The Flames were surprisingly good in 2024-25, thanks to a resurgent Jonathan Huberdeau (28 goals from 12 in the previous in the season), Nazem Kadri (first 30-goal season since Toronto) and Dustin Wolf’s brilliant rookie campaign. As a result, they weren’t big sellers at the deadline, and they go into this coming season more or less the same; following a quiet summer, they’re in a holding pattern until their record dictates whether they’re going for it or building for the future.
Their top players are pretty old; Mikael Backlund is 36, Blake Coleman is 33, Huberdeau is 32 and Kadri turns 35 in October. The young core pieces such as Wolf and Matt Coronato have established themselves as bona fide NHL players, and more are coming with Samuel Honzek and Zayne Parekh. Indeed, their prospects of winning are much better down the road with the younger core than its current one. The question now is when GM Craig Conroy will hand over the reins.
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Even with strong seasons from Kadri and Huberdeau, their strength (and fantasy value) will come mostly from their defense with Mac Weegar and goaltending with Wolf. Kadri and Huberdeau’s ceiling is 70 points, and two younger players, Coronato and Connor Zary, are capable of playing in the top six. The rest are wild cards, especially Yegor Sharangovich, who declined to 17 goals from 31 in the previous season and still has yet to nail down a concrete role despite entering the first year of a five-year deal.
It certainly felt like they overachieved last season. It’ll be hard to repeat but we should expect something similar; Wolf will be the backbone of his team with brilliant goaltending, combined with a balanced defense and mediocre-to-average offense even if Coronato takes a big leap. Fantasy managers employing zero-G strategies need to target Wolf, who has defied critics at every level and presents a lot of value through volume of saves and quality of starts.
The forward to target in fantasy for upside is Coronato, following a breakout 24-goal, 47-point campaign and finishing the season on a seven-game points streak. He should be available in the middle rounds and presents 30-goal upside at a low cost. He is the player most likely to outperform his draft value on a team with aging veterans and reclamation projects such as Morgan Frost and Joel Farabee in their mid-20’s. It would be mildly surprising, but not shocking, if Coronato led the Flames in scoring.
On defense, Mac Weegar is the star. He won’t come near 20 goals again, but he’s a multi-category threat with 50-point, 200-block, 200-hit potential. He’s not going anywhere and should be rostered in all leagues.
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It’s a foregone conclusion the Flames will trade Rasmus Andersson at some point, and losing will hurt. He’s a flawed player — minus-38 last season — but mobile right-hand shots who are still in their prime are difficult to find. I think he’ll have a slight bounce-back season though keep in mind that he’s unlikely to skate top-pairing minutes for his new club.
On the topic of trading Andersson, it’s worth mentioning that the timeline for his trade will likely be accelerated if Parekh makes the team and makes a sizeable impact right away. Parekh, also a right-hand shot, has a ton of potential, but the Flames blue line is rather crowded with Brayden Pachal, Daniil Miromanov (who sometimes plays forward) and prospect Hunter Brzustewicz (also hunting for a roster spot) on the right side, and journeyman lefty Joel Hanley was signed on July 1.
Parekh is an intriguing, if not overhyped, pick at this point. We’ll have to see how he performs in training camp, but rarely do rookie defensemen have an impact significant enough to be rostered all season. If you look at the rookie defensemen over the past five seasons, I would say only four of them — Lane Hutson, Moritz Seider, Luke Hughes and maybe Brock Faber — were worth rostering, and most of them, including current luminaries such as Jake Sanderson, Jackson LaCombe and Bowen Byram, only became fantasy-relevant after a few seasons.
Prediction:
The Flames are going to quickly realize Ivan Prosvetov and Devin Cooley are inadequate goaltending depth, and will reluctantly end up with Wolf leading the league in starts and shots faced. It should be no problem for Wolf, but it’s a very heavy workload for a very young goalie.
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Coronato makes good on his first 30-goal season and leads the team in scoring but the rest of the roster performs as expected; the Flames hang in the playoff race until the last month before they start selling, starting with Andersson and perhaps Coleman and Kadri if the right deal comes along.
All stats courtesy of naturalstattrick.com, moneypuck.com, hockeyviz.com, allthreezones.com, hockey-reference.com, eliteprospects.com unless otherwise noted.