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FlamesNation Mailbag: The last week before the Olympics
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Photo credit: Mike Gould
Ryan Pike
Feb 2, 2026, 10:00 ESTUpdated: Feb 2, 2026, 02:03 EST
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Gang, it’s February. The 2026 Winter Olympics technically begin on Wednesday, when curling preliminary action kicks off.
The Flames have two games left on the docket before their schedule concludes before the Olympics and the trade freeze begins. Oh, and they get three weeks off.
Let’s dive into a jam-packed mailbag!
Alright, in terms of centres in the 2026 NHL Draft, looking at the top names from our pal Steven Ellis at Daily Faceoff, I would point at the likes of Caleb Malhotra, Tynan Lawrence and Viggo Bjorck. There aren’t any sure-fire elite centres in this year’s draft class, though. But that doesn’t mean there won’t be strong ones emerge over time.
In terms of trading: man, if only it was that easy. When teams have oodles of good young centres, they are in no hurry to move on from them. It’s the same thing for strong young defencemen or awesome young goaltenders. To get, you gotta give, and it would be pretty pricey for the Flames to grab one, even if one became available in the trade market.
I don’t think they made many mistakes with Matthew Tkachuk; you can gripe about their inability to sign him long-term when the opportunity afforded itself to them, but they gave him a clear role and strong linemates and he grew into a really awesome winger. Everyone’s allowed to have their feelings about his exit, but he was an excellent Flame.
In terms of the Sam Bennett challenges? Yeah, you would hope so. If Bennett had been given a clear role that didn’t change every time the coach did, perhaps his development would have turned out differently.
I really loved the Dougie Hamilton trade in 2015 as a big swing, but I felt it was a bit too early. When your team is a Dougie Hamilton away from being a consistent scary-good playoff team, that’s when you package those types of assets to make that move. That’s sort of how I feel about using picks to get young NHLers; it’s a card you can definitely play, but my preference is to build through the draft and then fill in the missing pieces of the puzzle with those sorts of trades.
I touched on this a few weeks back in the prospects update: Parker Bell, Lucas Ciona, Jeremie Poirier and Artem Grushnikov are all pending potential restricted free agents. With the incoming crop of youngsters pushing for spots, it’s incumbent on that quartet to prove that they can be valuable AHLers with NHL upside over the next few months.
I think the answer is “it depends,” and it depends on factors like salary retention – the Flames have one slot left – and the fact that Blake Coleman has one more year left on his deal and a really palatable cap hit, while Nazem Kadri is under contract for three more seasons. If you’re asking another team to give you stuff and take on the risk of the remainder of each player’s deal, Kadri carries much more risk.
I, personally, would move Coleman if a team ponies up a first-rounder… or multiple second-rounders. For Kadri my bar is a little lower simply because of the length of contract left.
If you’re a team trading an asset, you want to move them before the Olympics so you don’t run the risk of injury or anything else happening. If you’re a team adding an asset, you might want to wait until later so that you can minimize the cap shenanigans you need to go through to fit them within your salary structure.
Could Cole Reschny be that centre? Maybe.
The thought of having a future first line of, say, Reschny, Coronato and either Ivar Stenberg or Gavin McKenna is pretty enticing.
I think we may have seen everyone who’s going to make their NHL debut this season already do so. That said, I’ll single out Carter King as a really useful utility player for the Wranglers whose game has grown a lot over the season so far.
I’ve got three for you:
Axel Hurtig is a great role player; a big, physical shutdown defender. He could be a great compliment to the smaller puck-movers in the system.
Theo Stockselius would’ve been on Sweden’s World Junior team had he not been injured.
Arsenii Sergeev has grown a ton over the past few seasons in North America and he’s adapting really nicely to the rigours of pro hockey.
As of this writing, Ethan Wyttenbach leads the NCAA in points. Like, the entire NCAA. All of it.
Wyttenbach is a smaller winger and he was drafted in the fifth round in part due to size and in part because he had only played a single season in the USHL and so it was probably tough for scouts to get a handle on projecting his development. He’s been a superb offensive player for Quinnipiac, but his physical and defensive games could probably use some further refinement.
Wyttenbach’s awesome offensively. If you’re the Flames, you want to sign him when he’s best set up for success – e.g., when you think his body and overall game are ready to dominate the AHL. My guess is he spends one more year in the NCAA and then the Flames come calling with a contract. (Matt Coronato and Aydar Suniev’s trajectory is probably what you’re looking at for him in college.)
I don’t think there was much of an appetite to add unnecessary costs by adding wholly cosmetic elements to the new building.
Anything more than four and you’re starting to get carried away, I would say.
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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