2025/2026 Season Trade Rumours and Speculation Thread

[Sofa GM]

Originally Posted by GioforPM

They had to trade them. They were vets on a bad team.

I do think Buffalo made a mistake in their rebuild. Who were the veterans on that team leading the young group. Did they have a Backlund, Weegar, etc? I'm asking mostly cause I honestly don't recall.

I do agree there has to be a mix of solid veterans with the youth.

[Mitch]

Originally Posted by Vinny01

Friedman also saying no veterans have asked out. Talks about the team playing hard and competing. Some decent prospects etc.

Basically way too early to see where the Flames are going.

Free agents will be tough to get until the new rink.

“With Wolf they don’t think they can be truly bad”

“The beginning of this year was just a blip”

Also reiterating that he would be very surprised if Conroy is not extended

Maybe its just me but I wouldn't call being the worst team in the league for a quarter of the season a 'blip'.

Gosh the messaging around this team is infuriating.

[Rhett44]

Originally Posted by Vinny01

Friedman also saying no veterans have asked out. Talks about the team playing hard and competing. Some decent prospects etc.

Basically way too early to see where the Flames are going.

Free agents will be tough to get until the new rink.

“With Wolf they don’t think they can be truly bad”

“The beginning of this year was just a blip”

Also reiterating that he would be very surprised if Conroy is not extended

Just a blip lol. News flash, you haven't made the playoffs in 3 years and this year will be your 4th.

You are not a good team.

[Royle9]

I really hate the narrative of comparing any rebuild to "worried about becoming Buffalo" its almost impossible to replicate.

Buffalo fumbled so many things so hard, they did it to themselves and then refused to fix it by doubling down on multiple terrible trades.

• Buffalo has been rebuilding for years yes.
• Buffalo last saw post-season success (winning a series) in 2006/7
• Buffalo lost the BIGGEST draft lottery and got Eichel as the consolation prize
• Buffalo then fumbled Eichel
• Terrible trade of Reinhart to Florida
• Jumped the gun and tried to re-tool in 2016 by signing Okposo for 6M x 7
• Doubled down and traded Montour to Florida - 3rd round pick return
• Skinner contract after his career year 9M contract

Sabres jumped the gun on their rebuild too fast. They got Eichel with the 2nd O/A pick and then tried to build a team around him, but the problem was their drafting was so poor up to that point that they didn't have that team.

Of their six first-round picks since 2011 prior to drafting Eichel, only Reinhart had any sort of sign of being a strong piece not to mention they traded 3 of those 6 1st round pllayers in 3 separate deals in Armia, Zadorov and Grigorenko for veterans.

Traded two of their three 2015 first-round picks was a dagger as well.

Terrible drafting has been their absolute plague since 2011 even with having 2 1st over all picks and 2 2nd over all picks.

2011 - Armia @ 16
2012- Grigorenko @ 12
2012 - Girgensons @ 14
2013 - Ristolainen @ 8
2013 - Zadorov @ 16
2014 - Reinhart @ 2
2015 - Eichel @ 2
2016 - Nylander @ 8
2017 - Mittelstadt @ 8
2018 - Dahlin @ 1
2019 - Cozens @ 7
2019 - Johnson @ 31
2020 - Quinn @ 8
2021 - Power @ 1
2022 - Savoie @ 9
2022 - Ostlund @ 16
2022 - Kulich @ 28
2023 - Benson @ 13
2024 - Helenius @ 14
2025 - Mrtka @ 9

What's funny is Calgary has only made it past the 1st round 2 times since 2004, so very similar success yet we haven't rebuilt like Buffalo by tearing it down to the studs like they did. In fact no other team has been as bad as Buffalo has in the last 2 decades.

Buffalo ownership and management are to blame, they made terrible franchise decisions, poor drafting moves and lost young star players by mismanagement which is no fault of any other franchise.

[Bingo]

Originally Posted by Rhett44

The Calgary Flames and Buffalo Sabres have had basically the same amount of success in the last 2 decades.

It is weird we always hear about us not wanting to be Buffalo, when we already basically have been.

Are they though?

Playoff success has always haunted the Flames, but the Sabres for the last 20 years barely got in the playoffs to even give it a try?

Flames in the last 20 years 16th overall at .555
Buffalo in the last 20 years 30th overall at .499

[getbak]

Originally Posted by ForeverFlameFan

People want moves done NOW, but we’re also not even that far into the season. The soonest you’re going to get a deal done is either pre or post-Olympics.

Post-Olympics is basically the deadline. The gold medal game is February 22 and the trade deadline is less than 2 weeks later on March 6.

I think the action will pick up early in the New Year as teams try to get things done before the break so players have a chance to get settled into their new cities.

I wouldn't be surprised to see a couple of trades (not necessarily big or involving the Flames) prior to the Christmas freeze. Those seem to happen every year.

[Makarov]

Originally Posted by Bingo

Are they though?

Playoff success has always haunted the Flames, but the Sabres for the last 20 years barely got in the playoffs to even give it a try?

Flames in the last 20 years 16th overall at .555
Buffalo in the last 20 years 30th overall at .499

Isn't that the big problem that we're all hoping they solve though via some kind of rebuild though?

[Monahammer]

Originally Posted by Sofa GM

I think there are a few deals that could really shift this organization.

To MTL
Kadri
3rd

To CGY
Hage
Anderson

To DAL
Coleman (50% retained)
Hanley

To CGY
Bischel

To ANA
Andersson

To CGY
Mintyukov
2027 2nd

This sets up the defensive core long term Parehk, Bischel, Bahl, Mintyukov, Kuznetsov, Brz, Weegar. Also gives Calgary a young top prospect center and an opportunity to draft another in this years draft.

These are the things that need to be done to move the team forward.

Those are pretty great, but if we are acquiring Bischel from Dallas I think Minty is less of a priority. I would look at Carolina and Svechnikov and see if we can find a fit close to 1 for 1 for Andersson. With his recent stat bump it is back in the region of viability IMO.

[bubbsy]

I hope I’m wrong, but the race to 9-11 in the west is now ON! They are going to crawl out of this blip, just feels like the obvious flames way.

[gvitaly]

Originally Posted by GioforPM

They had to trade them. They were vets on a bad team.

I always thought that what really hurt Buffalo was the poor drafting outside the top 3, combined with some pretty bad trades.

Buffalos 1st round picks outside the top 5 2008-2022:
#7 Dylan Cozens
#8 Rasmus Ristolainen
#8 Alex Nylander
#8 Jack Queen
#8 Casey Middlestadt
#9 Mathew Savoie
#12 Tyler Myers
#12 Mikhail Grigorenko
#13 Zack Kassian
#14 Zemgus Grigensons
#14 Isaak Rosen
#16 Joel Armia
#16 Nikita Zadorov
#16 Noah Ostlund
#23 Mark Pysyk
#26 Tyler Ennis
#28 Jiri Kulich
#31 Ryan Johnson

So out of 18 1st rounders they managed to get 3 x 4/5 D-men, 2 x middle 6 C, and 1 x middle 6 Winger. If they were drafting and developing even close to league average then they would be a powerhouse.

EDIT: seems Royle had the same idea. Great minds think alike.

[Jiri Hrdina]

Originally Posted by Mitch

Maybe its just me but I wouldn't call being the worst team in the league for a quarter of the season a 'blip'.

Gosh the messaging around this team is infuriating.

It was hard to tell if Friedman was saying the overall team performance was a blip or if Wolf's performance specifically was a blip

[Jiri Hrdina]

Originally Posted by Sofa GM

I think there are a few deals that could really shift this organization.

To MTL
Kadri
3rd

To CGY
Hage
Anderson

To DAL
Coleman (50% retained)
Hanley

To CGY
Bischel

To ANA
Andersson

To CGY
Mintyukov
2027 2nd

This sets up the defensive core long term Parehk, Bischel, Bahl, Mintyukov, Kuznetsov, Brz, Weegar. Also gives Calgary a young top prospect center and an opportunity to draft another in this years draft.

These are the things that need to be done to move the team forward.

And what if deals of that quality simply are not on the table?

[Macindoc]

So do the posters who wanted to trade Andersson for a late 2nd and a late 3rd still want the Flames to sell low on him?

[Monahammer]

I am done beating this drum, and it appears that flames management have finally convinced more of you to believe what they are saying. We are not going to get a rebuild. The best course of action would be turn into the slide and trade Rasmus/ Kadri before christmas. It won't happen, we will crawl back up to mid standing, and we will be spinning our tires again. C'est la vie.

[PaperBagger'14]

Originally Posted by Bingo

Are they though?

Playoff success has always haunted the Flames, but the Sabres for the last 20 years barely got in the playoffs to even give it a try?

Flames in the last 20 years 16th overall at .555
Buffalo in the last 20 years 30th overall at .499

In my opinion there’s no emotional difference between missing the playoffs and getting pumped in the first round. Making the playoffs is pointless if you don’t have the talent to win at least a round.

[united]

Originally Posted by Mitch

Maybe its just me but I wouldn't call being the worst team in the league for a quarter of the season a 'blip'.

Gosh the messaging around this team is infuriating.

The quote is being taken out of context. If you listen to the podcast, you will hear Friedman is talking about Wolf in that part, not the Flames - Wolf's early season performance is just a blip.

[Monahammer]

Originally Posted by Macindoc

So do the posters who wanted to trade Andersson for a late 2nd and a late 3rd still want the Flames to sell low on him?

Personally, I think the higher pick we could achieve at the end of this season if we crash and burn hard is likely to provide more long term value to the team than any additional value you could extract from Andersson by holding him longer.

This is a more than year old debate now. IMO trading Rasmus and Kadri is a way to guarantee less wins and a higher pick. The delta in value between trading them now or holding them until TDL (or longer) is what should be considered, or whether the delta between pick, say 12, to pick 3 is more valuable.

[shutout]

Originally Posted by getbak

Post-Olympics is basically the deadline.

If Andersson is part of the Swedish team than I think you have to make pre olympics the deadline for moving him. Too great of a possibility that he could end up injured during the tournament and then return nothing in a trade.

[Mitch]

Originally Posted by united

The quote is being taken out of context. If you listen to the podcast, you will hear Friedman is talking about Wolf in that part, not the Flames - Wolf's early season performance is just a blip.

I see, that makes a lot more sense.

[ForeverFlameFan]

Originally Posted by shutout

If Andersson is part of the Swedish team than I think you have to make pre olympics the deadline for moving him. Too great of a possibility that he could end up injured during the tournament and then return nothing in a trade.

Wouldn't the team trying to acquire Andersson take that into consideration? It's as big as a risk to them as it is for us.