With the Olympic break now upon us, the trade deadline is less than a month away. Where does each team stand, and what moves should they be looking to make? We begin our look around the league with teams that have clear plans near the extremes of the standings, this time with the Flames.<\/p>\n
The rebuilding Flames got much closer to playoff contention last season than anyone expected, finishing with 96 points and losing out on the second wild-card spot by virtue of a tiebreaker with the Blues. This season, they\u2019ve been more representative of pundits\u2019 expectations and have been in the basement of the Western Conference from the get-go. They\u2019re at an uncomfortable stage of a rebuild now: most of the grunt work is done, and they\u2019re playing a waiting game for their prospects to graduate. That doesn\u2019t mean they can\u2019t make some more future-oriented moves, though.<\/p>\n
Record<\/p>\n
23-27-6, 7th in the Pacific (3.6% playoff probability<\/a>)<\/p>\n Deadline Status<\/p>\n Seller<\/p>\n Deadline Cap Space<\/p>\n $45.57MM on deadline day, 2\/3 retention slots used, 45\/50 contracts used, per PuckPedia<\/a>.<\/p>\n Upcoming Draft Picks<\/p>\n 2026: CGY 1st, VGK 1st, CGY 2nd, CGY 3rd, VAN 3rd, CGY 4th, CGY 5th, CGY 6th *The Golden Knights\u2019 2027 first-rounder is top-10 protected.<\/p>\n Trade Chips<\/p>\n The Flames don\u2019t have much in the way of traditional rentals to sell. They\u2019re light on pending unrestricted free agents. Only one, enforcer\u00a0Ryan Lomberg<\/a>, would be of any interest to a contender and would only net a mid-round pick at most. Jake Bean<\/a>\u2018s injury likely rules him out of being moved. They had a big name in Rasmus Andersson<\/a>, but he\u2019s already been sent off to Vegas.<\/p>\n That\u2019s good news for the Flames if they\u2019re looking to add even more firepower to a highly stocked prospect pool. The names they\u2019ll dangle will all be ones with term, who will naturally yield higher returns.<\/p>\n If you\u2019re combining both player value and likelihood to be moved, winger\u00a0Blake Coleman<\/a>\u00a0reigns supreme among the Flames\u2019 trade chips. Multiple teams \u2013 including the Stars<\/a> and Canadiens<\/a> \u2013 have demonstrated clear interest. He\u2019s been a valuable contributor for Calgary since signing his six-year, $29.4MM payday in 2021, but with one year left on his deal and him now being in his age-34 season, he\u2019s far from a long-term piece.<\/p>\n Coleman\u2019s point production has settled around a half a point per game over the past couple of seasons following a career-best 30-goal showing in 2023-24. With 13 goals in 44 games this season, shortened due to injury, there\u2019s a decent chance he\u2019ll lock in the fourth 20-goal campaign of his career this year. At a stomachable $4.9MM cap hit, plus his proven playoff track record and desirable physical game, he\u2019ll be of utmost interest to any forward-needy contender in a third-line role. With a 10-team approved trade list baked into his contract, he\u2019ll have quite a lot of say in where he ends up, too.<\/p>\n Nazem Kadri<\/a>\u00a0would be the headlining name if he\u2019s available. With three years left on his contract, there\u2019s a greater chance Calgary can still squeeze value out of the last couple of years of his deal as they look to turn the corner back toward playoff contention in short order. The prospect of moving him in the middle of a down season likely only adds to the Flames\u2019 hesitance to cut bait. After rattling off a pair of 60-plus point seasons, he only managed 10 goals and 39 points with a -24 rating in 56 games before the Olympic break.<\/p>\n It\u2019s not often a bona fide top-six center, albeit an aging one, is even in conversation to be moved at the deadline, though. He\u2019s grown increasingly comfortable in a top-line role with Calgary and doesn\u2019t break the bank in a rising cap environment at $7MM. If there\u2019s a particularly aggressive club willing to make an offer Calgary can\u2019t refuse, they\u2019re going to listen.<\/p>\n Team Needs<\/p>\n Dynamic Left-Shot Defenseman:\u00a0The Flames are set on the right side on defense in terms of ceiling. Behind\u00a0Zayne Parekh<\/a>, they\u2019ve got two other names with a top-four ceiling in Henry Brzustewicz\u00a0and\u00a0Henry Mews. The same can\u2019t be said for the left side, where arguably the most promising young long-term piece,\u00a0Yan Kuznetsov<\/a>, is nearly 24 years old and has now graduated to a full-time role this season. With\u00a0Kevin Bahl<\/a>\u00a0also in the mix long-term in the top four, it\u2019s fair to wonder if Calgary is comfortable with two names with such one-dimensional defensive games occupying both first- and second-pairing roles \u2013 and that\u2019s assuming Kuznetsov is capable of top-four duties long-term. Whether it\u2019s an intriguing prospect or a young name already on the roster, a better left-shot option in the pool is a clear long-term need.<\/p>\n Finishing Help:\u00a0If the Flames don\u2019t opt for an entirely futures-based return for Coleman (or anyone else they may move), they\u2019ll look to land a scoring forward in return. The all-around effectiveness of their game is of little consequence. Finishing has been such an extreme issue for the Flames this season that \u201creplacing\u201d Coleman with an Andrei\u00a0Kuzmenko-type\u00a0sniper on the wing, similar to their Elias Lindholm<\/a>\u00a0deal with Vancouver in 2024, would be some welcome short-term help and potential long-term middle-six security if they\u2019re under team control for a few years. The Flames are scoring a league-worst 2.50 goals per game this season, fueled by an absolutely disastrous team shooting percentage of 8.6%.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"With the Olympic break now upon us, the trade deadline is less than a month away. Where does…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":402178,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5124],"tags":[895,26,5294,54005,896,5,4,697],"class_list":{"0":"post-453742","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-calgary-flames","8":"tag-calgary","9":"tag-calgary-flames","10":"tag-calgaryflames","11":"tag-deadline-primer-2026","12":"tag-flames","13":"tag-hockey","14":"tag-nhl","15":"tag-pro-hockey-rumors-originals"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/channels.im\/@nhl\/116048717603850206","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/453742","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=453742"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/453742\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/402178"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=453742"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=453742"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=453742"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
2027: CGY 1st, VGK 1st*, CGY 2nd, CGY 3rd, CGY 4th, CGY 5th, CGY 6th, CGY 7th<\/p>\n