The hockey world could start getting a lot busier pretty quickly, folks.

The Stanley Cup playoffs will end this week, potentially as early as Tuesday (but definitely by Friday). After that, we enter the buyout window, the home stretch for NHL Draft preparations, and then we dive right into free agency.

We have less than two weeks until the draft and most of the off-season fun and excitement (and chaos!) that we all know and love. Let’s check in with the mailbag!

For those who are curious, typically the Flames have practised primarily in the Saddledome. Due to the frenzied schedule of events and games at the ‘Dome – it hosts the Wranglers, Roughnecks and Hitmen, plus concerts – sometimes they’ve been bumped to practice at Winsport at Canada Olympic Park.

Scotia Place, currently under construction, includes a community rink which will serve as the Flames’ primary practice facility and also be available for public bookings. So now, rather than have to pack everything up to head to Winsport when the Saddledome is booked for another game or a concert or whatever else, they’ll be able to get ready in the same locker room they always do and turn right (instead of left) to walk down the hallway to the practice rink.

There’s no separate external facility needed.

I will miss the coffee at Winsport, though.

I think the Flames will definitely kick tires and check to see what the prices would be to move up from 18, and to see if any teams are interested in moving down at all.

That said, I don’t think the Flames are in a place where sending assets out the door to move up would make sense. By that I mean, I think they’re still in the process of building up their prospect base and, perhaps barring a Rasmus Andersson trade, I don’t know if they would have the assets (or a desire to move the assets) required to move up to the top 10.

But hey, weird things have happened, so I’m never one to rule anything out.

If Dan Vladar doesn’t end up re-upping as a free agent, he’ll probably just sign somewhere else. The chances of him being traded before July 1 are very low.

For the new folks around here, prior to the demolition of the Stampede Corral and expansion of the BMO Centre, there used to be a plus-15 walkway that brought fans from the Victoria Park LRT station right to the entrance to the Saddledome.

There are no such plans for any heated walkways from the revamped Victoria Park LRT station to the west or the eventual Green Line station to the north. The idea is that they want fans to walk at street level from the train platforms to the rink, perhaps stopping off at a restaurant, bar or other such establishment on their way. Finding a way to build up street-level life and activity in the area has been a consideration in the design of basically everything in the recent Stampede Park builds.

The Flames are working away at whittling down their restricted free agent lists – they’ve already re-upped with Matt Coronato and Adam Klapka – but in the meantime, I don’t think there’s a ton of offer sheet anxiety because the Flames have ample cap space to be able to match any offer sheets that a player might agree to.

I think a lot of it depends on what sort of a market develops for Rasmus Andersson, presuming he doesn’t re-sign with the team. In an ideal world, you can potentially find a young centre in that sort of a trade. I don’t think you need to rush out to spend your cap space, but using your assets like picks and young prospects (and potentially Andersson) could help you solve problems and keep building the team for the future.

I don’t know any of the current players well enough to be able to answer this.

But I will say that one of the most fun days of the year is the annual Kid’s Day matinee where many of the players bring their kids to the rink for the game. Heck, some of them, like Dan Vladar and Rasmus Andersson, have done their post-game media availability while holding their kids in their arms.