2025/2026 Season Trade Rumours and Speculation Thread

[Jiri Hrdina]

Originally Posted by TheScorpion

How are we only just getting to the point now where a new organizational mandate to shift towards youth is coming down? To me, that speaks to the idea that regardless of where things sit in the overall scheme of things, the Flames enter each season with the goal to be a playoff team. Even if they get a top-3 pick this year and look woefully outgunned on paper to start next year, will it take 50 more games of trying to grind out 2-1 wins at all costs before the organizational mandate finally shifts again?

Conroy has talked about shifting to youth and made moves to do that since he took over. If they had a real goal of making the playoffs this year, why did they make zero moves in the offseason to put themselves in position to do that?

[Five-hole]

Originally Posted by Monahammer

Are you going to be ok when you are proven wrong, again? Or are you just going to bash the same "we're on the path" drum or whatever?

Everyone around and on the team has said that they went into this season thinking they would be relatively competitive and didn't want to sell.

That was obviously a really dumb assessment of our roster and place in the league.

Uh huh. And did they make a single move as a result of that assessment? Or did they wait and see and then, given that we were almost certainly not making the playoffs (though were only 3 points out at one point with lots of hockey to play), make the most significant trade we've made since dealing Tkachuk, acquiring almost entirely futures?

[Bingo]

Originally Posted by Monahammer

Are you going to be ok when you are proven wrong, again? Or are you just going to bash the same "we're on the path" drum or whatever?

Everyone around and on the team has said that they went into this season thinking they would be relatively competitive and didn't want to sell.

That was obviously a really dumb assessment of our roster and place in the league.

How am I going to be proven wrong?

And when do I "bash" people? I have a pretty strong track record of dealing with facts and opinions straight on. I'll bash a weak opinion and I'll always point out a when a stated fact is in fact just an opinion.

They've moved out a pile of vets.
They've acquired draft capital.
They've sat on cap space.
They've gotten younger.
They've drafted well.
They've moved up the org prospect rankings.

What truth bomb is coming that will prove that I've been wrong to say they've been rebuilding this whole time?

When are you going to stop lapping up the competitive chatter meant for the fan that doesn't want to embrace a rebuild that is clearly happening?

[Macindoc]

Originally Posted by Monahammer

It's really tiring listening to people reject reality and the words of management and well recognized public insiders for their own invented reality about how the team is conducting a rebuild.

Even the Rasmus trade, tons of reports that they were trying to sign him up until the start of this season. So, it can effectively be argued that this was another player that forced their hand rather than someone they actively planned to jettison and replace internally during a rebuild.

If flames management had their way, we'd still have Lindholm and Andersson on the roster at the very least.

If there was an offer for Ras, you have no idea of the term or AAV. Insiders have described it as a lowball offer. So it would have increased Andersson’s trade value if he had signed it. The point you are missing is that all of the vets who were traded would have been worth more in trade value if they had been re-signed to team-friendly contracts. And no, they may not have been traded immediately, but they would have been traded with term remaining. How do we know the offers were team-friendly? Because none of those players signed.them. How do we know they would have been traded? It’s been a recurring theme for three seasons, older vets out, picks and prospects in.

[GioforPM]

A one liner from Steinberg, who I don't think ever has really decent inside info, as opposed to turning his gut feelings into reporting, leads to all of this?

It's been clear all year they were trading Rasmus - Conroy as much as said so. He has time to deal with Coleman and Kadri, yet he has been taking inquiries on them, according to all the usual sources. The offers haven't been great on Kadri, and I've always said it would be hard to find the right partner. They've not made a single move that hasn't made them younger.

Are there debates within the Flames about direction? Probably. But there always should be debates. You don't want tunnel vision in management. Yet at the end of the day Conroy has always done what rebuilders wanted him to do. But because people hear that there is even a hint of debate from people who want to compete, the Flames are somehow not rebuilding.

[Bingo]

Originally Posted by PepsiFree

Both players were reportedly willing to sign and stay in Calgary. So… why didn’t they?

The fact that people need to re-litigate every little thing to stay mad is just so silly. People wanted a rebuild, right? Well, the Flames are 29th in the league, one point up on 31st, approaching draft 3/4 of having multiple first round picks. Eventually people need to get over themselves, stop “rejecting reality” and realize that regardless of how we got to where they wanted the team to go, they got there.

Or stay mad forever I guess lol.

I've learned this year that there is a % of the fandom that is happier when they have something to be upset over.

I guess that's entertainment too in a way. They find joy in being upset.

And when they seem to be getting their way they quickly switch to something else to be unhappy and complain about.

I certainly tend to be too optimistic ... that's in all parts of my life.

But happy to be labeled as such, as I see little joy in constantly having to be unhappy about something that has always been a great distraction.

The Flames are terrible. They will be terrible. When they had Feaster it was a dark time for me because I didn't see light at the end of the tunnel. Currently I do, and I can't believe how often we are being forced to defend a position of hope.

[Royle9]

[Bonded]

Originally Posted by Royle9

What a terrible rebuild. Holding on to all these vets.

[Roof-Daddy]

Originally Posted by Royle9

nOt reBuILdiNG!!

TryInG tO ComPeTE!

[Shazam]

The rebuild truly begins when they trade Backlund!

[TheIronMaiden]

The 2023-24 Roster. With only 7/20 players remaining with the team 2 years later

Spoiler!

[Shazam]

But truthfully, I'm not sure how relevant the roster turnover is.

The only Avs left from the 2021-2022 starting roster:

Girard
Landeskog
MacKinnon
Mackar
Nichushkin

O'Conner (scratched for the first game).

[Ped]

I don't think there's any doubt the Flames were hoping based on last season and the weakness of the Pacific, that they felt there was a legitimate chance to make the playoffs, and that Wolf has the ability to steal games once they are there.


But it's also pretty clear imo that they weren't counting on it, which is why they didn't make any improvements, and were willing to begin selling off more once the season was out of bounds.


There are always going to be executives that either believe bad teams have a chance, or say they believe it, no matter how bad it looks.


The Flames are pretty clearly in sell mode and have been for awhile, but expecting them to trade everyone and just play all the rookies is not at all realistic

[Calgary Highlander]

Originally Posted by GioforPM

A one liner from Steinberg, who I don't think ever has really decent inside info, as opposed to turning his gut feelings into reporting, leads to all of this?

It's been clear all year they were trading Rasmus - Conroy as much as said so. He has time to deal with Coleman and Kadri, yet he has been taking inquiries on them, according to all the usual sources. The offers haven't been great on Kadri, and I've always said it would be hard to find the right partner. They've not made a single move that hasn't made them younger.

Are there debates within the Flames about direction? Probably. But there always should be debates. You don't want tunnel vision in management. Yet at the end of the day Conroy has always done what rebuilders wanted him to do. But because people hear that there is even a hint of debate from people who want to compete, the Flames are somehow not rebuilding.

Steinberg operates on a lot more than gut feeling. He forecasts the organization's direction correctly too often for it to be "great reads".

He's not an insider, but he fed info from the Flames fairly regularly and told to be on "high alert" when things are close.

He projected the 2025 deadline was going to be quiet for the Flames. Listening to him stumble over his words on a post-game call-in show two weeks ago when he knew the Andersson trade was imminent was hilarious (he was struggling to phrase a response without letting on that he knew the timing of what was coming).

If Steinberg is giving out a "feeling" of where he thinks the organization is at with respect to its players, you can surmise that Connie and company have similar feelings.

[Ped]

Originally Posted by Shazam

But truthfully, I'm not sure how relevant the roster turnover is.

The only Avs left from the 2021-2022 starting roster:

Girard
Landeskog
MacKinnon
Mackar
Nichushkin

O'Conner (scratched for the first game).

Of course those are the 5 most important players, and 2 of them are generational so that kind of makes a big difference.

[Jason14h]

Originally Posted by Jiri Hrdina

Conroy has talked about shifting to youth and made moves to do that since he took over. If they had a real goal of making the playoffs this year, why did they make zero moves in the offseason to put themselves in position to do that?

The Flames were coming off a 97 point season . They were adding Parekh to the lineup , and we’re hoping their young players would take another step forward

They were rumoured to be in on some of the offseason trades like Cozens

How do you know they didn’t try to make the team better? We have no idea who they tried to sign or trade for .

Now they certainly didn’t make stupid moves to try and marginally improve - I’ll 100% give you that and think it’s a welcome change .

Remember the vast majority of this board thought the Flames would
Just miss the playoffs or make / advance. That’s a 90+ point pace most people believed in . Why is it far fetched to think Flames management thought this would be a 100 point team with some improvements from the younger players and Parekh ?

A lot of the same people who thought the Flames were a playoff team this year now “clearly” see it’s a rebuild 4 months later and 1 trade (a player who was getting moved either way from everything reported over last 6 months)

I don’t think the Flames knew what they had as a roster coming into this year and took a wait and see approach . That’s a low risk low reward approach either way - Not adding to a 97 point team and not subtracting / accelerating the rebuild by subtracting

Now there’s lots of time between now and deadline to solidify a way forward , but if we leave this season with just the Andersson trade that will be 1 trade we acquired picks and 1 trade we acquired assets (frost and farabee) for picks over 2 years

Not exactly a rebuild to write home about .

[Bingo]

Originally Posted by Jason14h

The Flames were coming off a 97 point season . They were adding Parekh to the lineup , and we’re hoping their young players would take another step forward

They were rumoured to be in on some of the offseason trades like Cozens

How do you know they didn’t try to make the team better? We have no idea who they tried to sign or trade for .

Now they certainly didn’t make stupid moves to try and marginally improve - I’ll 100% give you that and think it’s a welcome change .

Remember the vast majority of this board thought the Flames would
Just miss the playoffs or make / advance. That’s a 90+ point pace most people believed in . Why is it far fetched to think Flames management thought this would be a 100 point team with some improvements from the younger players and Parekh ?

A lot of the same people who thought the Flames were a playoff team this year now “clearly” see it’s a rebuild 4 months later and 1 trade (a player who was getting moved either way from everything reported over last 6 months)

I don’t think the Flames knew what they had as a roster coming into this year and took a wait and see approach . That’s a low risk low reward approach either way - Not adding to a 97 point team and not subtracting / accelerating the rebuild by subtracting

Now there’s lots of time between now and deadline to solidify a way forward , but if we leave this season with just the Andersson trade that will be 1 trade we acquired picks and 1 trade we acquired assets (frost and farabee) for picks over 2 years

Not exactly a rebuild to write home about .

I think most of the people you argue with on a daily basis thought the Flames were going to miss the playoffs last year and this year.

I know I had them bottom ten both years.

[Bingo]

Originally Posted by Ped

I don't think there's any doubt the Flames were hoping based on last season and the weakness of the Pacific, that they felt there was a legitimate chance to make the playoffs, and that Wolf has the ability to steal games once they are there.


But it's also pretty clear imo that they weren't counting on it, which is why they didn't make any improvements, and were willing to begin selling off more once the season was out of bounds.


There are always going to be executives that either believe bad teams have a chance, or say they believe it, no matter how bad it looks.


The Flames are pretty clearly in sell mode and have been for awhile, but expecting them to trade everyone and just play all the rookies is not at all realistic

I'm guessing the management group was somewhat shocked that the team did as well as they did last year ... wanted to bring it back without adding to it, and expected a fall this year.

All their actions to not support that "pop" spoke volumes to me.

[Five-hole]

Originally Posted by Jason14h

The Flames were coming off a 97 point season . They were adding Parekh to the lineup , and we’re hoping their young players would take another step forward

They were rumoured to be in on some of the offseason trades like Cozens

How do you know they didn’t try to make the team better? We have no idea who they tried to sign or trade for .

Now they certainly didn’t make stupid moves to try and marginally improve - I’ll 100% give you that and think it’s a welcome change .

Remember the vast majority of this board thought the Flames would
Just miss the playoffs or make / advance. That’s a 90+ point pace most people believed in . Why is it far fetched to think Flames management thought this would be a 100 point team with some improvements from the younger players and Parekh ?

A lot of the same people who thought the Flames were a playoff team this year now “clearly” see it’s a rebuild 4 months later and 1 trade (a player who was getting moved either way from everything reported over last 6 months)

I don’t think the Flames knew what they had as a roster coming into this year and took a wait and see approach . That’s a low risk low reward approach either way - Not adding to a 97 point team and not subtracting / accelerating the rebuild by subtracting

Now there’s lots of time between now and deadline to solidify a way forward , but if we leave this season with just the Andersson trade that will be 1 trade we acquired picks and 1 trade we acquired assets (frost and farabee) for picks over 2 years

Not exactly a rebuild to write home about .

I'll be honest, it looks like you're grading the rebuild based on rumored things that didn't happen that didn't have a rebuild flavour, and/or things that may or may not happen in the future but assuming that they won't be to your liking.

[GioforPM]

Originally Posted by Shazam

But truthfully, I'm not sure how relevant the roster turnover is.

The only Avs left from the 2021-2022 starting roster:

Girard
Landeskog
MacKinnon
Mackar
Nichushkin

O'Conner (scratched for the first game).

But who did they get to replace the ones no longer there? Nelson, Necas, Lehkonen, Manson, Malinksi, Burns, Oloffson - these are veteran replacements. Not a youth movement.