When you’re building out a National Hockey League club, or an organization that includes an American Hockey League farm team, you have to make some tough decisions. Under the collective bargaining agreement, NHL clubs are limited to 50 active NHL standard player contracts at any given time, so they can’t sign everybody.

However, within the CBA there’s a provision known as the “slide rule,” which functionally allows contracts for junior-aged prospects to not count against the 50-deal limit. For the upcoming 2024-25 season, the Flames have four players whose deals could “slide” and provide the club with some contractual flexibility.

In a nutshell, here’s how the slide rule operates. If an 18 or 19-year-old player signs their entry-level deal but doesn’t play 10 NHL games in their first season, then their ELC gets extended by a year – functionally they receive their annual signing bonuses as originally scheduled, but their salary and performance bonuses slide back by a year. If they signed as an 18-year-old and their deal slid once, it can slide a second time if they don’t play 10 NHL games in their second season. Again, in this case, their salary and performance bonuses would slide back a year but their signing bonuses would remain as originally set.

It’s important to note that Section 9.2, part of the CBA section that governs ELCs, defines age as how old a player is on Sept. 15 of the calendar year they sign their ELC, regardless of how old they actually were when they signed their ELC. The exception is players who sign in their 19-year-old year, but would turn 20 between Sept. 15 and Dec. 31 – they don’t get the slide.

This season, the slide rule potentially applies to four Flames players. (Stick-taps to PuckPedia for many of the details here.)

A first-round pick in 2024, Parekh is a February 2006 birthday and he’s AHL eligible in his 20-year-old season, 2026-27. He signed his entry-level contract on July 5 at the “CBA age” of 18. As a result, he’s eligible for two slide years – 2024-25 and 2025-26 – as long as he doesn’t play 10 NHL games in either season.

Another first-round pick in 2024, Gridin is a March 2006 birthday and – presuming he signs a QMJHL deal for the coming season after an expected trade later this month – our understanding is he’ll become AHL eligible in his 20-year-old season, 2026-27. (Disclaimer: the CHL agreement’s provisions are fairly fuzzy on some details.) He signed his ELC on July 5 at the “CBA age” of 18. Consequently, he’s eligible for two slide years – 2024-25 and 2025-26 – as long as he doesn’t play 10 NHL games in either season.

A second-round pick in 2023, Morin is a March 2005 birthday and he becomes AHL eligible in his 20-year-old season, 2025-26. He signed his ELC on July 5 at the “CBA age” of 19. Therefore, he’s eligible for one slide year – 2024-25 – as long as he doesn’t play 10 NHL games this season.

A first-round pick in 2023, Honzek is a November 2004 birthday and he’s AHL eligible this season. He signed his ELC on July 26, 2023 at the “CBA age” of 18. Therefore, he was eligible for two slide years – 2023-24 and 2024-25 – as long as he doesn’t play 10 NHL games in either year. He played zero NHL games last season and his deal slid, and so he’s eligible to play in the AHL this season and his deal could slide this season again, too. (There’s a big contractual benefit for the team to signing draft choices with late birthdays the same year they’re drafted, which would apply to Andrew Basha and Luke Misa from this year’s class.)

Following the signing of Jakob Pelletier, the Flames now have 47 players on active contracts – include their slide candidates – with that number jumping up to 49 once restricted free agents Ilya Solovyov and Cole Schwindt sign. The way things work for the contract tally is that once junior-aged players are sent back to junior, their deals no longer count against the 50-deal limit due to their slides. So, hypothetically, once the Flames re-assign Parekh, Gridin and Morin to their junior clubs – and they’re stuck there for the season under the provisions of the CHL agreement – those three deals wouldn’t count against the limit anymore.

As such, we wouldn’t rule out the Flames making more moves to add players with NHL contracts – such as claiming players off of waivers or signing players on pro try-outs to NHL deals – but it probably won’t happen until after those three players are sent back to junior.