Craig Conroy has been a very busy general manager since he took over the reins in Calgary in May of 2023.

Brad Treliving left behind a large mess for Conroy to clean up and he has done just that.

He’s moved out pending unrestricted free agents in Tyler Toffoli, Nikita Zadorov, Elias Lindholm, Noah Hanifin, Chris Tanev, Jacob Markstrom and Andrew Mangiapane.

But the heavy lifting isn’t done. Conroy and the rest of the front office staff are going to have to make some key decisions in the 2025 off-season.

It starts with contract extensions for some important restricted free agents.

Connor Zary, Matt Coronato, Morgan Frost, and Kevin Bahl all need new contracts after this season. And Dustin Wolf is eligible to sign an extension starting on July 1.

What approach should the Flames take with these players? Should they sign them to long term extensions with the hope that these players continue to develop and progress into better players than they are today? Or should Conroy sign them to bridge deals to give the team and player more time to figure out what they are at the NHL level?

With the salary cap projected to rise all the way to $113.5 million for the 2027-28 season, it might be in the Flames best interest to lock their young players up for as long as possible.

Fortunately for Conroy, the Flames currently have the cap space to get that done. And it’s going to take a lot of money to get these guys signed to long term deals.

Connor Zary has been the Flames most dynamic forward this season when healthy. He is on pace for a 47 point season over 82 games. He looks like he has the potential to be a 55-65 point player in the prime years of his career. He’s not quite as offensive as guys like Dylan Guenther, Seth Jarvis, or Cole Caufield who all signed for $7+ million per year.

But Zary will be signing his next contract with a rising cap. Pushing $7 million a season isn’t crazy on an eight year contract.

Matt Coronato is showing signs that he is going to be a thirty goal scorer in the NHL many times over his career. Signing future 30 goal scorers is going to cost the Flames a lot.

We don’t truly know what kind of player Morgan Frost is going to be at the NHL level. The soon to be 26 year old has a career high of 46 points. He fell out of favour in Philly under John Tortorella. Can he revive his career in Calgary playing under a new coach and getting more of an opportunity to succeed?

He’s the type of player you want to take a chance on with his skill, smarts and age.

Kevin Bahl has turned into a legitimate top four defenceman playing alongside Rasmus Andersson all season. He brings a unique element of size, reach, and physicality to a Flames blueline that doesn’t have much of those qualities. He’s 24 years old and is only going to get better. Signing him long term makes a lot of sense for this franchise.

And then there is Dustin Wolf. The Flames superstar goalie who is the only reason why they are close to a playoff spot at the moment. He’s been the best goalie at every level he has played at and it looks like he is trending in that direction in the NHL.

Should the Flames take a risk and sign him to a long term extension this summer? Or should they let him play another season and see if he can repeat the magic he has created in 2024-25?

His next deal is going to be big as well.

Rasmus Andersson is the last piece of the puzzle for Craig Conroy to figure out. It’s obvious that the Flames want to keep Andersson around for as long as possible. His contract extension is also going to be massive. Especially when you consider that the cap is projected to be $104M for the 2026-27 season, which would be the first year the Andersson extension would kick in. He is in line for a significant pay raise.

Over the next two seasons, the Flames are going to go from a team with a ton of cap space to one that is going to be right up against it if they decide to keep this team together and pay their RFAs and UFAs big bucks on long term extensions.

If the salary cap increases to $95.5 million this summer, the Flames will have $37,137,500 of cap space to work with.

The new, long term contracts for the players listed in this article will take up an additional $17,961,666 of cap space this summer. (That number is from the increased AAV for each player on their new contract)

That number goes up to $29,061,666 for the 2026-27 season.

All of the sudden, the Flames don’t have all that much cap space anymore for the 2026-27 season. They don’t have many large contracts expiring over the next two years.

Craig Conroy has to be very careful about how they go about their business over the next couple years. They can’t be bringing in too much new money to this team or they will have to sign their young players to bridge deals, or move out existing contracts for expensive veteran players which won’t be easy to do.

One of the most important jobs for a general manager in the NHL is managing their salary cap both in the short and long term. Conroy will have to do a great job managing his if he wants to get his young players and Rasmus Andersson signed to long term deals.