The Calgary Flames have tendered qualifying offers to three players, retaining their exclusive negotiating rights as they prepare to become restricted free agents on Wednesday.
The deadline to qualify RFAs was 3 p.m. MT on Monday. The Flames had 10 players they could provide qualifying offers to, and they extended offers to three of them.
Not receiving qualifying offers and becoming unrestricted free agents are goaltender Owen Say, defencemen Artem Grushnikov and Gavin White, and forwards John Beecher, Parker Bell, Lucas Ciona and Carter King.
The most prominent non-tendered player is Beecher, who was claimed off waivers by the Flames part-way through last season and was solid as a fourth-line centre, but didn’t really move the needle a ton as anything but a penalty-killing specialist.
Among the others, all were primarily Wranglers depth players. A free agent signing, Say was briefly the team’s starting netminder after Ivan Prosvetov’s injury, but his own injury paved the way for Arsenii Sergeev to take over the AHL net in the second half of the year.
Grushnikov was acquired in the Chris Tanev trade in 2024, but struggled to find a consistent role within the Wranglers lineup and found himself as a somewhat regular healthy scratch. Bell, a 2022 draft choice, and Ciona, a 2021 draft choice, played similar bottom-six checking roles with the Wranglers, but couldn’t quite find consistency with their physicality and two-way play. King was a free agent signing last spring and spent 2025-26 as a utility forward for the Wranglers. White was acquired from Dallas mid-season in exchange for Jeremie Poirier, but also couldn’t progress beyond a depth role.
For the players given qualifying offers, they can accept these one year deals before their expiry on July 15 or merely use them as the basis for further contract negotiations. Qualified players can start speaking with other NHL clubs on Tuesday and are eligible to sign offer sheets from those teams, but the Flames would have the right to match those offers (or receive draft choice compensation, as depending on the size of the offer sheet, if they opted not to match). If an eligible player files for salary arbitration, they’re no longer eligible to sign offer sheets from other teams.
Free agency opens on July 1 at 10 a.m. MT.
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