We’re just over one week away from the 2025 trade deadline, which lands at 1 p.m. MT on Friday, Mar. 7.

The Calgary Flames, in the first full year of their rebuild, are in contention for a playoff spot. But general manager Craig Conroy has repeatedly stated that he’s sticking to his plan, which is to continue the club’s youth movement and build up towards contention in the coming years. And it’s the tension between the Flames’ present and future that could make this a pretty interesting trade deadline for the locals.

As we look ahead to the deadline, here’s our quick rundown of the Flames’ key assets and how likely they are to be moved ahead of the trade deadline – framed in terms of how likely other teams are to be interested and how likely the Flames are to move any of them.

Assets other teams would want, but the Flames have virtually zero interest in moving.

The core six veterans (Rasmus Andersson, MacKenzie Weegar, Mikael Backlund, Jonathan Huberdeau, Blake Coleman and Nazem Kadri): Things have gone really well for the Flames this season, and a lot of the credit from head coach Ryan Huska has been directed to the six holdover veterans on the roster. They all wear letters and they’ve been big parts of the team. Considering the likelihood of more young players joining the roster next season and the success they’ve had as a group this season, it would take a lot to get the Flames to move on from someone in this group.

(Sportsnet’s Elliotte Friedman specifically mentioned recently on Headlines that the Flames would like teams to stop calling them about Andersson, Weegar and Kadri.)

The core kids (Dustin Wolf, Connor Zary and Matt Coronato): The Flames drafted and developed this trio of young players within their farm system, and they’ve emerged not only as everyday NHL players, but really important players for the hockey club. They’re not going anywhere.

The top prospect (Zayne Parekh): Parekh is the most important player in the Flames’ developmental system and could be in the NHL as soon as next season.

They just got here (Kevin Bahl, Joel Farabee, Morgan Frost and Devin Cooley): Bahl looks like a really useful top-four defender since arriving via trade with New Jersey in the summer. Farabee and Frost are starting to find their rhythms after arriving via trade from Philadelphia. Cooley seems, on paper, like a good bet to move to the NHL next season after a pretty good AHL season. None of these guys are sure-fire core pieces, but they’re all quite new and trending well.

They just re-signed here (Yegor Sharangovich and Brayden Pachal): Sharangovich starts a five year extension in the fall, while Pachal starts a new two year pact then as well. As with the prior group, they seem unlikely to be moved.

Strong cultural fit (Ryan Lomberg): In terms of what they mean to their locker room culture, we don’t know if there’s a more valuable fourth-liner to their team in the league than Lomberg.

Important prospects (Sam Honzek, Matvei Gridin, Andrew Basha, Etienne Morin, Hunter Brzustewicz, Henry Mews, Ilya Solovyov, Artem Grushnikov and Arsenii Sergeev): Yeah, we know, “here are nine prospects the Flames aren’t in a hurry to move.” Of them, Solovyov is the closest to a regular NHL (depth) role. The other eight are all well-regarded prospects with fairly high ceilings, but perhaps not Parekh-high.

Early draft choices: The Flames boast one grade-A prospect (Parekh) and a bunch with some strong potential but that aren’t necessarily as high-end (see above). They’re early in their rebuilding process and need to keep accumulating assets. Holding onto their first and second-round picks are the best way to keep momentum going.

One of the left-shot forward prospects (Jacob Battaglia, Aydar Suniev, Luke Misa, Rory Kerins and William Strömgren): A quick disclaimer: the Flames like all of these guys. However, the Flames have a lot of left-shot forwards in their system. Not all of them are going to play for the NHL club, which means that some could be used to help upgrade the roster elsewhere.

One of the older defensive prospects (Yan Kuznetsov, Jeremie Poirier or Jonathan Aspirot): These guys are all effective AHL blueliners, and Kuznetsov arguably still has some untapped NHL upside as a shutdown defender, but these guys are older than the many young defenders the Flames have added to their system recently. They could be used to upgrade other parts of the NHL roster without really depleting the farm system.

One of the depth forwards with unclear roles (Martin Pospisil or Adam Klapka): Pospisil and Klapka are young, big, physical, and unlikely to break the bank – Pospisil’s making $1 million next season. Are either of them likely to play up the Flames’ lineup given their current forward depth? Perhaps not. We don’t think they’re in any hurry to move them, but other teams may covet what they do enough to make an offer big enough to consider.

Veteran Wranglers forwards (Clark Bishop, Dryden Hunt or Martin Frk): On one hand, the Wranglers have some pretty useful veteran forwards that playoff teams may be interested in obtaining as roster depth. But those guys would also be pretty important pieces of a (hopefully) lengthy Wranglers playoff run, so we’re thinking the Flames would probably prefer to keep them, especially given how depleted the AHL team has gotten via graduations, trades and waiver claims.

Mid-round draft choices: Could the Flames use third, fourth or fifth-round picks to upgrade their roster? Sure! Could they also use them to keep bolstering their farm and development system? Also yes.

Depth players on expiring contracts (Dan Vladar, Joel Hanley, Kevin Rooney and Tyson Barrie): These four players are on expiring deals and it seems likely that the club will move towards going younger for these roles. (If you’re moving Vladar or Rooney, though, you might want to get a centre back because the Wranglers are pretty clean right now at those positions…)

One of the depth defenders with unclear roles (Jake Bean or Daniil Miromanov): We’re not sure where these two players fit in long-term. They each have a year left on their current deals. (If we’re being blunt here: if Parekh is going to make a push for an NHL roster spot next season, somebody probably has to be moved to make room.)

Late draft choices: The Flames have found useful pieces in the sixth and seventh rounds – Kerins, Solovyov and Wolf most recently – but we wouldn’t rule out them using these late picks to upgrade their roster either. (Heck, they just did it in their recent trade with the Flyers.)

Get ready, hockey fans! The Daily Faceoff Deadline is happening on March 7th from 11 AM to 4 PM Eastern, and you won’t want to miss it. We’ll be LIVE, breaking down every trade and big move as it happens, with instant reactions and expert analysis from the Daily Faceoff crew. Plus, we’ve got special guests lined up throughout the show, offering exclusive insights from some of the biggest names in the game. From blockbuster trades to surprise moves, we’re covering it all. Tune in to the Daily Faceoff YouTube channel and follow Daily Faceoff socials on March 7th to catch all the action!