Through the first five days of the National Hockey League’s free agency period, the Calgary Flames have made just some minor tweaks.

After a 2024-25 season that saw the group impress and come within one more point – or changing an overtime win to a regulation win – from qualifying for the Stanley Cup playoffs, the Flames seem to be largely doubling down on the same group and banking on internal improvements from their youngsters to get them over the line in 2025-26.

So after the first few days of free agency, we thought we would give a brief sketch of what the Flames’ lineup could look like in October. Our underlying assumptions: no trades, no free agency additions, but their remaining restricted free agents will be re-upped.

Jonathan Huberdeau – Nazem Kadri – Matt Coronato
Connor Zary – Morgan Frost – Yegor Sharangovich
Joel Farabee – Mikael Backlund – Blake Coleman
Ryan Lomberg – Justin Kirkland – Martin Pospisil

Extra: Adam Klapka

The Flames were quite good in March and April, and so we’re defaulting to most of the lines we saw in March and April.

Up front, the offensive-minded forward lines remain pretty close to how they ended last season, except with Connor Zary slotted in. There’s some nice combinations of speed, skill and shooting ability on both of those lines, and we like the dynamic of Matt Coronato with the two veterans and Zary with two slightly older linemates on his flank.

The bottom six is also pretty similar to last spring’s, except with Justin Kirkland in for Kevin Rooney and Martin Pospisil bumping Adam Klapka to the sidelines… for now. On paper, it feels like Pospisil and Klapka will be jostling for a single spot all season, especially if Ryan Lomberg remains as consistent as he was in 2024-25. Either way, Klapka requires waivers to be sent to the AHL in 2025-26 and we cannot imagine him clearing based on his size, skill and price point, so he’s likely on the roster.

For now, we’re giving the Flames just one extra forward – we’ll explain more when we go over the blueliners – but don’t rule out Sam Morton or Dryden Hunt pushing for a second spot, if they carry two extras. Morton was really good for the Wranglers and would give them an additional centre to spell off Kirkland from time to time, and Hunt’s incredibly adaptable to a ton of different roles.

Kevin Bahl – Rasmus Andersson
MacKenzie Weegar – Zayne Parekh
Joel Hanley – Brayden Pachal

Extras: Jake Bean, Daniil Miromanov

We’re assuming that (a) Rasmus Andersson is here on opening night and (b) Zayne Parekh makes the team. We’re far more confident in the second assumption than the first, but that’s what we have to work with.

Kevin Bahl and Andersson get the tough assignments, Joel Hanley and Brayden Pachal get heavy defensive zone deployments and kill penalties, and MacKenzie Weegar and Parekh are given special teams and offensive zone deployments. Essentially, we designed pairings to see what Parekh can do at the NHL level, since that’s the first big challenge ahead.

As far as extras, Jake Bean is an extra left shot and Daniil Miromanov is an extra right shot. The Flames carried eight defencemen for most of last season, so it’s not out of character for them to have two extras.

Moreover, here are the blueliners not on the NHL roster – and jockeying for time with the Wranglers – if the Flames keep eight defenders: Ilya Solovyov, Etienne Morin, Hunter Brzustewicz, Nick Cicek, Artem Grushnikov, Yan Kuznetsov, Jeremie Poirier and Joni Jurmo. That’s eight defenders… assuming the Flames keep eight defenders.

Now, is there a possibility that any of those eight AHL-level defenders could try to take one of the extra spots from Bean or Miromanov? That’s worth keeping an eye on.

Dustin Wolf
Ivan Prosvetov

Dustin Wolf was one of the NHL’s better goaltenders in 2024-25. As a rookie. Playing behind a team that didn’t score a ton. Meanwhile, we’re pencilling in Ivan Prosvetov as his backup ahead of Devin Cooley. That said, there’s definitely going to be a competition in camp for the number-two job, so stay tuned.

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