2025/2026 Season Trade Rumours and Speculation Thread

[Enoch Root]

I respect Andersson's ability to choose what he wants. However, if he wants to do what's best for him, then the Flames have to also do what's best for them.

If the offer from LA was that good, ask them what they would be willing to do on a contract price for Andersson, go sign him for that (assuming he will), then trade him.

"If you want to paly hardball, we'll play hardball too"

[Jiri Hrdina]

Originally Posted by Matty81

For me it's a combination. A bit of luck involved, but the flames always wait too long and trade players post peak value. Last summer with 2 years on his deal an extension isn't even a part of the trade discussion and you bring in a core building block for rasmus. But the flames always chasing the 16th playoff spot seem to hold vets who can still contribute until the last possible moment out of fear the team will be so much worse without them. Like coleman this year. everyone can see now is the time to move him except the flames. We also seem to handout a ton of ntcs and nmcs that further restrid flexibility - kadri should 100% be moved this summer at peak value but the club doesn't have the ability to do it because of the clause.

Last I just don't think they are moving exceptional players lately. The club is bad for a reason. Rasmus is an above average close to 30 dman. You can't expect a crazy return.

Next summer watch they will attempt to move kadri after a much worse season too instead of really pushing it this year to find a fit where we will waive after his massive season and the flames will be out a potential 1st rounder or something. Asset mgmt has been pretty bad for this franchise... deals like glencross or mangiapane stick out because they are so few and far between. At least conroy seems more focused on it than any of our past gms

I see this stated a lot.
NTC are not handed out. They are key parts of the negotiation with players increasingly wanting them.

The Flames aren't "handing them out".

And as I stated above, I don't think it's a known that now is the right time to trade Coleman. I don't think teams are rushing to have term remaining on a guy like that - but as you approach a trade deadline where he is a pure rental, his value could actually climb.

[PepsiFree]

Originally Posted by Ashasx

Unreal how a poster indicating he would rather not live in California has lead to posts like this. Absolutely unbelievable.

Yeah it’s crazy when people disagree. How unconventional!

[Bingo]

Originally Posted by CliffFletcher

It isn’t just people who are reflexively critical of the Flames that are disappointed about the reports over the last couple days. According to insiders, Andersson has shot down multiple offers that Conroy was presumably wiling to make. And the only deal that Andersson did approve wasn’t good enough for Conroy.

Yes, nothing has changed as far as Andersson having control over where he signs an extension. What has changed from the outside is it’s looking like the number of destinations he’s will to extend in is very small. This will obviously hurt his value. And with each potential deal shot down, it’s increasingly like he’ll start the season in Calgary, which carries a lot of risk with it.

Getting a Hanifin-level return for Andersson would be disappointing to fans. No, we don’t have any control over it. But speculating about stuff we have no control over isn’t lashing out - it’s the main activity on forums like this.

None of that changes the fact that he still has a traditional top roster rental value, and the Flames have a retention slot.

The Hanifin trade clearly altered how fans see this, but the default was always the case and still is.

If he won't sign with LA but they have the best one year rental offer, you take it and move him to LA.

I'd even argue the Hanifin deal reduced the value of sign and trades or trade and extend contracts, making the gap smaller.

[Ashasx]

Originally Posted by PepsiFree

Yeah it’s crazy when people disagree. How unconventional!

You essentially called him a yokel for having a different opinion on where he wanted to live. Why are you so antagonistic?

[Bingo]

Originally Posted by SuperMatt18

The fact it wasn't even a thought is the issue though.

There was discussion that the Flames should have been thinking about trading Markstrom, Hanifin, Andersson, Tanev, etc at the 2023 trade deadline when teams were overpaying and they were out of it, but their were rumors at the time the Flames were a little late to the party.

Then they made a bunch of those trades in season in 2024 and got great returns on Lindholm, and pretty average returns on Hanifin, Tanev, and Zadorov. So I can understand not shopping Andersson during the 23-24 season as you have enough pieces on the market.

Then in the 2024 offseason they did the right thing by being proactive with Markstrom and Mangiapane deals, but feels like they left value on the table with Andersson by not shopping him at the 2024 draft / free agency period.

And I do get not wanting to go scorched earth rebuild, and not wanting to trade everyone early, and in the case of somebody like Hanifin I actually understood trying to re-sign him and keep him until the last minute since he was young enough that an 8 year deal made sense.

But the Andersson scenario seemed pretty clear to me. You already had RH shot Weegar locked up long term. You had Brzustewicz in a trade, and then Parekh drafted 9th OV. And it seemed pretty clear the Flames wouldn't want to give Andersson $9M x 8 years on a contract that started at 30 years old.

Hopefully they can still get a team to overpay but feels like it's going to be tough if he's only going to be willing to re-sign in a couple of places.

You are welcome to your opinion, and I like the way you approach things because it's generally less whiney ... but I don't agree at all with your first statement.

Of course it was a thought.

They make asset management calls on all their impending players. They saw value in keeping Andersson a year longer.

[CliffFletcher]

Originally Posted by Bingo

If he won't sign with LA but they have the best one year rental offer, you take it and move him to LA.

One would hope. Alternatively, management figures they’ll get a better offer at the deadline, and they hang on to him. Which opens up the possibility of even worse offers if Andersson doesn’t bounce back, and/or hanging onto him as an own rental if the team is in a playoff spot.

[ICRed]

Feels like Conny is going to need to ride this one out awhile. If we have to keep him to the deadline as a rental then do it. We set our price, hold firm otherwise we keep Ras into the season. Sounds like things have gone cold for now, can’t force it.

[Jiri Hrdina]

Originally Posted by ICRed

Feels like Conny is going to need to ride this one out awhile. If we have to keep him to the deadline as a rental then do it. We set our price, hold firm otherwise we keep Ras into the season. Sounds like things have gone cold for now, can’t force it.

Next couple days could be interesting as names come off the board: Ekblad, Gavrikov, etc.

[ICRed]

Originally Posted by Jiri Hrdina

Next couple days could be interesting as names come off the board: Ekblad, Gavrikov, etc.

Whatever the case gotta stay patient until we get some leverage back in the market.

[Bonded]

Originally Posted by Jiri Hrdina

Next couple days could be interesting as names come off the board: Ekblad, Gavrikov, etc.

Could still be a trade after the dust settles in free agency. Andersson might not sign anywhere until he sees those contracts. Is what it is at this point.

[Shazam]

I get the Cali thing.

The traffic in LA and that whole tri-country area is insane. If you have never driven around there, it is orders of magnitude worse than anything you have ever experienced in Calgary or in any other Canadian city for that matter. The area around Staples Center (and by area, I mean an area almost the size of Calgary) sorta sucks. Anaheim is better but you still have to commute a while if you want to live somewhere nice. And you're really, really far from the coast if you're playing for the Ducks.

[Calgary Highlander]

Why can't Andersson commute by helicopter to bypass traffic?

[SuperMatt18]

Originally Posted by Bingo

You are welcome to your opinion, and I like the way you approach things because it's generally less whiney ... but I don't agree at all with your first statement.

Of course it was a thought.

They make asset management calls on all their impending players. They saw value in keeping Andersson a year longer.

And IMO that's a mistake, but they are fine to come to that conclusion. My frustration with what Royle9 said is more the "With that said his value would have been highest 2 seasons ago, but Flames were busy trying to compete and it wasn’t even a thought back then I’m certain."

Even 2 seasons ago the team was not contending, they have admitted as much publicly, there should be very few players on this roster they aren't willing or thinking about moving.

And it's not to say you have to trade them all, but you should at least be thinking about the potential return and long term outcome of every player on the roster.

That includes the benefit of keeping them, anticipated trade value of them now vs in the future, and the risks of keeping them too long into the last season of their deal.

I get frustrated when I hear things like "it wasn't even a thought" or "they didn't even consider trading Kadri" because in the situation the organization is in right now they should only really have three untouchables- Parekh, Wolf, and Future 1sts - everything else should be available and part of active discussions.

[Macho0978]

Conroy needs to trade Ras this summer, but the best time to move him is in a few weeks.

Problem he has is Ras might not re-sign with anyone if teams are making offers based on his decline the last few seasons.

I think the offers will get better in a week or 2. If not, trade him at the rental price and move on.

[Bonded]

Originally Posted by SuperMatt18

And IMO that's a mistake, but they are fine to come to that conclusion. My frustration with what Royle9 said is more the "With that said his value would have been highest 2 seasons ago, but Flames were busy trying to compete and it wasn’t even a thought back then I’m certain."

Even 2 seasons ago the team was not contending, they have admitted as much publicly, there should be very few players on this roster they aren't willing or thinking about moving.

And it's not to say you have to trade them all, but you should at least be thinking about the potential return and long term outcome of every player on the roster.

That includes the benefit of keeping them, anticipated trade value of them now vs in the future, and the risks of keeping them too long into the last season of their deal.

I get frustrated when I hear things like "it wasn't even a thought" or "they didn't even consider trading Kadri" because in the situation the organization is in right now they should only really have three untouchables- Parekh, Wolf, and Future 1sts - everything else should be available and part of active discussions.

They can get criticism for keeping Andersson last offseason but I don’t really put too much stock into the Kadri stuff. I truly think the only two people who know if Kadri was asked to waive or if he’d be interested are Conroy and Kadri.

[Lewis_D]

Originally Posted by Shazam

I get the Cali thing.

The traffic in LA and that whole tri-country area is insane. If you have never driven around there, it is orders of magnitude worse than anything you have ever experienced in Calgary or in any other Canadian city for that matter. The area around Staples Center (and by area, I mean an area almost the size of Calgary) sorta sucks. Anaheim is better but you still have to commute a while if you want to live somewhere nice. And you're really, really far from the coast if you're playing for the Ducks.

If I were making NHL money I'd gladly live in LA - I recall hearing that many of the pro athletes in LA live in the Manhattan Beach area, I could get used to living there!

I'd also take playing for the Gulls and living in San Diego

[Enoch Root]

Originally Posted by Ashasx

You essentially called him a yokel for having a different opinion on where he wanted to live. Why are you so antagonistic?

and a racist

[Saqe]

Originally Posted by Calgary Highlander

Why can't Andersson commute by helicopter to bypass traffic?

Or dig a tunnel. Get one of those big tunnel digging machines.

[Macho0978]

Originally Posted by SuperMatt18

And IMO that's a mistake, but they are fine to come to that conclusion. My frustration with what Royle9 said is more the "With that said his value would have been highest 2 seasons ago, but Flames were busy trying to compete and it wasn’t even a thought back then I’m certain."

Even 2 seasons ago the team was not contending, they have admitted as much publicly, there should be very few players on this roster they aren't willing or thinking about to moving.

And it's not to say you have to trade them all, but you should at least be thinking about the potential return and long term outcome of every player on the roster.

That includes the benefit of keeping them, anticipated trade value of them now vs in the future, and the risks of keeping them too long into the last season of their deal.

I get frustrated when I hear things like "it wasn't even a thought" or "they didn't even consider trading Kadri" because in the situation the organization is in right now they should only really have three untouchables- Parekh, Wolf, and Future 1sts - everything else should be available and part of active discussions.

So many players that want to play and get more ice that would be much cheaper to acquire. They should have traded anyone whose value was at an all time high and put some work in getting cheap bodies for a year or 2.

Over pay a couple UFA vets on 1 to 2 year deals. Lots of depth available that might be given away as teams sign players or UFAs that are in the $5mil price range that would gladly take $7 mil for 2 years.