The Florida Panthers winning the Stanley Cup on Tuesday night has provided a little clarity for the Calgary Flames.
It doesn’t exactly represent a seismic shift in the Flames’ fortunes, but at least they now know their second pick of the first round at the 2025 NHL Draft will come at No. 32.
The draft pick came to the Flames as part of the trade that sent Matthew Tkachuk to the Florida Panthers in 2022, when Brad Treliving was still the GM in Calgary. The deal also netted the Flames Jonathan Huberdeau, MacKenzie Weegar and Cole Schwindt, who is now with the Vegas Golden Knights.
The Panthers aren’t going to be losing much sleep over losing the pick, although they might not have much sleep to lose as they celebrate their second straight Stanley Cup win.
The Flames also hold the No. 18 overall pick in Friday’s draft, which came to them as the result of the deal that saw them send Jacob Markstrom to the New Jersey Devils last year. That trade also netted them the services of young defenceman Kevin Bahl, who enjoyed a solid first season in Calgary.
They do not, however, have their own pick, which would have been No. 16 but instead is in the hands of the Montreal Canadiens as the result of a 2022 trade that saw Treliving package the pick with Sean Monahan in a cap-clearing move.
The Flames also have two first-round picks in the 2026 draft and had two last year as well, which they used to selected Zayne Parekh (ninth overall) and Matvei Gridin (28th overall).
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