{"id":543926,"date":"2026-04-06T15:35:16","date_gmt":"2026-04-06T15:35:16","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/543926\/"},"modified":"2026-04-06T15:35:16","modified_gmt":"2026-04-06T15:35:16","slug":"heading-into-the-home-stretch","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/543926\/","title":{"rendered":"Heading into the home stretch"},"content":{"rendered":"

The Calgary Flames have played 76 games in their 2025-26 schedule. They have six games remaining: three at home, three on the road. All six games are against teams that are, as of this writing, are either in playoff spots or tied in points for one.<\/p>\n

As we prepare for the rush to the finish, let\u2019s dive into the mailbag!<\/p>\n

Replying to @RyanNPike<\/a><\/p>\n

What\u2019s your take on how safe Flames front office and coaching jobs are after the season?<\/p>\n

Broadly-speaking, I would say very safe. The coaching staff was constructed by Craig Conroy and Ryan Huska, and largely reflects what they wanted: people who can teach a young team how to become good pros. On the coaching side, you\u2019re probably not making big tweaks until you feel the team has enough young talent to emerge from the rebuild cocoon.<\/p>\n

On the management side, the Flames are in the midst of some of their strongest drafting in decades and Brad Pascall\u2019s development staff is starting to get their hands on some of these promising youngsters. Early returns have been good \u2013 hey there Matvei Gridin \u2013 and so I suspect they have some runway. And the team just added to their pro scouting group, so I don\u2019t expect much in the way of short-term tweaks on that side of things either.<\/p>\n

Replying to @RyanNPike<\/a><\/p>\n

What are the chances we get to see Suniev play a considerable amount of games next season?<\/p>\n

I\u2019m really excited to see Aydar Suniev get a couple NHL games in this season. He\u2019s so good with the puck, in terms of having a great shot and knowing when to use it, and as he learns to use his teammates more effectively, I think he\u2019ll unlock a lot of his game.<\/p>\n

I suspect we\u2019ll see him split the 2026-27 season between the Flames and Wranglers, sort of like Matvei Gridin did this season.<\/p>\n

Replying to @RyanNPike<\/a><\/p>\n

Hi Ryan! What’s your prediction for what the Flames lineup looks like next year? Also, fun question, what’s your favourite Saddledome food?<\/p>\n

Assuming that Blake Coleman is moved over the summer\u2026<\/p>\n

Huberdeau \u2013 Frost \u2013 Coronato
Gridin \u2013 Strome \u2013 Sharangovich
Honzek \u2013 Backlund \u2013 Farabee
Zary \u2013 Pospisil \u2013 Klapka
Extra: Lomberg<\/p>\n

Bahl \u2013 Whitecloud
Kuznetsov \u2013 Parekh
Maatta \u2013 Brzustewicz
Extras: Hanley, Pachal<\/p>\n

Wolf
Cooley<\/p>\n

My favourite Saddledome food is the Pocket Dog \u2013 bacon cheddar, with a squirt of cheese in the bun. But I tried the Banded Peak nachos at the PWHL Takeover game and they were superb.<\/p>\n

Replying to @RyanNPike<\/a><\/p>\n

What does the flames need in terms of player should we have a top 5 pick, probably likely at this stage.
\nAnd who would it be?<\/p>\n

Honestly, I would argue the Flames need high-end skill wherever they can find it, and I don\u2019t think they have ample enough positional depth anywhere \u2013 except maybe goaltending \u2013 that they should veer away from a \u201cbest player available\u201d stance. It\u2019s said to be a weak year for centres at the high end, so it may end up being a blueliner such as Chase Reid, Keaton Verhoeff or Albert Smits.<\/p>\n

Replying to @RyanNPike<\/a><\/p>\n

I was wasting time the other day and did a deep dive into the Flames off ice staff. Can you shed some light as to what the \u201cdirector of hockey strategy\u201d does? And why would a hockey team need a Director of Engineering?<\/p>\n

I believe \u201cDirector of Engineering, Hockey Analytics\u201d is Alex Robson\u2019s title, and I think it\u2019s a programming thing, like\u00a0data engineering. It\u2019s meant to be someone that helps with working with data to answer questions and solve problems that emerge within hockey ops.<\/p>\n

I do not know. He\u2019d have pressure on him unlike anybody else selected in his draft slot with a different last name. He\u2019s also had a fairly solid-if-unspectacular season, so he\u2019d be more of a \u201cbuy low\u201d proposition at this point. I wouldn\u2019t bet on it, but I also don\u2019t have enough solid information at my disposal to tell you to rule it out, either.<\/p>\n

Got a question for a future mailbag? Contact Ryan on Twitter\/BlueSky at @RyanNPike or e-mail him at Ryan.Pike [at] BetterCollective.com! (Make sure you put Mailbag in the subject line!)<\/p>\n

The FlamesNation Monday Mailbag is presented to you by Village Honda<\/p>\n

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Village Honda is proud to be your dealership for life in Calgary since 1987. We are located in the Northwest Auto Mall under the giant Canadian flag or online at www.villagehonda.com<\/a>.\"\"<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The Calgary Flames have played 76 games in their 2025-26 schedule. They have six games remaining: three at…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":78122,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5124],"tags":[895,26,5294,896,5,4],"class_list":{"0":"post-543926","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-flames","12":"tag-hockey","13":"tag-nhl"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/543926","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=543926"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/543926\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/78122"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=543926"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=543926"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=543926"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}