The 2025-26 season was a bit weird for the Calgary Flames.

The season began with the hockey world wondering if the Flames could somehow get that one additional point that kept them out of the playoffs the prior season. After the team got out of the gates slowly, the club opted to instead accelerate their youth movement, shipping out Rasmus Andersson, MacKenzie Weegar and Nazem Kadri prior to the trade deadline.

As a result, the vibes around the team shifted throughout the year. But following the trade deadline, the players left on the roster had a chance to simply relax, come to the rink and play some hockey without any big lingering existential questions hanging over their heads.

And consequently, the Flames played some pretty good hockey after the trade deadline.

They posted a record of 10-9-2, converted on 17.4% of their power plays and killed 75.4% of opposition man advantages. And several of the team’s young up-and-comers managed to take steps, with Matt Coronato leading the team in points over the final 21 games, Morgan Frost leading in goals, and youngsters like Matvei Gridin and Zayne Parekh looking confident with the puck. Heck, the power play looked dangerous for the first time all season over the final 20 games.

After Wednesday’s practice at the Saddledome, we posed the question to Frost: How can they carry the momentum over from the end of last season?

“I think we’ve talked about a bunch of that stuff,” said Frost. “I think that’s a good question. How do you carry it over? We watch it over, we talk about it, and you’ve just got to carry some of that confidence and swagger. Obviously, there’s some new leaders in here and fresh faces. Just look to build on it, and see how it goes to start and build from there, I guess.”

One player that seemed to be having fun and finding his swagger late in the season was Parekh. After enduring a fairly tumultuous first pro campaign, he seemed to come alive in March and April. On Wednesday he noted that it’s “night and day from last year to now” and expressed his excitement to start the season.

“I feel like a completely different player,” said Parekh. “And I think just the strength and the work I put in this summer, it’s really helped me and I’m feeling really confident going into the start of the season.”

Flames head coach Ryan Huska kept lines and pairings consistent throughout training camp, and many of those units were carried over from the end of the 2025-26 season. Huska acknowledged the balancing act of keeping lines and pairings consistent to start the season, as the coaching staff tries to juggle familiarity versus complacency.

“The one thing we don’t worry about is what we’re getting from the team on a nightly basis,” said Huksa. “The work and the identity that they’ve established. But we’ve talked about before: now it’s got to find a way to build on that and take this team to another level.”

The Flames begin their 2026-27 regular season when they host Seattle on Thursday night.

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