The Calgary Flames did not have a good power play in 2025-26.

But man, after a bit of a lull in 2024-25, they returned to being a team with a reliably effective penalty kill in 2025-26. Sure, they had the benefit of a few strong incumbent killers in the form of Mikael Backlund and Blake Coleman. But in a year where a lot of things changed and the team dealt with growing pains, their penalty kill was a source of strength for the bulk of the past season.

Let’s dig into it.

The Flames’ penalty kill was coached by assistant coach Trent Cull in 2025-26, as he took it over when he arrived from the Calgary Wranglers midway through the 2024-25 season to fill in for Brad Larsen.

The most regular-used killers in 2025-26 included Mikael Backlund, Kevin Bahl, Joel Farabee, Blake Coleman, Rasmus Andersson, MacKenzie Weegar, Yan Kuznetsov, Zach Whitecloud and Yegor Sharangovich. (When they were healthy, Jonathan Huberdeau and Sam Honzek also killed penalties.)

After several seasons of pretty effective kills, the Flames’ PK struggled in 2024-25, killing off just 76.0% of opposition advantages (25th in the NHL), though the kill noticeably improved in the second half after Cull joined the coaching staff. Cull tweaked the team’s approach in 2025-26 a bit.

After some initial struggles, things seemed to click and the team ended up killing 80.4% of opposing power plays in 2025-26 – 12th-best in the NHL. They were also one of the league’s leaders in shorthanded goals.

“Culler does a great job preparing the guys for the kill,” said Blake Coleman during his exit interview on Thursday. “Obviously, there’s a lot of familiarity there as well. I’ve been with Backs for the better part of five years now and definitely a comfort level there and a willingness to play offence on the PK as well, which eats up minutes and obviously can be a momentum shift in games.”

The Flames made some shuffles on their penalty killing group in early November, with Calgary Wranglers’ defensive stalwart Yan Kuznetsov being recalled and placed in a prominent spot on the kill alongside MacKenzie Weegar, who was also his five-on-five partner for several months. Between Kuznetsov’s insertion and the incumbent killers wrapping their heads around Cull’s systems tweaks, the PK started to really get some traction.

“We had a little bit of turnover on D and guys that came in and played really well after we had the changes,” said Coleman. “So just kind of plug and play. Obviously, you’ve got to have good goaltending to have a good penalty kill, which we had. So it’s a lot of things, not just one. But as a group, I thought pretty consistently all year we did a pretty strong job.”

From Kuznetsov’s call-up to the trade deadline, when the team started to experiment with their lineup a bit more, the Flames’ killed off 84.3% of penalties, third-best in the NHL. Given what he knew about Kuznetsov before his call-up, Huska wasn’t surprised at his effectiveness.

“He is a penalty killer,” said Huska. “He was for the Wranglers. That’s what he does. The reason why he was successful on our level, I think, because of the foot speed that he has and the size that he has. So he could close quickly on people. So we eliminated some of that time and space that we were giving teams earlier in the season with their power play. So Yan has the ability to get his big frame in someone’s way right away. So they don’t have an extra second to make a play.”

“And he’s very much, he has a very good understanding of who he is as a player. So he’s not a guy that’s going to come in and think that he’s something that he’s not. He takes a lot of pride in being a guy that can kill penalties and that can play against top players. And I think we’re going to see him continue to take steps. So he was one of the big reasons why our penalty kill started to gain some traction and took off as the year went on.”

In addition to Kuznetsov becoming a prominent killer in 2025-26, forwards Joel Farabee and Sam Honzek were part of the rotation this past season. While Honzek’s tenure was truncated due to his season-ending injury in November, Farabee was a huge part of the PK all season and scored four shorthanded goals, tied with Coleman and one shy of Ryan McLeod’s league-lead.

“I think when you get traded, you have no idea where you’re going to fit into a team,” said Farabee, on his role within the Flames. “I think coming into this year, something I really focused on was just getting back on the penalty kill. And I think that helped my game so much for me. It just gets you involved, gets your legs going, things like that, and gives you that responsibility that you can feel good about. So it’s been a lot of fun working with Culler and the PK. and I thought we performed pretty well at that this year.”