Recent articles from Ryan Pike

Hi Ryan! With the world cup wrapping up can't help noticing how long the tournament took. Not into soccer but how are players able to take so much time away from their clubs vs in hockey where being away for 10 days for the Olympics seemed more difficult?

11:32 PM · Jul 19, 2026

Marc (Never Again For ANYONE) Carvalho

This is a fun question, and allows us to throw a spotlight on something cool. You see, the European football leagues – like the Premier League in England, La Liga in Spain, and so on – have built-in breaks into their schedule to facilitate participation in international games to qualify for things like the European Championships and the World Cup. The breaks are so standard that they’re referred to simply as, well, “the international breaks.” European hockey leagues have similar structures, too, which allows their players to take part in various tournaments during the year with their national teams.

But because of the way the NHL’s schedule is set up, with very few structured breaks in the schedule, playing in the Olympics or the World Cup is more disruptive. In terms of how the soccer/football international game model works, the short answer is “it’s always sort of been this year,” and so the breaks are part of the norms of the season’s calendar.

@iggyfan2001

I don't think they will, but if the sharks try to squeeze Macklin Celebrini next summer, is it a crazy thought for the Flames to offer sheet him. To me, the Flames are loaded at every position prospectwise. Just no #1 centre. Even if the sharks match, well you blow up their cap.

8:58 PM · Jul 19, 2026

I don’t see this happening, even if the part of me that loves chaos kind of craves this sort of move.

From the Sharks perspective, I don’t see them trying to squeeze their best player. From Celebrini’s perspective, this only happens if he thinks it’s the only path to getting the sort of money he wants from San Jose – all things being equal, I always expect teams to match offer sheets and then figure out the cap math later. And from the Flames’ perspective, if they’re assuming they’re being used as leverage to get the Sharks to give Celebrini his money, would they be willing to potentially disrupt their careful build plans on the off chance the Sharks might not match? (Remember: if you sign a player to an offer sheet, even if it’s matched, expect your RFAs to use that as an example of what they want until the end of time.)

SirLunatik

@MrLunatik79

Do you think the Flames could sign Eric Jamieson after this season? I feel like he might be our most underrated prospect.

9:35 PM · Jul 19, 2026

First and foremost: Eric Jamieson high-key rules. He was named to his conference’s all-rookie team as a freshman, won a national championship with Denver and maintained a GPA higher than 3.75. It’s hard to imagine a better first college season.

In terms of him getting signed: he’s trending in the right direction. He impressed in the Western League, but you could use the obvious “Oh, but he did it against kids!” card against him. Well, he did the same against an older cohort, so it’s tougher to poke holes in his resume.

The only question regarding Jamieson: where would he fit into the Flames system? They’re not going to sign prospects just to sign them; their aim is to do so where there’s an obvious role and pathway to success for them. The likely hope is that after his sophomore season at Denver, there’s a clearer projection of what he can become as a pro and how the Flames can get him there.

Big Daddy

@bigdaddybustard

Ryan, with tge schedule now released I have a lot of out of town family that want to come say farewell to the done. Are there any thurs&sat tilts or fri&sun that also have something going on in the city that weekend that would show out of towners a great Calgary time? Thanks!

6:37 PM · Jul 19, 2026

The good news is there are a bunch of weekends with multiple home dates during the 2026-27 regular season.

Here are those weekends:

Thu. Oct. 8 (Colorado) & Sat., Oct. 10 (Anaheim)
Thu., Oct. 22 (Minnesota) & Sat., Oct. 24 (Detroit)
Fri., Nov. 6 (Anaheim) & Sun., Nov. 8 (Philadelphia)
Thu., Nov. 19 (Minnesota) & Sat., Nov. 21 (Chicago)
Thu., Dec. 3 (Buffalo) & Sat., Dec. 5 (Washington)
Thu., Jan. 7 (NY Islanders) & Sat., Jan. 9 (Tampa Bay)
Thu., Jan. 14 (San Jose) & Sat., Jan. 16 (Los Angeles)
Thu., Jan. 28 (Montreal) & Sat., Jan. 29 (New Jersey)
Fri., Feb. 19 (Pittsburgh) & Sun., Feb. 21 (Ottawa)
Thu., Mar. 25 (Los Angeles) & Sat., Mar. 27 (Vegas)
Thu., Apr. 8 (Colorado) & Sat., Apr. 10 (Vancouver)

That last pair is the final two Saddledome regular season games ever.

v5 Calgary Flames

@v5FlamesGM

Hey Ryan, I saw you post something before about there not being any 5 MT games due to no more clock turning. How is that possible? Are all Eastern games now going to be 8pm local start times? So confusing

8:23 PM · Jul 19, 2026

It’s mostly just a consequence of time zone gaps. Most east coast games remain 7 p.m. local starts in the Eastern time zone. But with Alberta not falling back in October anymore, functionally Alberta will be one hour staggered from that time zone instead of two hours, so those games will start at 6 p.m. Calgary time instead of the prior 5 p.m. starts.

Ed Helinski 🇺🇸🇵🇱 🌴

@MrEd315

What, if any, theme nights are being created by the Flames to usher out the Scotiabank Saddledome? What might be some good ones?

8:06 PM · Jul 19, 2026

I expect many theme nights from the Calgary Flames game operations crew during the coming season. I don’t know what they are yet, but I expect we’ll see an announcement – or series of announcements – before the season begins.

Larry Letterman

@MacCash55

Hey Ryan herd roomours of Flames new Radio Broadcast Partner any news updates on this Thanks

8:23 PM · Jul 19, 2026