I'm guessing that Beecher (RFA) and Olofsson (UFA) won't return next year, do you think that's accurate? I just feel we have better options, your thoughts?
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FlamesNation Mailbag: Winding down the regular season
Photo credit: Mike Gould
Gang, the Calgary Flames have played 80 games in their 2025-26 regular season. They have two games remaining, and then the season shall conclude and we’ll get into the meat of the off-season – including all sorts of draft-related hemming and hawing.
In the meantime, we’re gonna check in with our reader questions in the mailbag!
We got so many good questions this week that we’re gonna do a second edition of the mailbag later this week! (So if you don’t see your question answered here: keep an eye out.)
Hey Piker, be a sport and handicap the odds for the current UFAs to be offered a deal. I have a 1 or 2-year deal for the Lomborghini. After him...?
How many wranglers players do you forsee getting their qualifying offers this year? Or if easier, how many don’t?
We’ll get into the nitty-gritty of things in more detail later on, but here’s roughly what I can see happening with the pending free agents of the two types.
For unrestricted free agents, I think the Flames look at retaining Ryan Lomberg, Clark Bishop and Nick Cicek. They probably part ways with Victor Olofsson, Jake Bean, Justin Kirkland, Daniil Miromanov and Ivan Prosvetov.
For restricted free agents, I think they retain William Stromgren, Carter King, Brennan Othmann, Rory Kerins, Sam Morton, Gavin White and Owen Say. I think they part ways with John Beecher, Parker Bell, Lucas Ciona and Artem Grushnikov.
The challenge right now is that the Flames have so many new, young players pushing for spots, so they can’t keep everyone.
Do you think Blake Coleman is traded at the draft/before training camp or in season? Are they going to bring back Lomberg?
I think they trade Blake Coleman before the end of the summer. Somebody’s going to have a rough playoffs and then meet the Flames’ price for Coleman.
I think Ryan Lomberg is retained. He’s a savvy veteran who understands his role and seems like someone that can bring energy to the lineup, even if he’s not playing every game.
Why do the flams hate Kerins
Are the Flames using their final recall? Kerins has 9 pts in 5 gms since returning - he deserves a recall, but even if he does, is there any point in him playing the final games? Feels like there was more to evaluate and info to gain if he played the stretch in the last few wks
There are two NHL games left and I suspect that the Flames end up using their final recall. If I was a betting man, I would suspect that it will be used on Rory Kerins. He’s got such great offensive instincts and he’s worked on his mobility and skating quite a bit. That said, he’s not a huge play-driver and he’s not a great 200-foot player; he can absolutely score goals and he knows where to be on the ice to bury chances, but he relies on his linemates to get him the puck in those prime scoring areas. And that’s tougher to get away with at the NHL level than the AHL level.
That said, he’s been great in the AHL, so I think he deserves a chance to show he can make it work at the NHL level.
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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