What are the Calgary Flames plans for the 2025 NHL trade deadline? That’s a question that has been thrown around among Flames fans since returning from the 4 Nations break.

There are a lot of different directions the Flames could go in. They are in a playoff spot which means they won’t be major sellers. But they’re in the second wildcard spot while in a re-tool which means they likely won’t be major buyers.

So what are they going to do? Let’s take a look at a few different ways they can go about their business between now and next Friday.

The number one priority for the Flames should be taking advantage of their cap space.

It’s something the organization has not done a good enough job of over the last 20 years. They’ve rarely took on other teams bad contracts or retained salary in return for a futures based asset like a draft pick.

That needs to change. The Flames have $17,905,991 worth of projected cap space per PuckPedia. They are in a retool/rebuild. Craig Conroy should be doing everything in his power to take advantage of that.

There are two ways to go about this. First, they could take on a bad contract along with a draft pick in exchange for future considerations or a minimal asset.

Here are a few examples of those types of trades.

The second option is to be a third party broker in a larger deal. Something the Calgary Flames have never done before. But now is the time to be part of these deals.

The Philadelphia Flyers acquired a 5th round pick for retaining $1,237,500 of Noah Hanifin’s cap hit last season.

The Tampa Bay Lightning acquired a 4th round pick for retaining $1,456,250 of Adam Henrique’s cap last season.

The New Jersey Devils acquired a 4th round pick for retaining $1,125,000 of Chris Tanev’s cap hit last season.

There is no reason for the Flames to not be in on these types of trades.

The easiest hole to plug in the Flames lineup is replacing Kevin Rooney on the fourth line. As Flames fans know, Rooney has struggled mightily throughout the majority of the season. Yes, he has played better over the last two games. But the Flames could still upgrade on this spot.

And it’s probably not going to cost them a lot in terms of assets to upgrade on Rooney.

They Flames could take on a bad contract for the remainder of the season to fill that spot or they could trade a late round pick to bring in a replacement.

Who could be available? I look at pending UFAs and RFAs like Cody Glass, Craig Smith, or Michael McCarron.

There are some players with another year on their contract like Sam Lafferty and Ty Dellandrea. But I think the Flames would be better served acquiring a pending UFA or RFA. Having cap and roster flexibility this summer should be a priority.

This has been a priority for Craig Conroy during the Flames retool/rebuild. We seen the Flames general manager acquire Kevin Bahl, Yegor Sharangovich, Morgan Frost, and Joel Farabee as part of trades.

Are there any other players available on the market in the 20-25 age range for the Flames?

Taking a look at Daily Faceoff’s trade bait board, it features names like Dylan Cozens, Bowen Byram, Jack Quinn, Trevor Zegras, Nick Robertson, Zac Jones, and K’Andre Miller. I wrote about Brandt Clarke yesterday. 

It’s going to cost the Flames valuable assets to make any of these deals work. But these are the types of deals the Flames are interested in making to expedite their retool and become competitive quicker than a traditional rebuild.

Overall, the number one priority for the Calgary Flames should be to weaponize their cap space. They have over $17 million to work with. Take advantage of that and add some much needed draft picks to their stable. The Flames can use those picks in the draft, or use them in a trade to move up in the draft or acquire a player for the NHL roster. Any other business they accomplish would be an added bonus.