Gang, as the Calgary Flames head into Saturday’s action, they’re in an unenviable place. They open proceedings with a 14-17-4 record and 32 points.

That puts them 29th in the league in points (ignoring games-played differences) or 30th in points percentage (accounting for games-played differences). For a team that aspired for a post-season berth when the season began, it’s a far cry from where they wanted to be.

But while the denizens of Tank Tank fantasize about a high draft choice, and others fret about a potentially lost season with 47 games left on the schedule, we thought it was prudent to point out a few elements that have progressed for the Flames so far in 2025-26.

The Flames’ second-rounder in 2020, Kuznetsov had a pretty strong AHL season in 2024-25, playing on a pairing with first-year pro Hunter Brzustewicz and helping him adapt. Kuznetsov nevertheless didn’t make the Flames out of camp this fall and was exposed on waivers for the first time, clearing prior to the season and being assigned to the Wranglers to start his fourth pro season.

With the Wranglers, Kuznetsov just kept doing his thing and serving as a reliable left-shot shutdown defender – and a compliment to the offensive-minded righties on the Wranglers. In early November, with an open roster spot, the Flames decided to give Kuznetsov a shot, with him eventually finding a rhythm alongside MacKenzie Weegar, who had seemed in need of a reliable partner to calm his game down.

While their underlying numbers as a pairing have eroded over the last few weeks, Kuznetsov remains a key part of the Flames’ strong penalty kill and, pretty quietly, a relied-upon defensive compliment to Weegar on the back end.

The Flames’ first-rounder in 2023, Honzek made the Flames roster last season after a superb training camp and was injured early in the season and spent the remainder of the year in the AHL with the Wranglers, learning the pro game. He was pretty decent, especially as he learned the two-way game and played on both sides of special teams, but his game seemed to lack the “thing” that would make him an NHLer.

Honzek had a pretty decent training camp and was sent to the Wranglers on Sept. 30. Due to injuries to Jonathan Huberdeau and Martin Pospisil late in training camp, he was called back up on Oct. 6 and named to the season-opening roster. He was rotated into the lineup early in the season and landed on a line with Mikael Backlund and Blake Coleman, and immediately found a niche. He used his size, speed and lankiness really well, and he was a really nice compliment to Backlund’s positioning and Coleman’s physicality.

He was, unfortunately, hurt on a fluke miscommunication collision after 18 NHL games. But 12 months ago, there were questions about if Honzek could even become an NHLer. Well, question answered: yes. When he’s fully healthy (probably not until the 2026-27 season), the Flames will need to determine just what his NHL ceiling can be.

In 2024-25, the Flames discovered that Dustin Wolf isn’t just an NHL goaltender, he’s a pretty damn good one. The last time the Flames had a pretty strong starting goaltender in Miikka Kiprusoff, they seemed to struggle to find a consistently backup to compliment him – the best fit was probably Jamie McLennan, who only had the gig for three seasons.

The Flames tried out both incumbent Wranglers starter Devin Cooley and Ivan Prosvetov in training camp. Results were… uh, well, they were bad. Neither guy was especially great – their low point was an 8-1 loss to Vancouver when the entire team seemed to struggle – and the Flames seemed to go with the devil they knew when they kept Cooley on the NHL roster to start the season. Still, they leaned on Wolf heavily early on amidst whispers that maybe they were looking for a different backup.

Well, not anymore. Cooley’s really found his groove as Wolf’s backup and the tandem, in general, has really found some consistency over the last few months. If nothing else, Cooley has silenced anyone wondering if he’s an NHLer. And hey, maybe he’s a longer-term option as Wolf’s #2.

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