
- F Martin Pospisil – $2.5 million
- F Maxim Tsyplakov – $2.25 million
- D Joel Hanley – $1.75 million
- G Devin Cooley – $1.35 million
- F Adam Klapka – $1.25 million
- D Brayden Pachal – $1.19 million
- D Yan Kuznetsov – $812,500
These deals cover two goalies, six defencemen and 12 forwards. (And that’s not including players on two-way deals who remain waiver exempt, like Sam Honzek, Matvei Gridin and Zayne Parekh, who seem like pretty safe bets to be on the roster given how well they played last season.) Between these deals and Nazem Kadri’s retained salary, the Flames have $80.65 million in cap commitments for 2026-27. The most prominent pending restricted free agent that requires a new deal is the newly-acquired Simon Nemec.
Barring any additional trades, it certainly feels like the NHL roster is getting close to being fully formed for the fall.
This and that
We highly recommend checking out Conroy’s chat with Boomer and Rhett from last week on Barn Burner and Pat Steinberg’s interview with head scout Tod Button from Flames Talk this week to get you primed for what’s about to go down.
As has become typical, the Flames are slated to “draft the list” in the first round and select the best player available at sixth overall. Based on all the hubbub from insiders and prospect gurus, it sounds like the best players available at that spot will likely be some combination of Prince George defender Carson Carels, University of North Dakota defender Keaton Verhoeff, Djurgardens centre Viggo Bjorck, and Brantford centre Caleb Malhotra. The big questions that could impact the Flames pick are (a) if San Jose goes forward (Ivar Stenberg) or defender (Chase Reid) at second overall, and (b) if Vancouver goes forward (Malhotra or Stenberg) or defender (Reid) at third overall, contingent on what the Sharks do.
It seems unlikely that the Flames trade up from sixth overall – it’ll be too pricey. But there’s persistent chatter that they have interest in moving up from 30th overall… if the price is right.
In terms of Flames chatter, it sounds like they’re eager to move forward Connor Zary for a fresh start, while things are quieter on Blake Coleman, who has a 10-team trade list and seems more likely to be moved in a retained salary transaction after July 1. (And even that would be dependent on the Flames getting their desired price for Coleman.)
We’ll see how everything goes down over the next couple days, but it could be very eventful.
Follow along with your pals from The Nation Network, as we’ll have a live watch-along on the Barn Burner YouTube feed, while Daily Faceoff will also have special editions of The Sheet – as a pre and post-show for the draft – hosted by Jeff Marek with tons of special guests!
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