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FlamesNation Mailbag: Winding down July
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Photo credit: Mike Gould
Ryan Pike
Jul 28, 2025, 12:00 EDTUpdated: Jul 27, 2025, 23:49 EDT
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Gang, we’re into the very late stages of July, a month that started off with a quiet free agency period, included development camp and Stampede, and is concluding with four Calgary Flames prospects participating in USA Hockey’s World Junior Summer Showcase.
As we try to make sense of things and prepare for August, let’s delve into the mailbag!
I agree with this sentiment, to a point. I don’t think anyone expected that Dustin Wolf would be one of the better netminders in the NHL last season… but he was. Should we have been surprised that he was able to play so well given how he performed at prior levels of hockey? Probably not, but the NHL is a really challenging environment to be in, and sometimes even really good players have have gigantic adjustment challenges. (Johnny Gaudreau was pretty ordinary for his first couple weeks in the NHL.)
In terms of Parekh, I don’t know what realistic expectations are for him in the NHL in 2025-26. Why? Because he’s an absolute hockey unicorn. He’s done things offensively in the OHL that nobody has done, or at least nobody has done in decades. I wonder if he’ll struggle with the physicality and pace of the NHL, at least at first, but he was with the Flames for a few weeks and got an opportunity to study games and learn from established NHLers. Maybe that experience will help him adjust to things more quickly.
I’ll be completely honest here: I am really excited to see Parekh in the NHL. I just have no idea what to expect from him.
So there are two mindsets, I think, regarding Rasmus Andersson and a probable trade away from the Flames.
The Flames should trade him immediately to get it over with, avoid injury, and removing a possible distraction! This mindset suggests that there are risks involved with the Flames holding onto Andersson into the regular season. And if we’re being honest, looking back on the 2023-24 season and the mess of pending UFAs that were traded… yeah, we understand the distraction concern and the injury concern. But I also think that Andersson knows he needs to have a good season to get the big contract he wants, and the Flames need Andersson to have a big season to maximize his trade value. The injury concern is totally valid, but I think motivations are aligned enough – and Andersson is enough of a pro – that he won’t be a distraction.
The Flames should hold onto Andersson until someone gets desperate and meets their price! This mindset is sort of where I sit right now. The Flames’ best asset in 2023-24 was Elias Lindholm. They set a price, communicated it to suitors, and then hung tough as the season wore on. Eventually, someone met their price and they got a haul. That’s no guarantee that it’ll happen again, but it does feel possible that some team will decide that Andersson is the answer to their problems and meet the Flames’ price.
Whether or not the Flames get the return they want, though, depends on external factors, such as a team getting desperate. Otherwise, they may just need to settle for the best offer they can get at the time. The “hold Andersson” approach is not without risks.
I would point to Lukas Dostal’s recent deal in Anaheim – five seasons at $6.5 million per season – and suggest that if you’re Wolf, you probably want a little bit more than him on the same length of deal (Wolf has better numbers). On a longer deal, buying additional UFA years, it probably creeps up by at least $500,000 per year the longer you go. And maybe more than that. I simply don’t know what fair market value would be for Wolf on an eight-year max-term deal.
The short answer, right now, is I don’t think they have one yet. They have two guys in Dustin Wolf and MacKenzie Weegar that I think could be part of a “core four,” but I think you want your “core” to be elite-level players ideally and the Flames don’t quite have that yet.
I really want to see the Flames improve their special teams and their consistency with special teams.
I think Ryan Huska has been pretty good at communication for awhile, but I also like how he seems to delegate things to different parties – assistant coaches and the leadership group – so that the message isn’t only coming from him.
I don’t know if that was something they did this year, but it’s definitely something they’ve done in the past.
I think it would be a risky move for both sides. By that I mean, if you’re Minnesota, you really need to think that Nazem Kadri, at his age and cap hit, can be enough of a difference-maker for your team to justify the cost of acquiring him. And if you’re the Flames, you need to think that Marco Rossi could not just be a potential upgrade over Morgan Frost, but that he can be your top-line centre for the long-term.
I don’t think I would do it, but I can kind of understand the possible motivations. (I also don’t think the Flames are in any hurry to move Kadri anytime soon.)
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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