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Could Joel Farabee fill Blake Coleman’s shoes with the Flames?

Photo credit: © Perry Nelson-Imagn Images
Friends, Blake Coleman is a really valuable member of the Calgary Flames. He plays hard. He scores timely goals. He kills penalties. He’s been on the power play from time to time. He’s not great at everything, but he doesn’t have many holes in his game.
But as he approaches the final year of his current contract in 2026-27 and the Flames continue their youth movement, a departure from the club seems like a real possibility for the 34-year-old winger.
With that in mind, let’s talk about winger Joel Farabee, whose game took a big step forward over the past 82 games and all of a sudden seems like someone that could potentially fill Coleman’s role on the Flames going forward.
A product of Syracuse, New York, Farabee worked his way through prep school hockey in the northeast American academies, then played two seasons at the U.S. National Development Program. He was a first-round pick, 14th overall, by the Philadelphia Flyers in the 2018 NHL Draft. He played one season at Boston University before going pro for the 2019-20 season.
Aside from a brief five-game stint in 2019-20, Farabee has avoided the American Hockey League entirely, and he’s approaching his 500th NHL game early in 2026-27. Farabee proved pretty quickly that he was good enough to play in the NHL on a regular basis, but he seemed to struggle to find consistency, or a consistent role under head coaches Alain Vigneault and later John Tortorella.
When the Flames made a trade with the Flyers in late January 2025, you could be forgiven for seeing the trade as being the Flames acquiring promising young centre Morgan Frost, with Farabee being involved to make the salary cap math palatable for Philadelphia. At the time, Farabee was in the midst of a challenging stretch, posting 19 points in 50 games – his worst offensive pace as an NHLer – and his game seemed to lack identity.
Say what you will about culture and identity, but when Mikael Backlund’s not scoring, what his game is supposed to look like and feel like is pretty obvious. Backlund has developed a crystal clear identity as a player, but it took awhile for him to work it out.
Farabee played 31 games with the Flames in 2024-25 after being acquired from the Flyers. He was decent enough, but he lacked consistency and he posted just six points.
With that in mind, let’s say one thing really bluntly: Farabee was much, much better throughout the 2025-26 season than he was during his early games with the Flames. He played hard. He played fast. He generated a ton of scoring chances. He played in a bunch of different spots in the lineup, with several different linemates, but he seemed to bring the same recipe to whatever line he was on.
He ended up scoring 20 goals and posting 38 points across 82 games with the Flames. He was one of three Flames to score 20 goals. He was one of three Flames to play in all 82 games. He served as an alternate captain late in the season. He played on both sides of special teams, and his game had a clear identity – something that really seemed to be cemented based on chunks of the season he spent on the shutdown line with Backlund and Coleman.
Here’s what head coach Ryan Huska said about Farabee’s game (and comparisons to Coleman) during exit interviews back in April:
“Joel’s a mini Blake, so I think he’s learning what it has to be like now. Blake got a bit of a head start on that when he was younger because he won two Stanley Cups, and we want to get to a position where we have that for Joel because that’s going to allow Joel to take the next step as well. But when you look at Joel’s game, he’s willing and able to accept any role that you give him on any given night. There’s zero complaints. He shows up at the rink with the same attitude every day. All his teammates, old or young, are comfortable going to him. Very much the same player. Now it’s a matter of him, let’s call it maybe embracing the harder parts and not just going to the wall, you got to go through it now. And that a lot of times that lesson comes from winning, which Blake has done, and Joel’s learning how to do that.”
The Flames aren’t where they want to be, far from it. But as they map out the path forward, they see the value and importance of having players like Backlund and Coleman – and now Farabee – as part of a group steering the ship. And considering how unclear Farabee’s role and future with the club looked 12 months ago, that’s a huge step forward for him in his career.
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