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Five Flames Takes: Time for Conroy to take advantage of the desperate Dallas Stars
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Photo credit: Sergei Belski-Imagn Images
Mike Gould
Jun 4, 2025, 14:00 EDTUpdated: Jun 3, 2025, 23:53 EDT
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Welcome back to one of our newest features here at FlamesNation: Five Flames Takes. After digging into a main topic, Mike will weigh in on five more popular discussion topics involving the Flames and their prospects.
In the wake of their third consecutive Western Conference Final defeat, the Dallas Stars look to be on the verge of doing something rash.
Head coach Peter DeBoer is on the hottest of hot seats. Team captain Jamie Benn is a pending UFA, and if he does return, that familiar ‘C’ on his chest might not be there. Even guys like Jason Robertson and Jake Oettinger might not be safe from what seems like an inevitable shake-up.
Make no mistake: Dallas is still a very good team, and after going all-in on Mikko Rantanen midway through the 2024-25 season, they certainly don’t intend to stop competing for a championship anytime soon. But they didn’t put up much of a fight against the Edmonton Oilers in Round 3, and their core isn’t quite as young and steadfast as it once was.
Long considered one of the NHL’s top executives, Stars GM Jim Nill raised eyebrows around the hockey world when he made Cody Ceci his big trade deadline add on defence this past season. It turned out that Ceci wasn’t the missing piece of the puzzle for an extremely top-heavy Stars defensive group that sorely needed a competent No. 4 after Miro Heiskanen, Thomas Harley, and Esa Lindell. Instead, he was just another Matt Dumba (or Ilya Lyubushkin, or Brendan Smith, or Alex Petrovic — you get the idea).
Regardless of how Nill chooses to address the palpable friction between Oettinger and DeBoer, there’s little doubt that he needs to find another righty who can do better than just tread water alongside someone as talented as Harley. Wouldn’t it make sense, then, for the Stars to go after someone like Rasmus Andersson, whose remunerative demands might be easier to accommodate in a jurisdiction without income tax?
The Stars have comparatively few draft picks to part with after spending so many of them to acquire Rantanen, but that doesn’t mean they’re completely devoid of attractive pieces. Mavrik Bourque is a talented right-handed centre who only just turned 23; Lian Bischel is a towering Swiss lefty on defence; Emil Hemming is a skilled right-shot winger who got better as his first OHL season wore on. And in the likely event Dallas makes more than one significant move this summer, they could end up with a wider variety of trade chips to use on a player like Andersson.
The Flames are freely able to court 25 teams in Andersson trade talks; the remaining six can also express interest but are ultimately at the mercy of the player’s modified no-trade clause. If the Stars do inquire about Andersson but fail to meet Calgary’s ask, there’s no reason why Craig Conroy can’t (and won’t) simply look elsewhere. But on the surface, it’s hard to imagine a better fit for the 28-year-old Swede, who is in desperate need of a bounce-back season after posting a career-worst -38 rating in 2024-25. And with relatively few other options available to shore up their right side, it’d be shocking if the Stars didn’t at least check in on things with Calgary.
1. With the Memorial Cup wrapping up this past weekend, it’s worth taking a moment to acknowledge just how well Étienne Morin played for the Moncton Wildcats. With the Flames’ organizational defensive depth mostly concentrated on the right side, having a big, mobile lefty in Morin who can walk the line and beat goaltenders from distance with ease is a huge bonus. It spoke volumes when Flames AGM Brad Pascall publicly earmarked Morin for full-time AHL duty next season in a recent radio interview, especially considering that he stopped short of confirming the same for Matvei Gridin and Andrew Basha despite both also being eligible. Don’t be surprised if Morin and Hunter Brzustewicz form a top-notch pairing with the Wranglers in 2025-26.
2. Our very own Ryan Pike recently published an excellent piece highlighting six recent NHL draft picks whose exclusive signing rights have expired, making them available to all 32 teams — including the Flames. One name that caught my eye was that of defenceman Justin Kipkie, a fifth-round pick of the Coyotes in 2023 who managed 28 goals and 114 points in 131 games over the past two seasons with the WHL’s Victoria Royals. Kipkie is a Calgary kid who stands 6’3″ and shoots left, potentially making him of particular interest to a Flames team in need of depth on that side. The Flames could use a late-round pick on Kipkie this year or sign him if he goes unselected. In either case, he’d be able to play one more year in the ‘Dub before turning pro in 2026.
3. There’s been all sorts of noise about the Flames being interested in former ‘Yotes and Avs goalie Ivan Prosvetov, who just wrapped up a solid year with CSKA after initially leaving North America in 2024. As a potential Dan Vladar replacement, Prosvetov would be a rather seamless fit; he’s a big guy with a limited NHL track record despite strong numbers at lower levels. But it’s also kind of hard to imagine Vladar being able to find more work away from Calgary than he’d get here, even with Dustin Wolf leading the charge between the pipes. Let’s face it: How many teams are going to be tripping over themselves to reserve a spot for a goalie with a career .895 save percentage? Maybe both sides just want a fresh start, and it’d be fun to see a new guy in the backup role, but it’s hard to gauge Vladar’s value after how well he played (in a small sample) down the stretch.
4. Yanni Gourde’s new six-year, $2.3 million-AAV deal got me thinking about what Blake Coleman’s next contract might look like, wherever he ends up — and I sure don’t think it’ll be with the Flames. First-round exit notwithstanding, the Lightning remain one of the NHL’s model franchises and a serious playoff threat; unfortunately, the Flames are neither of those things. Gourde played an instrumental role in the Bolts winning back-to-back Cups to open this decade and managed 14 points in 21 games after being reacquired from the Seattle Kraken at the trade deadline; it tracks that he’d be prepared to accept a lesser cap hit in exchange for comfort and job security. What if the Lightning make a play to get Coleman back, with the Flames retaining him down to $2.45 million for the next two years before he signs a similar low-cost extension in 2027? As good as Gourde still is, Coleman has more dimensions to his game and was no less important to those championship teams.
5. Let’s wrap this up with some rapid-fire predictions, just to test my mettle. Today’s category: Flames RFA contracts. Without further ado:
  • Morgan Frost: 4 years, $4.75 million AAV — Not too much, not too little after a 37-point season. Frost should’ve ended up with more points but couldn’t buy a point down the stretch. He clearly has the “it” factor, though, and he could be in line for another payday in four years at age 30.
  • Connor Zary: 2 years, $3 million AAV — It feels like both sides want a mulligan on last season. If Zary shoots the lights out like Yegor Sharangovich did in the first season of the very similar deal he signed two years ago, expect a long-term extension in 2026. If not, well, back to the drawing board.
  • Adam Klapka: 2 years, $950,000 AAV — And if all goes well, maybe we’ll eventually see a seven-figure deal for the near-seven-foot man.
  • Kevin Bahl: 5 years, $4.5 million AAV — It might end up being a little rich, seeing as teams don’t usually pay defensive defenders this much until they hit the UFA market (and have therefore proven themselves a bit more), but Bahl is a big, capable lefty in the same mould as Jamie Oleksiak and Nikita Zadorov.

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