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FlamesNation Mailbag: Talking the draft, AHL coaching and Scotia Place public art
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Photo credit: Mike Gould
Ryan Pike
Jun 2, 2025, 14:00 EDTUpdated: Jun 2, 2025, 00:21 EDT
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Folks, we’re into the month of June. In addition to what’s hopefully a very fun Stanley Cup Final series between the Florida Panthers and a team whose name escapes me at the moment, there’s the NHL’s awards, the NHL Draft, and the run-up to free agency. Oh, and the Calgary Wranglers need a new head coach.
As we prepare for what could be a very busy next month, let’s check in with the mailbag!
Ryan Huska, Cail MacLean, Mitch Love and now Trent Cull are the last four AHL head coaches in the Flames organization, and they’re all in NHL jobs now. So if you’re someone thinking about your coaching future, being Wranglers head coach may be a good pathway to the big league. It should be a job with a good amount of external interest.
In terms of the types of coaches the Flames would be looking at: Huska and Love had extensive WHL resumes, MacLean was hired as an AHL assistant coach after strong work in the ECHL and then was promoted, and Cull had coached a bunch in the AHL (and briefly in the NHL) before joining the Wranglers. The Flames are trying to build a winning environment on their AHL club, and finding coaches that can help develop their players and win hockey games along the way helps that goal.
In other words: if you’ve won coaching awards in the ECHL or Canadian major junior, I suspect your resume would go to the top of the pile.
I think they’re going to be using the same type of general process as last year’s draft, trying to emphasize skill. Based on Craig Conroy’s recent comments, they’re going to be prioritizing centres if they can, but their general methodology over the past decade or so has been hammering out a draft list – e.g., the players they would take in the order they would take them – and then select best player available. The centre priority would be likely used in situations where they have a few players perceived to be at the same “level” on their list. They’re not going to take worse players simply to load up on centres.
There’s a call out right now for artists to qualify to submit proposals for both the outdoor public art – installations planned for the northwest and southwest entrance plazas outside Scotia Place – and indigenous public art installations – an extensive mural planned for the east side of the building facing 5A Street and the planned “cauldron” fire display.
Beyond that, there are also plans for some internal artwork and, I believe, a commemoration of the Saddledome of some sort. Given that the main tenant of the building will be the Flames, we suspect some of the internal entertainment elements will involve fire. It’s way too early to speculate what everything will end up looking like – aside from the external “cauldron” display – but between the public artwork outside and the Flames’ entertainment staff, I suspect some really fun stuff will be unveiled in 2027 when the building opens.
I think the more Flames-centric stuff will probably be inside the building and the vibe on the outside will be a bit more general-audience, though.
Bowen Byram is 23 (turning 24 this month) and Marco Rossi is 23. They’re both prime-aged players. Even if Buffalo (Byram) and Minnesota (Rossi) are looking to potentially make some changes, I think it would take a lot for the Flames to land both of those players, and the Flames may not want to use up all their assets right away given that they’re still pretty early in their retooling process. I think one of the two could be doable without handcuffing their ability to keep adding young prospects to their system, but both could be a really tall order.
Devin Loucks
Devin Loucks
@Gilaeth
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Backlund is entering his contract year. I believe he is in control given his legacy. Do you think he will want a trade if the Flames are out of the playoff picture at the deadline, or maybe if we are only on the bubble? What return would you ballpark? 15 NTL starting Jan 1.

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Considering the level of respect he’s earned from his teammates and the organization as a whole, Mikael Backlund is very likely in control of how, and where, his NHL career ends. He signed his extension and was named captain likely knowing what he was walking into – a period of pretty substantial roster transition – and given his deep local connections, there’s a train of thought that he may want to stick around to see this thing through.
I wouldn’t go as far as saying Backlund’s going to definitely be with the Flames for his entire career, because you never know what changes life can bring, but I would be very surprised if he plays a game for any other NHL club.
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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