Friends, it’s just about the holiday break for the Calgary Flames, and they’ll close out their schedule on Tuesday with a Battle of Alberta in Edmonton.

As we await Santa’s arrival and fill up on holiday snacks, let’s check in with the mailbag!

I would suspect that Zayne Parekh returns to the Flames once the World Juniors are over and Hunter Brzustewicz heads back to the Wranglers for the time being. Brzustewicz has been really good but he’s waiver exempt and putting Parekh with Joel Hanley on the third pairing seems like a good enough place to start him off. I also wouldn’t rule out potentially using an AHL conditioning stint to help Parekh get a bit of his mojo going at the pro level, too, but that may wait for the Flames to see how he looks in NHL action after World Juniors.

The X-factor is, of course, when (if?) Rasmus Andersson finds himself playing for another team, in which case suddenly there’s another spot open for a right shot blueliner and the Flames already have some knowledge of how Brzustewicz would look at the NHL level in that role.

In general, I think it’s reasonable to point to the Olympics as a potential reason why MacKenzie Weegar hasn’t been quite as effective as usual. In short: Weegar cares a lot about the Flames succeeding and him helping the team succeed, and putting so much pressure on himself could have resulted in Weegar trying to do too much and not playing within himself.

However, I think Weegar’s been a lot more consistent since Yan Kuznetsov came to the NHL and was partnered with him. Weegar’s still not quite at the level he was at a year ago, but he’s getting closer to that level. (It’s still a work in progress.)

Ryan Lomberg.

I strongly doubt they do this. I don’t think there’s one move out there that would add enough skill to really move the needle for the Flames enough to drastically change their playoff chances.

I like the fit with teams like Dallas or Vegas, especially if the Flames are willing to “settle” for a 2027 or 2028 first-round pick and a prospect (or slightly more). But we’ll see what materializes in the coming weeks.