The Calgary Flames hit the practice ice at the Canadian Tire Centre in Kanata, Ontario on Wednesday afternoon to prepare for their Thursday night clash with the Ottawa Senators.

Sportsnet’s Derek Wills shared forward lines and defensive pairings from Wednesday’s skate:

The forward lines were back to the four lines they used in Sunday’s home win over the New York Rangers: Nazem Kadri between Jonathan Huberdeau and Morgan Frost, Mikael Backlund between Sam Honzek and Blake Coleman, Yegor Sharangovich between Connor Zary and Joel Farabee, and Justin Kirkland with Ryan Lomberg and Adam Klapka. Frost, Honzek and Farabee all scored against Toronto on Tuesday night.

The defensive pairings are all pretty familiar ones: Kevin Bahl with Rasmus Andersson, Joel Hanley with MacKenzie Weegar, and Jake Bean with Brayden Pachal.

These groupings leave out two young players: 22-year-old forward Matt Coronato and 19-year-old blueliner Zayne Parekh.

Coronato is in the first year of a seven year, $6.5 million AAV contract that he signed during the off-season. The right shot forward has, admittedly, had a pretty uneven 2025-26 season thus far. He has three points over his first 10 games, but he also has a minus-10 plus/minus rating, tied with MacKenzie Weegar for last on the team.

Meanwhile, Parekh has been similarly uneven. He’s on his entry-level deal and his deal has the potential to not begin until next season, but if he plays in 10 NHL games this season his deal won’t slide and it’ll start to run this season. In nine NHL games so far this season, Parekh has one assist and a minus-1 rating.

The Flames have begun the season with a 2-9-1 record. Given their record, we can understand the temptation to double-down on a veteran-laden roster. That said, the Flames have struggled to score goals, and Coronato and Parekh are two of the most dynamic, creative players in the organization. If you need to score goals, you would probably rather have more players like Coronato and Parekh playing, not fewer. And yeah, they may have occasional defensive foibles, but (a) no more than some of the more established Flames have had this year and (b) you can live with them if they’re creating offence.

We’ll see how the Flames end up looking at Thursday’s morning skate, but if Coronato and Parekh are spectators for the game, it’s a bit of a head-scratcher.

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