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FlamesNation Mailbag: Stampede edition! (Part two: The bigger picture and other questions!)
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Photo credit: Mike Gould
Ryan Pike
Jul 8, 2024, 14:00 EDTUpdated: Jul 7, 2024, 23:05 EDT
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On Sunday, we put out our weekly call for questions! And y’all delivered, big-time!
In the interest of keeping things to a manageable length, we split our weekly mailbag into two pieces! Here’s part two, looking at your big-picture and other questions!
We’ll get into this in more detail as the off-season wears on, but let’s put this plainly: if your team is good, people will want to come play for it. There are only a certain amount of NHL gigs and everyone’s motivated by different things – nice workplaces, easier travel, proximity to family, winning, money – but if you create a positive environment where players are able to be challenged and achieve their personal goals, people will want to play there.
So here’s the long and the short of it:
If the Flames receive Florida’s 2025 first-rounder (e.g., if Florida’s pick is not in the top 10):
  • If Calgary’s 2025 first-round pick is in the top 10, Montreal gets Florida’s 2025 first-round pick.
  • If Calgary’s 2025 first-round pick is not in the top 10, Montreal gets the earlier of the two 2025 first-round picks (Calgary’s or Florida’s).
If the Flames do not receive Florida’s 2025 first-rounder (e.g., if Florida’s pick is top 10):
  • If Calgary’s 2025 first-round pick is first overall, Montreal gets Calgary’s 2026 first-round pick instead (and Calgary’s 2025 third-round pick as compensation for having to wait an extra year).
  • If Calgary’s 2025 first-round pick is anything else, Montreal gets Calgary’s 2025 first-round pick.
(Note: We double-checked on the Florida pick this week and were told that the Flames get it unless it’s in the top 10.)
If you cruise on over to PuckPedia, there are eight teams with less than $1 million in projected cap space right now: Washington, Vegas, Colorado, Philadelphia, Edmonton, Florida, Toronto and Nashville. I don’t know if the Flames are necessarily knocking on doors offering to bail teams out in exchange for specific contracts, but they’re in an amazing position when we get closer to the season.
Right now, cap trouble is an abstract thing. Teams can go “Oh, we’ll figure it out in October, we have three months.” But once we get into the meat of training camp, the Flames can simply grab whoever they want off waivers without thought to cap crunches… or they could use their flexibility to land sweeteners in exchange for helping teams out. I suspect Craig Conroy and his crew will be waiting patiently by their phone for when panicky teams ask them for cap help.
If I’m the Flames, I’m looking at centres or forwards that could be used at centre when it comes to players I’m interested in acquiring for a price.
I’m a PuckPedia guy, but I also have my own cap calculator spreadsheet that I update throughout the season and cross-check against PuckPedia’s data to make sure I’m getting the math right.
Folks, you can call the current Flames’ roster overhaul whatever you want – I’m a fan of “re-(verb),” as it includes rebuild, retool, rehabilitation, renovation, strategic retreat – but labels are largely unimportant here. The Flames are trying to build a good hockey club that has a chance to win championships, and to do that, they’re taking a step backwards for the time-being as they get younger, their young players can gain experience and grow their games, and then (in theory) the team becomes a contender again. The presence of a few key veterans prevent it from being a full “to the studs” teardown, but it’s definitely the most significant overhaul the club has undertaken in decades.
This will not be an immediate progress. And if you listen to Craig Conroy’s interviews – he’s done many recently – he’s not exactly shy that it might take a few seasons to get where they want to go. There may be some long evenings over the next while, particularly the next season or two, while the young players get into the NHL lineup and sink their teeth into things.
There’s been a fan outcry over the past few seasons that the Flames should re-(verb). Well, it’s happening. And for the next couple seasons or so, try putting more stock into progression rather than wins and losses.
I think Canada’s in tough against Argentina because I don’t love Canada’s midfield and I think Argentina has slightly more skill up front. That said, Canada did an awesome job hanging in there during the group stage game, and I suspect if they lose, they’ll go down swinging. It should be a really fun game to watch.
Got a question for a future mailbag? Contact Ryan on Twitter/X at @RyanNPike or e-mail him at Ryan [at] TheNationNetwork.com! (Make sure you put Mailbag in the subject line!)

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