We’re at the point of the summer where much of the big news from the 2024 off-season has unfolded. The 2024 NHL Draft is complete. We’re nearly two weeks into the free agency period.

Given that most of the league’s roster changes have probably taken place, the folks over at ESPN have compiled their annual “way too early” power rankings.

ESPN had the Flames ranked 27th out of the NHL’s 32 clubs:

The Flames finished 24th overall in 2023-24, largely hanging around the Western Conference’s playoff periphery until their sell-off saw them slide down the rankings after the trade deadline. The club ended up moving out Nikita Zadorov, Elias Lindholm, Chris Tanev and Noah Hanifin in-season – they didn’t really drop down the standings until they traded an entire defensive pairing – and they’ve subsequently moved out starting goaltender Jacob Markstrom and Andrew Mangiapane this off-season.

So it’s probably reasonable to assume that the Flames could be a little bit lower in the standings in 2024-25 than they were a season ago. Only five teams were ranked below them in ESPN’s power rankings: San Jose, Anaheim, Columbus, Chicago and Montreal. This placement is more or less in line with what oddsmakers like the folks at Betway have projected.

For the curious, here’s how ESPN had the other Pacific Division clubs:

The 2024-25 season will be the first full campaign of the Flames’ retool/rebuild/re-(verb) process, which aims to cycle out some veteran players in favour of more young faces. While the Flames will never publicly profess that they’re okay with not making the playoffs or trying to win, the focus for the next few seasons will be developing their top prospects into NHL players that can help the team become a powerhouse in the future.

They certainly hope it’s not too far in the future.