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FlamesNation Mailbag: Delving into your questions with six games to go!
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Photo credit: Mike Gould
Ryan Pike
Apr 7, 2025, 12:00 EDTUpdated: Apr 7, 2025, 01:31 EDT
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The Calgary Flames have six games remaining on their regular season schedule. They remain mathematically in contention for a berth in the 2025 Stanley Cup playoffs, though they have their work cut out for them if they’re hoping to chase down the Minnesota Wild.
As a big, big week looms for the Flames, let’s dive into the mailbag!
The amount of years an NHL club keeps a drafted player’s rights are negotiated as part of the collective bargaining agreement. Broadly-speaking, it’s four years for Europeans, two years for CHL players, and until a player graduates for college players. Back in the day things were a bit more one-size-fits-all, but over the years things have been tweaked and tinkered with until we reached the current system.
And Russian players are the only ones that have their rights held indefinitely, and that’s just because of a lack of a transfer agreement between the NHL and the Russian ice hockey federation.
The big question with prospects is usually “What’s their upside?” You don’t sign prospects just to sign them, you sign them because you think they have attributes or qualities that give them NHL upside. I don’t want to nitpick Jaden Lipinski specifically – I’ve liked him in junior and he hasn’t played enough pro hockey for me to really have a read on him there – but scouts and development staff are trying to use the information available to them to project if 18, 19 and 20-year-olds will become good pros or even NHLers. It’s a tough thing to do, and it involves making judgment calls with what you think you know about players.
I’m going to make a broad statement and a few specific statements here. First of all, the Flames are where they are because of the players that have been on the team all year. You can nitpick individual performances – and it’s probably fair to do so from time to time – but the 20-odd players on the team are the ones that helped this team get close to a playoff spot. They deserve the chance to finish the job.
Regarding Yegor Sharangovich specifically: he’s played over 300 games and the Flames have a good idea of his peaks and valleys at the NHL level, and can probably live with the downsides of his game. Aydar Suniev is 20, and to be blunt, the Flames know a lot less about how he’ll perform in the NHL. And the Flames really like Suniev, want him to succeed, and probably don’t want to throw him into a position where a mistake costs the team a playoff berth.
(See also: Zayne Parekh probably not playing NHL games until the Flames have clinched or been eliminated for similar reasons.)
In a previous life I ran a movie theatre, and the costs at the concessions are primarily based on the food costs of the individual items. The buns and dogs in pocket dogs are different (fancier!) than regular hot dogs, so they cost more.
1) Figure out a Dustin Wolf extension.
2) Figure out Rasmus Andersson’s future with the club – suss out if you can work out an extension, otherwise start exploring trade options.
3) Find a bit more scoring for 2025-26, whether that’s by adding some youth or by adding veterans, or both.
From David via e-mail: The debate continues about whether CHL players assigned at the end of their season can play in the AHL playoffs if they are assigned to the AHL? Could an underager like Parekh be assigned to the Wranglers now that his CHL season is over and play in the AHL playoffs?
No. Essentially, the rule is that to go down to the Wranglers from the NHL after the trade deadline, you have to be on the AHL roster as of the trade deadline. You can go up from juniors, or join an AHL club via juniors or college on amateur try-out deals, but you can’t go to NHL and then go down to the AHL.
A lot needs to go the Flames’ way for them to make the playoffs. Right now, I think they narrowly miss the playoffs. But it’d be fun to be proven wrong.
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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