Friends, welcome to July 1.

In addition to being the anniversary of the British North America Act coming into force in 1867, creating the great nation we know as the Dominion of Canada, July 1 is also Jarome Iginla’s 49th birthday… and the day the National Hockey League’s calendar flips over to the next league year and free agents can be signed for the following season.

We’re not expecting a whole lot of fireworks on Canada Day 2026 based on how things are looking for the Flames.

It’s general manager Craig Conroy’s fourth July 1 as head honcho of hockey operations.

In 2023, he didn’t sign anybody. (Jordan Oesterle, Dryden Hunt and Colton Poolman were signed on July 2.)

In 2024, he was busy, signing Anthony Mantha, Devin Cooley, Jake Bean, Martin Frk and Ryan Lomberg, and re-signing Yegor Sharangovich to his lengthy new deal.

In 2025, he signed Ivan Prosvetov, Joel Hanley and Nick Cicek.

The Flames don’t need big signings. History suggests we shouldn’t expect many from Conroy.

Welcome to our continuing coverage of the first day of free agency!

9:00 a.m. MT: We’re camped out at Winsport in the west side of Calgary as development camp kick off today. We’re not expecting the Flames to be particularly busy today in terms of signings.

Meanwhile, TSN’s Darren Dreger has added a bit of intel on the Flames.

11:12 a.m. MT: TSN’s Darren Dreger is reporting that the Flames have added blueliner Mike Benning to a one year, two-way deal.

Inside AHL Hockey is reporting Luke Philp is joining the Wranglers on an AHL deal.

1:30 p.m. MT: Back from spending much of the morning at Winsport for development camp! The media group spoke with – deep breath – 2026 first-rounder Carson Carels, 2026 third-rounder Joe Iginla, 2025 first-rounders Cole Reschny and Cullen Potter, director of player development Ray Edwards and general manager Craig Conroy.

There wasn’t a whole lot of news, aside from Carels, Reschny and Potter indicating they’re hoping to go pro at the end of the coming season and Conroy indicated that the Flames are aware and are leaving contract spots open to allow that possibility.

It’s been that kind of a July 1, folks.

4:30 p.m. MT: Five Flames signings have been made official, folks. The Flames have added forward Ben Jones and defencemen Andreas Englund, Mike Benning and Jake Livingstone to one year, two-way deals. They’ve also re-signed restricted free agent forward William Stromgren to a one year, two-way deal.