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FlamesNation Mailbag: The May Long weekend edition
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Photo credit: Mike Gould
Ryan Pike
May 18, 2026, 10:00 EDTUpdated: May 18, 2026, 00:23 EDT
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Friends, we’re into the actual part of the calendar that can be considered the summer-time in western Canada, as this week’s mailbag column is being published on Victoria Day – otherwise known as the holiday Monday that commemorates May Long… and Queen Victoria’s birthday.
Anyhoo, we’re just over a month away from the 2026 NHL Draft and our readers are curious about prospects, picks, trades and more! We’ll be diving into many questions about trading up, trading down, and which players could be available (or fits for the Flames) at sixth overall.
In the meantime, let’s check in with the other questions everyone had!
The Flames acquired Max Curran from the Colorado Avalanche as part of the Nazem Kadi trade. The Avalanche originally selected Curran in the fifth round of the 2024 NHL Draft. At the time, Curran had just one season of North American hockey under his belt – he played in his homeland of Czechia as a youngster, then joined the Tri-City Americans starting in 2023-24 via the CHL Import Draft. He played 2024-25 with Tri-City, then moved to the Edmonton Oil Kings in 2025-26.
I personally haven’t seen a ton of Curran, but the reviews I’ve heard have been positive. He’s 6’3″ and 187 pounds and he plays centre. He’s had back-to-back seasons in the Dub at over a point-per-game and he’s shown some promise at winning face-offs. He’s headed to the University of Massachusetts in the fall – the same school Aydar Suniev attended – and it’ll give him some time to work on his already-decent 200-foot game and fill out a bit physically.
For those unfamiliar, Joe Iginla is Jarome Iginla’s youngest son and just finished his draft season with the Western Hockey League’s Vancouver Giants. He’s ranked 200th among North American skaters by the NHL’s Central Scouting Service… so he’s a long-shot to get drafted.
He had 31 points in 59 games split between Edmonton and Vancouver in the Dub, and he feels like someone that goes un-selected this time around, then goes to an NHL club’s development camp, soaks up the experience and then has a monster 2026-27 season. He’s an August 2008 birthday, so he’s still quite young and has a lot of runway left.
The Flames need to wait until July 1 to use a salary retention slot in a trade.
Rob’s question got cut off by the embedding of the post, so here’s the full version:
“The Flames are open for business on most of their roster per Daily Faceoff. If they want to further jump start the rebuild a trade with a contender with a roster issues we could fill (Winnipeg Jets) seem to make sense. In my scenario I’d like Coleman, Frost & Strome for the 8th, Yeager & Niederreiter. The thing with this trade is we can’t retain salary at the deadline (all spots are full). Which got me thinking about the NBA, where they wait to declare a trade until after the draft, I think often a new league year. Can something like this happen so we make a trade with discounted players transferring officially after the draft BUT Winnipeg selects the player we want at pick 8…then we get that player as part of a trade July 1?“
There’s nothing in the CBA that explicitly bars the Flames and Jets from entering into this sort of trade. I haven’t read the league’s full operating regulations – they’re usually not available to media members – but as far as I know, this would be technically possible. That said, the league tends to frown upon any moves that bend the rules in this way, so they would probably scrutinize any such moves that circumvent the salary cap or the CBA or the spirit of their regulations. I think there’s probably a reason we haven’t seen any multi-part trades like this in the NHL.
Honestly, not really. From time to time you might get a bit of minor chatter about phrasing in a column or article, but generally-speaking, players understand the roles of media and in 15 years covering the Flames, I haven’t gotten much push-back.
Honestly, I don’t see it. I like Hunter Laing and I think he’s been really good in the Western League over the last year or two, but I think he’s a victim of the numbers game in the Flames’ developmental pipeline right now. I just don’t see where he would fit in within their system. (I’d love to be wrong, though.)
On Viggo Bjorck: We’ll get into more detail later on, but I don’t think he’s been pushed out of the Flames range, I think his last few weeks have pushed him squarely into the Flames’ range.
I think both Zayne Parekh and Matvei Gridin would be in the top 10 in a 2024 re-draft. I think Cole Reschny would be somewhere in the top 15 or so in a 2025 re-draft.
I think the Flames end up making eight or nine draft choices. I think they select a goaltender, three defencemen and four or five forwards. I think they end up making a trade to move up in the first round. I think they draft someone from the Calgary Hitmen, potentially someone like Ben MacBeath in the second round. (I really liked MacBeath when I saw him live this season; his details are really solid for someone of his age in his position.)
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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