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FlamesNation Mailbag: Closing out May Long with reader questions
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Photo credit: Mike Gould
Ryan Pike
May 19, 2025, 12:00 EDTUpdated: May 19, 2025, 02:03 EDT
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Gang, it’s Victoria Day weekend – otherwise known as May Long in the Canadas – and hopefully the weather is warm and your long weekend has gone well so far. In the hockey world, some teams are embroiled in the post-season and some are battling in the Stanley Cup playoffs.
Let’s dive into the mailbag!
On Dustin Wolf: the Flames cannot file a contract extension with the league until the final year of Wolf’s current deal starts on July 1. I suspect the Flames and Wolf’s camp will have conversations about the broad strokes of things before then, but they can’t hammer things out until July 1 so I imagine the Flames will be focusing on the current crop of restricted free agents before trying to lock Wolf down. They’re going to work at it, but it won’t be an urgent thing on the to-do list until the other RFAs are figured out.
On Ryan Huska: my recollection is Huska is entering the third year of a three year deal. I suspect he’ll get some years added to his deal before the regular season begins.
I love Jakob Pelletier. The Flames love Jakob Pelletier. But given his status as a player that requires waivers and the sheer volume of wingers in the Flames system, I just don’t see the Flames bringing him back right now.
Honestly, I think this might be one of the potential lanes for the Flames to progress upward towards where they want to be. They either need to hit it big on a later pick – ala Johnny Gaudreau, Theo Fleury or picks of that ilk – or they need to find value throughout the draft and hope that they can make up for the lack of “elite” talent with a lot of very good players.
The Flames have the benefit right now of having Nazem Kadri and Mikael Backlund as really reliable veterans up the middle. They should try to surround them with players that can potentially step into their roles over the next few years. The draft is a great way to do that.
The Flames have tons of cap space and I think their pro scouts and data team will flag a few to seriously look into. That said, I don’t think Craig Conroy’s cap space is burning a hole in his pocket. The Flames have financial flexibility right now and only really want to use it if they think that investment will pay off in two or three years with the team becoming scary-good. That probably means they won’t be wildly chasing after free agents, but will try to be tactical with whatever they do.
I recommend a fancy mustard or a chipotle mayo.
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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