We know trades are imminent with some prominent players, throw a dart and guess who , where, and exactly when they’ll be traded! We won’t hold you to it (but we will) 🎯
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FlamesNation Mailbag: Alright, back to work!
Photo credit: Mike Gould
Friends, the 2026 Winter Olympics in Milano Cortina, Italy are now complete. Canada took home 21 medals from the festivities, including silver medals in both men’s and women’s ice hockey. (Yeah, we wish they were gold, too, but consider that Sweden took home zero hockey medals.)
Anyway, the NHL returns to action on Wednesday evening and the Calgary Flames play on Thursday in San Jose. As we prepare for the pros to get going again, let’s check in with the mailbag!
So here’s the deal: on the 32 Thoughts podcast following the trade, Sportsnet’s Elliotte Friedman noted that the Boston Bruins offered the Flames a package that included a 2027 first-round pick and Mason Lohrei (“and maybe more”) in exchange for Rasmus Andersson and a contract extension. There was some chatter in the days prior to the trade that perhaps prospect Matthew Poitras was included in the package, but his name was never uttered by established, reliable insiders, so that’s just a rumour.
Would Boston give the Flames a hefty package for MacKenzie Weegar, who’s on a deal with a $6.25 million cap hit for another five seasons? Perhaps! Should the Flames be rushing Weegar out the door? I wouldn’t, but I’m a big fan of how versatile Weegar can be, and I’m sure the Flames are hoping that Weegar’s dip in play this season was more about him trying too hard to make the Canadian Olympic team and less about some sort of fundamental degradation in his overall game.
Alright, here’s a pure guesswork stab at who could be on the move before the trade deadline. Again, a disclaimer: this is purely guesswork, I am not reporting anything.
Blake Coleman to Dallas. Joel Hanley to Colorado. Brayden Pachal to Detroit.
Given the cap hits, contract terms and complexities involved in MacKenzie Weegar and Nazem Kadri’s individual situations, I have a very low confidence level that either of those players are moved before 1 p.m. MT on Mar. 6. As mentioned earlier, I don’t know if I would be in a hurry to move on from Kadri.
How many AHL games does Parekh play next season?
The 2026-27 season will be Zayne Parekh’s 20-year-old season and he’ll be eligible to play in the AHL full-time for the first time in his pro hockey career. Of the 72 games on the Calgary Wranglers’ schedule, I think he plays in, at most, 10 of them. I think he’s grown his game and will keep working on his physical maturity over the summer, so I don’t think he’ll need to spend very much time in the AHL next season.
What is too many men on the ice?
Too Many Men is a podcast featuring Sara Civian, Shayna Goldman and Alison Lukan.
Too many men is also a bench minor penalty governed by Rule 74 of the NHL rulebook.
“Players may be changed at any time during the play from the players’ bench provided that the player or players leaving the ice shall be within five feet (5′) of his players’ bench and out of the play before the change is made. Refer also to Rule 71 – Premature Substitution. At the discretion of the on-ice officials, should a substituting player come onto the ice before his teammate is within the five foot (5’) limit of the players’ bench (and therefore clearly causing his team to have too many players on the ice), then a bench minor penalty may be assessed.”
There are some nuances laid out in the rulebook, but in practice the “at the discretion of the on-ice officials” part of the rule does a lot of heavy lifting. The idea is that if a player intentionally gets involved in the play while the player he’s replacing is further than five feet from the bench, a penalty is merited. But there’s some grey area in the rule, and that’s likely what causes a lot of fan (and coach) frustration at key moments of games.
Got a question for a future mailbag? Contact Ryan on Twitter/BlueSky at @RyanNPike or e-mail him at Ryan.Pike [at] BetterCollective.com! (Make sure you put Mailbag in the subject line!)
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