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FlamesNation Mailbag: Getting existential
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Photo credit: Mike Gould
Ryan Pike
Nov 10, 2025, 12:00 ESTUpdated: Nov 10, 2025, 01:32 EST
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Friends, the Calgary Flames are in the midst of a challenging season.
They’ve won four times in their first 17 games. They’re currently mired in an offensive cold spell. Their power play is no good right now. Their top prospect, Zayne Parekh, is currently injured and hasn’t had a super start to his NHL career as of yet.
As you would expect in these challenging times, some of this week’s mailbag questions are of the existential variety.
My understanding is no. Because Zayne Parekh was drafted out of the Canadian Hockey League, he’s subject to the terms of the NHL-CHL Transfer Agreement. Under that agreement, he’s limited to playing in the NHL or the CHL for his 18 and 19-year-old seasons. If the Flames opted to send him to Europe, it would violate the terms of that agreement.
A lot of the people in hockey operations, notably Craig Conroy, were in the organization when Sam Bennett was being developed, so they’re well-aware of how things went wrong. The big issue, to me, with Bennett’s development was that the team kept changing their mind about what they were developing him into. First he was a tough-minutes winger, then an offensive-minded centre, then a winger again.
I don’t think that lack of clarity about Zayne Parekh’s future role is any issue. The big challenge for his development is that he’s still built like a lean 19-year-old and has some physical development left to undergo, and that’s the stuff that cannot be fast-tracked. I think giving Parekh consistent game reps, helping him adapt to the physicality, and learning him to learn through making mistakes will get him where he needs to go. He’s so damn smart and skilled, his body just needs to catch up with him.
See, Connor Zary is the player I see the parallels with in regards to Sam Bennett. Y’know in the previous answer, when I referred to Bennett not having a consistent role or a clear development path? I see similar challenges for Zary, and I think once there’s a clean lane for him, it’ll be simpler for everybody.
He’s smart and skilled, but fourth line centre and middle-six winger are very different jobs, and switching between those two mindsets must be a big shift game to game.
I would think perhaps both teams would say no, though probably San Jose more than the Flames.
San Jose wouldn’t sell Michael Misa because he’s really, really good. They had some rough, rough years to be in the position to draft Misa, and I don’t think he would be on the move for anything short of a king’s random.
Meanwhile, Zayne Parekh is the Flames’ top prospect and their most impressive offensive talent on the rise. Jacob Battaglia isn’t far off. If you’re the Flames, you put all your eggs into acquiring someone like Misa if you think you won’t be able to get a talent like that via other means. If you look at how this season is trending for the Flames… maybe just hold onto Parekh and Battaglia and see how the rest of the season ends up and what player you’re trending towards in the NHL Draft.
If you’re looking for hope, I would point to the team’s five-on-five play. They’re second-best in the NHL in expected goals against per 60 minutes, fifth-best in scoring chances against per 60 and seventh-best in high-danger chances against per 60. Simply put: they’re a pretty good defensive team, and if they can consistently do the right things defensively, eventually their scoring touch will resurface. Right? Right?
(Glad you’re enjoying my walk-and-talks on social media!)
The current crop of owners have been in place, in whole or in part, since the mid-1990s. They inherited a pretty challenging financial situation, with the Flames taking in revenue in the devalued Canadian dollar but paying players in American dollars. Combine that with the escalation of player salaries during the 1990s and the dip in team attendance, and it was pretty challenging to be an owner in a small market Canadian city for awhile. I don’t know how in the red the Flames were between the early 1990s and the 2004-05 lockout, but it wasn’t a small amount. They weren’t having a Save The Flames season ticket drive in 2000 just for the fun of it.
So the fact that the Flames have owners right now that have been willing to spend to the cap ceiling pretty much since the salary cap was installed is a big deal. We can disagree about the philosophy about how they run the team, but running the Flames has not been a money-making proposition for much of the time these gentlemen have been involved.
Now, my theory is this: when the formative years of your ownership are lean years with a half-empty, quiet rink and your team losing a lot, you might not be keen on a to-the-studs rebuild. Yeah, the economics of the NHL have changed drastically since then, particularly with much more robust revenue sharing, but I think that sort of experience leaves a mark on you. Combine that with a hockey operations group that has seen several teams – Buffalo, Detroit and others in recent years – wander the desert for years after doing thorough rebuilds and I can get the hesitation behind blowing it all up.
The aim of ownership, hockey operations and the fans is all the same: winning a championship. Reasonable people can disagree on strategy.
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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