The NHL regular season opens for the Calgary Flames on Wednesday as they play the Edmonton Oilers in the first of three installments of the Battle of Alberta. The Flames finalized their roster late last week, with some decisions being taken better than others by fans.
The team yet again stuck with their veteran pieces and decided to place some young prospects on waivers, losing defenceman Ilya Solovyov to the Colorado Avalanche. Although the Flames roster will look very similar to last season, there have been some rookies who have gotten the nod.
This week, we wanted to know what fans thought of the Flames’ opening night roster management. We asked, you answered.
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How do you feel about the Flames’ roster management to start the season?
We presented the poll below to our readers:
How do you feel about the #Flames roster management to set the opening night squad?
— The Win Column (@wincolumnCGY) October 4, 2025
More good than bad
Roughly 45% of fans who responded to this week’s poll thought Flames management did more good than bad. The Flames have been busy this preseason, recently extending head coach Ryan Huska by two years, Dustin Wolf by a whopping seven years and Connor Zary by three. Not to mention the extensions of Mikael Backlund, Adam Klapka, Justin Kirkland, Dryden Hunt, Joel Hanley, and Kevin Bahl I’m probably still leaving some out.
Sam Morton, Martin Pospisil and Morgan Frost. Okay, I think that’s all. In summary, the Flames front office has been busy since the end of last season and, for the most part, is committing to the future. There have been large strides taken to secure young talent on reasonable contracts and verbal commitments to let those players earn opportunities fast.
To open the season, the Flames will have two rookies on their roster in Zayne Parekh and Matvei Gridin, both 2024 first-round draft picks. Parekh was someone Flames fans assumed would get the nod opening night, but Gridin was drafted out of the USHL just 15 months ago. The 19-year-old player Junior for the Shawinigan Cataracts last season, winning the QMJHL Sidney Crosby Rookie of the Year award. It has been proven that Flames management is standing behind their word and letting their exciting young prospects gain opportunities at the NHL level.
To a certain extent…
More bad than good
Second in our poll this week was just on the other side of neutrality. More bad than good collected roughly 35% of the votes this week. The Flames have shown improvement in their willingness to get younger, but they can’t shake the mentality that the old have washed out before the new can come forward.
It’s unfortunate to see the Flames place a pair of solid, young skaters on waivers last week, with Solovyov and Rory Kerins hitting the wire on Tuesday. Fortunately, Kerins made it through and will remain with the AHL Wranglers, but Solovyov was quickly snatched up by the Colorado Avalanche.
The Flames will certainly miss having the 6’4” defenceman in their system. The loss stings even more when you consider the team opted to stick with a struggling Danill Miromanov instead. The decision, and risk, of sending down Kerins, however, made Flames fans even more upset. Here are Ryan Huska’s thoughts on why the team chose to cut Kerins.
Head coach Ryan Huska says the team sees Rory Kerins as a top nine player. Says there’s no spot down the middle in the top nine, and they don’t want Kerins in and out of the lineup.
Huska also stresses lineup decisions, even related to waivers, are very fluid right now. #Flames
— Pat Steinberg (@Fan960Steinberg) October 2, 2025
So, rather than finding room in the top 9 for the prospect that produces at a point-per-game pace when wearing a Flames jersey, you’d rather risk losing him altogether? That’s ridiculous, I’m sorry.
The Extremes
Roughly 10% of fans who responded to this week’s poll thought Flames management has done great, while 10% don’t know what they’re doing. With equal ends of the spectrum occupied, it seems as though our poll resulted in a very Flames outcome, confusion about expectations.
55% of folks think the team is doing overall good, while 45% think they have room to improve. The roster choices made to start the season will certainly not stick until game 82. I’m sure Kerins will get his opportunity with the Flames, as well as Yan Kuznetzov, Hunter Brzustewicz and Ivan Prosvetov.
All in all, it seems we’re on course for a typically frustrating, mediocre season for Flames fans. At least we should get to see some new faces.
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