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FlamesNation Mailbag: Moving towards free agency
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Photo credit: Mike Gould
Ryan Pike
Jun 30, 2025, 14:00 EDTUpdated: Jun 30, 2025, 00:49 EDT
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The 2025 NHL Draft is behind us and the Calgary Flames added eight new faces to the organization. July 1 sees free agency season begin. A lot is happening!
Let’s check in with the mailbag!
(Disclaimer: Friends, we got a ton of Rasmus Andersson questions. We’ll be doing a whole column on his unique situation later this week.)
26 of the 32 general managers voted to change the format after a really horrendous year logistically during the 2023 draft year. The draft was in Nashville, the turnaround between the season and the draft and free agency was brutal, and nobody loved it. But everyone saw how awkward the decentralized draft was this year, so I suspect we see a move back to the traditional format for 2026.
They tried something new. It didn’t work great. Life goes on.
Right now, the Flames’ aim is to make the playoffs. As they move forward, they’ll probably look to move on from some veterans as they either age out of the team’s plans or become too expensive for their anticipated roles, or both. The hope is that young players can move into the spots vacated by veterans, and the team can continue to move forward towards becoming a contender.
In other words: don’t expect a fire sale.
I would give them a B+ or A-. They didn’t do quite as well as last year in terms of grabbing a quantity of players with offensive upside, but they grabbed a lot of them. Aside from Mace’o Phillips and Jakob Leander, pretty much everybody has some nice offensive potential.
At this point, I’m starting to think the rumoured Ivan Prosvetov signing might make the most sense. He won’t be terribly expensive and if he gets out-played by Devin Cooley, they probably won’t feel too bad sending him to the Wranglers.
I love this question. I don’t know the exact answer, but let’s talk through this a bit.
The Flames employ 17 amateur scouts. But the scouting staff is supported by the analytics/data department, which is another four people. And once players are drafted, they’re supported by the development staff (seven more people) and, if they’re signed, the AHL coaching staff (another dozen people). And this is ignoring the support that Flames management provides the scouting, data and development staff during the whole process.
Again, I don’t have an exact number, but based on the number of people that put their hours into scouting, building the draft list, and then supporting the players once they’re drafted, it’s easily hundreds of thousands of dollars per player.
Personally, I use the benchmark of 200 NHL games to determine if a player has “made it” in the NHL. And I think you want at least two players to have “made it” from any draft class to consider that year a success.
I think they have multiple concepts they might want to try out.
Does he need a stay-at-home partner? Kevin Bahl could work, but perhaps so could someone like Yan Kuznetsov, Eric Jamieson or Axel Hurtig, all of whom have been defensive partners to strong offensive blueliners at various levels. Would a more two-way partner be better? How about Etienne Morin or even MacKenzie Weegar, playing on his off-side?
You never know who might be a good stylistic fit, so I suspect we’ll see a few different options tried out at various points.
Honestly, I think both Flames management and Matt Coronato’s camp probably feel pretty good about the deal Coronato signed. For a player of Coronato’s relatively low experience level (112 NHL games), but pretty impressive offensive output (27 goals, 56 points), $6.5 million per year for seven years is pretty good.
For comparison, Matthew Knies got a $7.75 million AAV with more games (161) with a slightly bigger per-game offensive output. Meanwhile, Geekie’s deal is cheaper ($5.5 million AAV) but he’s 26, so his six year deal expires when he’s 32, while Coronato’s deal expires when he’s 29. I do really like Geekie’s AAV for a player with his role and productivity, though.
Based on the young faces the Flames have on their reserve list and potentially pushing for spots, I’m going to question every signing of a forward over the age of 25 with “What purpose would that serve?” If you sign Joe Veleno, do you like him better than Justin Kirkland or Sam Morton as a potential fourth line centre? I would rather give Kirkland a real chance to be an everyday player, or give Morton an audition in the NHL after his effective play with the Wranglers last year.
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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