The 2026 NHL draft, the most important part of the Calgary Flames off-season, has come and gone with the Flames selecting nine players to add to their already deep prospect pool. A lot of time and energy went into making those selections happen.

But now it’s time for the Flames to switch their focus on to the next phase of their off-season. And their number one priority is to move out multiple forwards and defencemen who are on NHL contracts.

A lot of teams around the NHL are looking to add to their roster over the next two months. But it is the complete opposite for the Calgary Flames.

This organization has too many forwards on the NHL roster.

Let’s take a look at the depth chart as of June 30.

As you can see there are too many forwards in the Flames lineup. I have 20 forwards who are currently NHLers or are knocking on the door to become NHLers.

With where the Flames are in their rebuild, you’d think they’d like to give some young players a legitimate opportunity to show what they can do at the NHL level.

There are a few players the Flames should be shopping on the trade market this off-season.

It starts with Blake Coleman who has one year remaining on his contract that pays him $4.9 million. Once we get through the first few days of free agency, there will be teams who weren’t able to upgrade their forward group the way they had hoped. That’s where the Flames come in with a guy like Coleman who any contender would love to have on their squad.

It’s been rumoured that the Flames are shopping Connor Zary and are looking for a second round pick in return. Zary could be a solid add to a team who is lacking depth in their forward group like the Winnipeg Jets or the Toronto Maple Leafs.

Martin Pospisil has lost his everyday spot in the Flames lineup and there is not a natural fit for him anywhere at the moment. He is a guy who could be an effective fourth line player for a playoff team.

Ryan Strome will likely be on the move between now and the trade deadline. The veteran forward is entering the final year of his contract that pays him $5 million. He could be a solid addition to the third or fourth line of a playoff team.

Maxim Tsyplakov was acquired as part of the Simon Nemec trade. The 6’3″ right winger had a good year with the New York Islanders in 2014-25 with 35 points in 77 games but his production fell off a cliff last season.

Finally there is Yegor Sharangovich who has struggled to find consistency in his game over the last two seasons. He was still able to score 17 and 15 goals even in back to back down seasons. There might be a team out there with a lot of cap space and a spot open in their top nine who might be willing to take on the remaining four years of his contract.

The key for Conroy will be trading at least two of these forwards this summer as well as an additional two at or before the trade deadline. The Flames should be giving long looks to guys like Rory Kerins, Sam Morton, Aydar Suniev, and William Stromgren.

Coleman, Zary, Strome, and Tsyplakov feel like the most likely players to be moved.

Subtracting from the NHL roster also needs to happen on the Flames blue line.

Here is the depth chart as of June 30.

Brayden Pachal and Joel Hanley are two players the Flames should look to trade between now and training camp. Both guys have lost their spots in the Flames lineup. Moving them out for a late round draft pick or a defenseman on a two way contract would make sense.

There is a dilemma on what to do with Hunter Brzustewicz.

The talented 21 year old defenceman played in 38 games with the Flames last season. He show signs that he has the potential to be a solid second or third pairing defenseman in the NHL for a long time. But now you have Zayne Parekh and Simon Nemec ahead of him on the depth chart at 5-on-5 and the power play.

Parekh is going to get a look on the left side. But I’m not sure that’s the best place for him to be playing long term.

So do you look to move Brzustewicz in a trade? Or do you look to move Zach Whitecloud?

There are a lot of ways you could go about this. But it starts with moving on from Hanley and Pachal at the very least.

It’s important for the Flames to give as many young players as possible a chance to playing meaningful minutes in the NHL next season. That’s how rebuilding teams should operate. But as of June 30, the Flames simply don’t have the roster space to do that.

The only way to give the Aydar Suniev’s and Rory Kerins’ of the world a chance is by moving out players on NHL contracts. It’s a sellers market in the NHL right now and Conroy needs to take advantage of that.