Friends, the Calgary Flames have gotten through the busiest time of the National Hockey League’s calendar, navigating the two days of the 2026 NHL Draft, the opening of free agency, and the frenzy of trades we’ve seen surrounding both of those events.

Aside from free agency departures, we’ve seen a pair of Flames depart in the form of Olli Maatta and Blake Coleman, and a trio of new faces arrive in Simon Nemec, Maxim Tsyplakov and Jake Middleton.

As we ease into what could be a quiet part of the calendar – at least based on general manager Craig Conroy’s comments on Friday afternoon at the end of development camp – let’s take a way-too-early look at how the Flames’ 23-man roster looks to be shaping up for opening night in late September.

This is the position with zero controversy at the NHL level. Dustin Wolf will be the team’s starting netminder, as he begins his shiny, new seven year, $7.5 million AAV contract. His backup, Devin Cooley, begins his new two year, $1.35 million AAV contract.

Behind them as the Wranglers’ starter is Arsenii Sergeev, the fifth goalie on the depth chart when 2025-26 began. He jumps to third on the depth chart after a really impressive first pro season, spanning all three of North America’s pro leagues.

After the movement we’ve seen, the Flames have six players on one-way contracts, as well as promising young defenceman Zayne Parekh and slightly more experienced young defenceman Simon Nemec, who’s a restricted free agent.

We suspect we’ll see a lot of mixing and matching during the season – especially with the shortened pre-season – as head coach Ryan Huska tries out different defensive pairings. But right now, the Flames have four left-shot defenders (Kevin Bahl, Jake Middleton, Yan Kuznetsov and Joel Hanley) and four right-shot defenders (Zach Whitecloud, Parekh, Nemec and Brayden Pachal).

Our big question: are the Flames comfortable with carrying eight defencemen, as they have done in the past, or does one of Hanley or Pachal, projected to be the extras, go on waivers and head to the AHL to help out that group?

The answer to that question depends on if someone unexpected forces their way into the opening night forward group. We’re defaulting to “they carry eight” for right now, but we’re open to being surprised in September.

The departure of Blake Coleman simplified a few of our questions – such as where Samuel Honzek fits in – and makes the overall group look fairly coherent. The Flames have 11 forwards on one-way deals and then two forwards, Honzek and Matvei Gridin, who likely impressed enough to start in the NHL next season… or at least have to play their way off the team in training camp.

Morgan Frost formed a really fun scoring line with Gridin and Matt Coronato down the stretch, so we expect to see them together. Similarly, Mikael Backlund had chemistry with both Honzek and Joel Farabee separately last season, so putting them together – with Farabee effectively swapping in for Coleman – makes sense, too.

The remaining two lines are admittedly a bit of a melange, but there are seven forwards for six spots, and we may see a bit of a rotation depending on performance, opponent or injury status. And we’re assuming until told otherwise that Jonathan Huberdeau is 100% for opening night. Our big question for the bottom six: who plays fourth line centre? We’re guessing Connor Zary and Martin Pospisil get a chance to take on that role.