The Calgary Flames (32-37-9, 73 points) will conclude both their six game road trip and their road schedule for the 2025-26 season on Saturday evening when they visit the Seattle Kraken (33-34-11, 77 points). The Flames are out of the playoffs and in audition mode. The Kraken are clinging onto life in the playoff race, but it looks like a massive long-shot at this point. But with two groups closing out disappointing years, except a scrappy game between two teams looking to their futures.

Today’s broadcast begins at 5 p.m. MT on Sportsnet West and Sportsnet 960 The Fan.

Projected lines via Daily Faceoff:

Blake Coleman – Mikael Backlund – Matt Coronato
Matvei Gridin – Morgan Frost – Joel Farabee
Yegor Sharangovich – Ryan Strome – Aydar Suniev
Connor Zary – Tyson Gross – Adam Klapka

Olli Maatta – Hunter Brzustewicz
Yan Kuznetsov – Zayne Parekh
Abram Wiebe – Zach Whitecloud

The Flames don’t have a morning skate due to the early start time, so we’re making some educated guesses and we’ll see how wrong (or right) we are when Sportsnet’s Derek Wills tweets lines during warm-up.

We’re projecting Devin Cooley to start in net, backed up by Dustin Wolf. The projected healthy extras for Calgary look like Brayden Pachal, John Beecher, Ryan Lomberg and Martin Pospisil. Newcomer Abram Wiebe, signed by the Flames on Friday, is expected to make his NHL debut. Blake Coleman is back with the club after welcoming his fourth child into the world – congrats to the Colemans! – and we would expect him to be in, too.

It’s the first half of a back to back and the first of four games to close out the season, with the final three home games starting on Sunday. Let’s see if the Flames have some more fun hockey left in them this season.

Projected lines via Daily Faceoff:

Bobby McMann – Matty Beniers – Jordan Eberle
Jaden Schwartz – Chandler Stephenson – Kaapo Kakko
Jared McCann – Berkly Catton – Freddie Gaudreau
Ryan Winterton – Oscar Fisker Molgaard – Jacob Melanson

Vince Dunn – Adam Larsson
Joshua Mahura – Brandon Montour
Ryker Evans – Jamie Oleksiak

Alright, so Seattle also isn’t doing a morning skate, so even more guesswork.

The Kraken are already without Philipp Grubauer and Matt Murray, and then Joey Daccord got banged up in their last game, so probably we see fourth-stringer Nikke Kokko start in net, with call-up Victor Ostman backing up. Their projected healthy extras look to be Eeli Tolvanen, Ben Meyers, Ryan Lindgren and Cale Fleury.

Seattle is technically alive in the playoff race, as they sit eight points behind Los Angeles for the final wildcard spot with four games left. They basically need to run the table and have the Kings lose out. It’s not likely, but hockey’s weird so we won’t entirely rule it out. It’s been a frustrating season for the Kraken, who’ve failed to take that fabled next step and are now entering a spring of self-reflection. Heck, we’re already seeing management changes in the Emerald City, as Ron Francis is departing. We’ll see what else the next few weeks and months will bring in Seattle.

The Flames are without Sam Honzek, Jake Bean, Jonathan Huberdeau, Joel Hanley and Kevin Bahl.

The Kraken are without Shane Wright, Joey Daccord, Matt Murray and Philipp Grubauer.

This is the third and final game between these clubs this season. So far they’ve split their first two meetings in Calgary: a Flames win in December and a Kraken win in January.