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What could the Flames forward lines look like next season?

Photo credit: Sergei Belski-Imagn Images

By Robert Munnich

Jul 21, 2026, 14:20 EDTUpdated: Jul 21, 2026, 14:17 EDT

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When you take a look at the Calgary Flames lineup, the goaltending and the defence are pretty solid for the most part. Yes, there are a couple young defencemen in Simon Nemec and Zayne Parekh who need to continue to grow and develop as players before reaching their ceiling. But the intrigue is high for the group in general.

It is a different story when you look at the forward group. There are a lot of decent NHL players, but they are sorely lacking high end talent as of right now.

To put it in perspective, the forward with the the most points in a single season since 2022-23 is Jonathan Huberdeau with 62. The next closest is Yegor Sharangovich with 59 three seasons ago.

Despite the lack of elite talent, there are still some good players within the Flames forward group.

Matt Coronato is entering his third full season in the NHL and still looks like there is a good chance he can be a consistent 25+ goal scorer.

Matvei Gridin put up 13 points in his final 19 games of the season which is a 57 point pace over 84 games. Many of those points were of the highlight reel variety.

Robert Munnich

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#Flames Report Cards Matvei Gridin: A+ Gridin showed this year that he has the potential to become a true difference maker for the Calgary Flames. His ability to pass and shoot the puck at an elite level and make his teammates better is going to make him a top line player.

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5:30 PM · Apr 30, 2026

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Morgan Frost and Joel Farabee both hit the 20 goal mark last year and will look to build on that.

But the big question heading into training camp will be how will head coach Ryan Huska deploy his forwards? As of July 21, the Flames have 21 players who could be playing in the NHL next season. How Huska finds ice time for all these players is going to be a challenge to say the least.

When it comes to building out lines, there are a couple guarantees we can lock in place.

1. Gridin – Frost – Coronato is the top line. Those three showed some great chemistry together at the end of last season. They got badly outchanced but they can always work on their defence. What you can’t teach is some of the high end plays those three made together in the offensive zone.

2. Sam Honzek is likely to be tied to the hip of Mikael Backlund. The Flames should be doing everything in their power to turn Honzek into the next Blake Coleman. A good starting point is to play him with the captain.

Based off those two points, we can piece together a couple lines. The first trio being the new 3M line (Matvei, Morgan and Matt).

The second line could be a shutdown line of Honzek, Backlund and Farabee. This is the line Huska can use when there is a face-off in the defensive zone and for match-ups against the opposing top lines.

The next line will feature Jonathan Huberdeau and Ryan Strome. Yegor Sharangovich, Connor Zary, Maxim Tsyplakov are options to play on right wing with those two veterans.

The fourth line will likely be a mishmash of the leftover wingers from the third line, Martin Pospisil, Adam Klapka and Tyson Gross.

Here are a few different looks the Flames could go with.

It’s clear the Flames have too many wingers when looking at the bottom two lines. Craig Conroy is going to have to try his best to move out at least two forwards. Whether it’s Zary, Sharangovich, Pospisil or Tsyplakov. Two of them have to go if you want to give the forwards you have on your roster the best chance to succeed in a role that suits their game.

The other reason to trade out a couple forwards is to give some younger players a legitimate opportunity to show if they are NHL players or not. There is barely any room for a young player in the NHL lineup with the way the roster is currently constructed. Tyson Gross might be the one young player who has a legit shot to make the team because of the lack of centre depth.

But guys like Rory Kerins, Aydar Suniev, William Stromgren, Brennan Othmann, Sam Morton and Jonathan Castagna are going to be in tough to get playing time this season unless Conroy moves out multiple bodies.

My two cents

Here is what my lines would look like if there are no changes to the forward group between now and the start of the regular season.

Some quick thoughts on this group.

I like the idea of Honzek and Backlund as a defensive duo for the next couple years.
Rebuilding the trade value of Sharangovich and Zary is important.
Lines 3 & 4 are interchangeable and could play similar minutes. I don’t see either as a traditional 4th line.
Martin Pospisil is the odd man out to start. He and Tsyplakov can rotate in and out of the lineup.

This is not a strong forward group when you compare it to the rest of the NHL. It might be the worst the Flames have had since the 2013-14 season. But this is the type of lineup you get when you’re in the beginning stages of a rebuild. And that’s not a bad thing.

What lines do you want to see the Flames go with to start next season? Let us know in the comments section!

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