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FlamesNation Mailbag: Heading into the home stretch
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Photo credit: Mike Gould
Ryan Pike
Apr 6, 2026, 10:00 EDTUpdated: Apr 5, 2026, 23:39 EDT
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The Calgary Flames have played 76 games in their 2025-26 schedule. They have six games remaining: three at home, three on the road. All six games are against teams that are, as of this writing, are either in playoff spots or tied in points for one.
As we prepare for the rush to the finish, let’s dive into the mailbag!
Broadly-speaking, I would say very safe. The coaching staff was constructed by Craig Conroy and Ryan Huska, and largely reflects what they wanted: people who can teach a young team how to become good pros. On the coaching side, you’re probably not making big tweaks until you feel the team has enough young talent to emerge from the rebuild cocoon.
On the management side, the Flames are in the midst of some of their strongest drafting in decades and Brad Pascall’s development staff is starting to get their hands on some of these promising youngsters. Early returns have been good – hey there Matvei Gridin – and so I suspect they have some runway. And the team just added to their pro scouting group, so I don’t expect much in the way of short-term tweaks on that side of things either.
I’m really excited to see Aydar Suniev get a couple NHL games in this season. He’s so good with the puck, in terms of having a great shot and knowing when to use it, and as he learns to use his teammates more effectively, I think he’ll unlock a lot of his game.
I suspect we’ll see him split the 2026-27 season between the Flames and Wranglers, sort of like Matvei Gridin did this season.
Assuming that Blake Coleman is moved over the summer…
Huberdeau – Frost – Coronato
Gridin – Strome – Sharangovich
Honzek – Backlund – Farabee
Zary – Pospisil – Klapka
Extra: Lomberg
Bahl – Whitecloud
Kuznetsov – Parekh
Maatta – Brzustewicz
Extras: Hanley, Pachal
Wolf
Cooley
My favourite Saddledome food is the Pocket Dog – bacon cheddar, with a squirt of cheese in the bun. But I tried the Banded Peak nachos at the PWHL Takeover game and they were superb.
Honestly, I would argue the Flames need high-end skill wherever they can find it, and I don’t think they have ample enough positional depth anywhere – except maybe goaltending – that they should veer away from a “best player available” stance. It’s said to be a weak year for centres at the high end, so it may end up being a blueliner such as Chase Reid, Keaton Verhoeff or Albert Smits.
I believe “Director of Engineering, Hockey Analytics” is Alex Robson’s title, and I think it’s a programming thing, like data engineering. It’s meant to be someone that helps with working with data to answer questions and solve problems that emerge within hockey ops.
“Director of Hockey Strategy/Pro Scout” is Kerry Huffman’s title, and I believe he liaises between the hockey operations and analytics group, at least according to this article from Chris Wahl (of the Flames site) from a couple years back.
I do not know. He’d have pressure on him unlike anybody else selected in his draft slot with a different last name. He’s also had a fairly solid-if-unspectacular season, so he’d be more of a “buy low” proposition at this point. I wouldn’t bet on it, but I also don’t have enough solid information at my disposal to tell you to rule it out, either.
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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