[Royle9]

"Chaotic" was the word used most in what was shared with me here moments ago. Not a single person could put their phone away during a wonderful meal, but good thing the reservation has no time limit as the table is still full. Caviar devilled eggs were the #1 hit.

Trade Front:

Reiterated the Mangiapane trade was long overdue, 28 w/ expiring contract just didn't fit long term. Felt they were probably going to have to retain however things changed just within the afternoon hours today and a 2nd was a fantastic acquisition.

Most aren't going to like this one, but with the abundance of 2nd and 3rd round picks here the Flames are interested in using a few of these to move up or potentially find a change of scenery target in that 18-25 year old range BUT only if it makes sense. They aren't scared to use these picks either.

There's been some chatter on Rasmus vs Weegar as to who's more likely to move here and the sense I'm getting is that Calgary feels Weegar fits better long term. There's a sense that Rasmus might not want to stick it out for a rebuild and so the Flames are listening on him but not necessarily shopping. His contract and cap hit make him very palatable for a plethora of teams, one to keep an eye on is Ottawa.

Wildcard name to keep an eye on - Coleman
Nothing imminent, but there's certainly significant interest should the Flames want to continue to tear this down.

Draft front:

Flames list is finalized, will change based on on selections 1-8 obviously.
Sense is Demidov remains their "dream" scenario and there's a sense he's likely to fall outside of the top 3.
Flames have 5 players they are locked in on at 9, 2 defense and 3 forwards, but not likely to draft for position so BPA.

#1 priority is still to move up in the draft, with priority going to the 28th pick still and the flames wanting to find a way to get into the 12-20 range.
Flames not afraid to weaponize the almost 30M in cap-space here if it helps get them there.

Beckett Sennecke seems to be the fastest riser in the last 24 hours in terms of teams interested in the top 10.
Levshunov pretty much a lock for the Blackhawks at 2 which means the draft now starts at 3 where I know some have said Silayev is very much a top target for Anaheim but I think that might change.
One of Demidov/Lindstrom will make it to 5 which are the top targets for MTL.

UFA Front

Expect Flames to target both a goalie and defenseman here as a priority July 1st.
Still feel like Dumba is a main target on the backend
Copley the main target in net, though he may garner more interest than the Flames want to pay a 3rd string goalie.
Expectation is the Flames will be in on both DeBrusk and Duclair, however once again Craig is not interested in long term deals so we're looking at 2-4 years with likely a higher AAV.

Long winded post so I apologize, was a lot to share here in a short amount of time. I dont expect I'll get another big update until we're live tomorrow if anything, but I've asked to be kept posted with anything game breaking in Flames land.