The 2025 free agency period has been a relatively quiet one, with most NHL clubs opting to retain their talent, resulting in a rather weak class of available players.

The Calgary Flames perpetuated this trend, agreeing to extensions with three roster players over the past week: Kevin Bahl (restricted free agent), Joel Hanley (unrestricted free agent) and Morgan Frost (RFA).

Despite entering with a boat-load of cap space, Calgary has made virtually no waves in the free agent market, presumably to leave room for internal improvement. As a result, each of their extended players will have sizable roles with the team in 2025-26.

So let’s gauge how well the Flames did re-upping some key pieces of the lineup.

The Flames got their biggest piece of business done four days before the opening of free agency, extending defenceman Kevin Bahl to a six-year pact on July 28.

Bahl was Calgary’s most notable pending free agent as he played a large role for them last season as an anchor on the backend. The 6-foot-6 blueliner saw the third-most ice time on the team in 2024-25, averaging 21:23 a night, and proved that he was one of their most reliable shut-down defenders.

As part of his breakout season, the New Westminster native also set a new career high in points with 20, nearly doubling his production from the previous year in fewer games.

Bahl is one of the Flames’ few left-shot defencemen, and Craig Conroy clearly liked what he saw, locking him up into his 30s.

The $5.350 million AAV seems just right for a player of Bahl’s calibre; it might even be on the cheaper side if the 25-year-old continues to improve. But the length of the deal is the real win for Calgary, as it solidifies a core piece of their blueline for the better part of a decade.

The man they call “Nacho” has been an awesome story for the Flames since they claimed him off waivers in March of 2024. Hanley played the most games of his career last season, appearing in 53 contests, setting a career high in points with nine.

The 5-foot-11 defenceman was as steady as they come in his first full season as a Flame, averaging 18:35 minutes of ice time per night, and was second only to Mackenzie Weegar in plus/minus as a +12.

Similar to Bahl, Hanley was one of the few reliable left-shot defenders for Calgary last season, making him an important player to retain for a team looking to build on a fairly competitive season.

There’s a lot to like here, the AAV and term both represent a low degree of risk for the Flames on a 34-year-old asset. Small but sturdy and trustworthy, Hanley could be a nice partner for an up-and-coming offensive defenceman like Zayne Parekh.

I was a part of the majority who really weren’t sure what to expect when it came to Morgan Frost’s extension. Back in May, I predicted we’d see the 26-year-old sign a short-term deal closer to the $2.1 million cap hit he had on his previous contract, after a disappointing 12 points in 35 games with Calgary.

But amidst the chaos of a free agency period that’s seen depth players sign fairly lucrative deals — for example, Connor Brown to 4 x $3 million — Frost ends up getting a pay raise of more than double.

The end of the ‘flat cap era’ combined with the lack of players available on the open market have certainly inflated a lot of deals, but Frost’s $4.375 million AAV still seems high for a player that simply hasn’t found consistency in his NHL career, and was still an RFA.

Granted, the Flames have cap space to burn, and this apparent overpay won’t have much of an effect on them other than their ability to take on bad money for draft picks, something they haven’t shown a willingness to do anyways. Overall, they’re better off handing a deal like this to a relatively young piece like Frost instead of a veteran free agent.

Frost will become a UFA upon the expiration of this deal, so the two-year term gives the Flames a season to get a better idea of what he is before deciding whether or not they want to extend him.

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