Pals, not a lot went well for the Calgary Flames in 2025-26, and that trend contributed to the club finishing in 29th place overall – fourth from the bottom – last season.

One thing that worked for the majority of the season, though, and worked quite well when it did work, was the penalty kill. After struggling initially early in the year, as the personnel seemed not to fully grasp assistant coach Trent Cull’s technical tweaks to the checking scheme, things clicked in early November. The Flames killed 80.4% of opposition power plays in 2025-26, good for 12th league-wide. If you toss out October, they’re in the top 10.

We’re not saying that Yan Kuznetsov getting called up to the NHL roster and joining a PK run by his old AHL head coach helped things snap into place, but I’m willing to have that conversation.

The Flames used a fairly consistent forward group on the PK, typically using Mikael Backlund, Blake Coleman, Joel Farabee, Jonathan Huberdeau, Yegor Sharangovich, and a rotation of Justin Kirkland, John Beecher and Sam Honzek, using two pairs of forwards. On the back end, it was typically Rasmus Andersson (later Zach Whitecloud), MacKenzie Weegar (later Olli Maatta), Kevin Bahl and Yan Kuznetsov, with Kuznetsov and either Weegar or Maatta getting first unit duties with Backlund and Coleman.

As with the power play, the Flames’ PK group has seen some departures, with Coleman, Kirkland, Beecher and Maatta now elsewhere. With those changes, who may get more PK time?

There are two big things to watch, in our eyes. First, who the heck can play centre on the PK behind Backlund? Having Kirkland and Beecher in the rotation, when they were healthy and/or in the NHL, allowed the Flames to use their two bottom-six centres on the PK. It’s unclear who’ll be Calgary’s 4C next season, and if it’s someone like Martin Pospisil or Yegor Sharangovich, are they good enough defensively to play centre on the PK? If you’re someone that wants to see Tyson Gross get real consideration for an opening night role, the PK is a big argument in his favour. Honzek spent some time at centre in the AHL two seasons ago, so maybe that helps him take on a bigger PK role, too.

The other thing is the defensive balance. We’re assuming that the four D-men on the PK will be Whitecloud, Bahl, Kuznetsov and the newly acquired Jacob Middleton, with the likely idea to save Simon Nemec and Zayne Parekh for the power play.

The good news for the Flames is that even with losing some key blueliners last season, the PK generally had an identity and was a source of momentum in games. Considering goals may be hard to come by, they’ll be leaning hard on the PK to keep them in tight games at key moments. They held up their end of the bargain last season, even on a team that struggled, so we’ll see if they can continue that positive work in 2026-27.