2025/2026 Season Trade Rumours and Speculation Thread

[PepsiFree]

Originally Posted by Pekkerhead

I’m puzzled as to why the Zary contract is taking so long to get signed.

It’s summer, things are slow/people are on vacation.

Flames have an offer on the table, Zary wants more than that, but doesn’t really have any leverage, so he’ll sign when he gets tired of waiting.

[Jiri Hrdina]

Originally Posted by Niemo

I agree. The IMO, a rebuild isn't over until you get your young No1 C. The rest is great along the way. A true high end no1 C can make 2nd line wingers who can play 2way hockey (Coronato, Zary, etc.) Into 1W fillers and still be a good no1 Line. Its difficult for wingers to elevate a 2C to the same extent.

It is a much more difficult formula trying to come out of a rebuild and build a contender without a no1 C. A no1 C typically only comes from drafting high or hitting the jackpot in development with the right outlier kid.

I understand its not up to me or the small population of us here, but I'd wager that the tank voices will be minimized if we had a young 1C to develop in a positive culture.

I think everyone agrees that a 1C is critical and a big gap right now.
And that is underscored by the Athletic article I posed a week or so ago - that showed that it was the most critical position.
But that also showed that amongst SC winning teams, with two strong centers - those centers were acquired of ways.

https://forum.calgarypuck.com/showth...ic#post9480939

Moreover, tanking doesn't provide a guarantee to get a #1 center. Detroit has been for a very long time, and doesn't have 1 (they have a couple that could be #2 Cs with Danielson and Kasper).

The Kings thought they had their guy with Byfield but that may not be the case.

The Jackets have struggled for years to find their #1 center.

The Habs, by all accounts, have a very good re-build going. They don't have a long-term #1 center. Suzuki is good, but isn't an ideal top line center including due to size.

So you can tank, but it still doesn't mean you just get a top center.

[Bert]

There are a lot of guys that are elite around the league that weren’t drafted at the top of the draft. Sure you need to get lucky and hit on a few of them, but it happens all the time. Datsuyk anyone? Kucherov? Pasta was 25th. Johnny is closer to home, wolf was a 7th rounder. Sure it’s easy to say “draft first overall and you get your franchise piece, but for every mcdavid there is a team picking yakapov or Daigle.

So how about some posters (cough cough) give the whole tank thing a rest, put some trust in the man who has honestly been running a pretty good organization the last few years. All the crap about too that Conroy was saved from himself by the players is asinine as well. He didn’t sign anyone that people keep talking about, because he wouldn’t overpay. That’s not the players saving him from himsef.

This is starting to turn into a cesspool in here, with a few people leading the way. Aren’t we supposed to cheer for our team, and hope they do well? Never understood when a real fan would want their team to suck for an extended period of time.

There’s more than one way to build a winner, let conny cook

[jayswin]

Originally Posted by Pekkerhead

I’m puzzled as to why the Zary contract is taking so long to get signed.

Meh, it feels like every off season there's some young rfa on the Flames in contract negotiations that we are puzzled by and panicked about. With each passing week we work ourselves up into believing everything has fallen apart with the player amd the team.

Then on some random day in late ausgust/early September a press release comes out aaying said player is signed and we move on. If Zarys new deal takes until early September I guarantee you we'll got through the same doomsday pondering as we always do.

[Rhett44]

Originally Posted by Bingo

Knock it off.

You basically painted x% of the website with one brush, and inaccurately and he pointed it out.

It's not attacking an opinion that's different. It's pushing back against a dishonest summary.

Group think is even lazier of a comment.

No, there are many people on this site that cannot comprehend that some people have differing opinions. It is the same way any time I suggest trading any player, people freak out and call me Paulie Rhett and have to stoop to personal insults and telling me I am a returning banned user, which I am not.

I would like the Flames to do better and rebuild, and build a team that can contend long term. I do not enjoy being a murky middle team, and I will not change my opinion.

[ResAlien]

Ohh you’re under the impression that a poor and misinformed opinion is worth perpetual discussion. That makes sense then

[PepsiFree]

Originally Posted by Rhett44

No, there are many people on this site that cannot comprehend that some people have differing opinions. It is the same way any time I suggest trading any player, people freak out and call me Paulie Rhett and have to stoop to personal insults and telling me I am a returning banned user, which I am not.

I would like the Flames to do better and rebuild, and build a team that can contend long term. I do not enjoy being a murky middle team, and I will not change my opinion.

lol

[Heavy Jack]

Originally Posted by Rhett44

No, there are many people on this site that cannot comprehend that some people have differing opinions. It is the same way any time I suggest trading any player, people freak out and call me Paulie Rhett and have to stoop to personal insults and telling me I am a returning banned user, which I am not.

I would like the Flames to do better and rebuild, and build a team that can contend long term. I do not enjoy being a murky middle team, and I will not change my opinion.

I don’t believe everyone is responding like that, I was honestly debating your position and you seem to always come back to the flames not rebuilding. Well to debate you further, Kadri currently has 1 more year of NMC protection and holds all the cards, everything we hear about him potentially being moved is otherwise noise as Kadri himself suggested. Once this year is up the Flames can and likely will consider moving him but he won’t be a bad replacement for Backlund either who is set to move on as soon as the end of this season potentially 2 but I doubt it. Kadri is a gamer and a great leader to have around the young growing talent we have, unless it was a knock your socks off offer the flames have no reason to trade him, his contract is even attractive now and moving forward with the growing cap.

Coleman can and likely will be traded at or around the deadline this year, the flames have so much drafted depth pushing that they will undoubtedly need to open up space and Coleman is an attractive piece that will attract lots of attention for teams in the playoff hunt.

Andersson in fairness is becoming a frustrating asset but I have no doubts that Craig will turn him into more futures and immediate young and established help as he’s done with the Toffoli, Zadarov, Lindholm, Tanev, Hanifin, Markstrom, Mangiapane and Kuzmenko/Pelts trades. He can’t dictate market values and he also is trying to make a name for himself as a 1st time GM and has done a remarkable job of turning existing assets into futures and young NHLers. This is a far, far, far cry from spend happy Tregiving and whatever the hell Feaster was. It’s also a far cry from the mushy middle you’re describing, the Flames have an incredible stable of young talent, the cupboards are quite full now and we could potentially have that bad season to get that player you’re yearning for. Which by the way we all want, to say that we don’t is absurd, but having a mainly young roster be the reason we finished on the edge of the playoffs isn’t a bad problem to have if it’s a problem at all.

[BigThief]

Originally Posted by Pekkerhead

I’m puzzled as to why the Zary contract is taking so long to get signed.

Luke Hughes, Marco Rossi, Mason Mactavish, Alex Laferriere are all prominent RFA's still to sign, Kaapo Kakko just signed as well.

[browntrout]

I think last year was an anomaly, i see alot of teams below them making greater strides, better talent pools, San Jose, Columbus, Seattle

I could see the team "sneak" into the playoffs, but IMO sooner or later the lack of "higher end draft picks" will eventually catch up with them.

I get a sense that players like coronato, Parekh, zary, wolf, have alot of expectations placed on them, not sure it's a balanced healthy approach for a rebuilding team, living in Edmonton I saw this with hall, Nugent Hopkins, nurse, etc, the first rebuild fell apart and they had to kind of do another rebuild in McDavid and draisaitl, hopefully we are a little more patient

Hoping this team starts to compete in about 3-4 years, but being a small market team where it is hard to attract "marquee" free agents, and the lack of premier prospects within the pipeline, it does concern me.

Hope I am wrong, but this will always be my team, as I bleed the "sea of red"

[traptor]

Just looking at the makeup of the projected roster:
Vets (Age 28+):
Backlund
Kadri
Huberdeau
Coleman
Weegar
Andersson
Hanley
Lomberg
Journeymen (Age 25–28):
Frost
Farabee
Sharangovich
Bahl
Kirkland
Pachal
Young Players (Under 25, full-time NHLers):
Zary
Wolf
Coronato
Pospisil
Klapka
Prospects:
Parekh
Backup goalie


The makeup doesn’t scream “rebuild” to me. Definitely a retool has occured. I get why some fans are frustrated. It feels like we didn’t fully commit to a rebuild agaim and our trajectory hasn't really changed.


We have some really good young pieces. it feels like we have all the pieces to be a consistent 10th-15th place team in the future.

[Heavy Jack]

Again that perspective just seems shortsighted and doesn’t take into account the universally considered great back to back drafts thrown down by the Flames with lots of picks going into 2026 and players to still use and players to move as well which will only add to this stockpile. Also lumping Bahl/Frost/Farabee/Sharangovich in with that ‘Journeymen’ group is funny because they’ve proven quite a bit more than the typical player you give that moniker to, Kirkland and Pachal for instance are great examples of a Journeyman player arch.

[Bingo]

Originally Posted by Rhett44

No, there are many people on this site that cannot comprehend that some people have differing opinions. It is the same way any time I suggest trading any player, people freak out and call me Paulie Rhett and have to stoop to personal insults and telling me I am a returning banned user, which I am not.

I would like the Flames to do better and rebuild, and build a team that can contend long term. I do not enjoy being a murky middle team, and I will not change my opinion.

No .. you're wrong.

When you say the same thing every day it's fine. Annoying as hell but fine.

When you say things like group think, or people don't want to win you're in the muck and you got push back for it.

Understand the difference or you'll just go in circles like this forever.

[Bingo]

Originally Posted by traptor

Just looking at the makeup of the projected roster:
Vets (Age 28+):
Backlund
Kadri
Huberdeau
Coleman
Weegar
Andersson
Hanley
Lomberg
Journeymen (Age 25–28):
Frost
Farabee
Sharangovich
Bahl
Kirkland
Pachal
Young Players (Under 25, full-time NHLers):
Zary
Wolf
Coronato
Pospisil
Klapka
Prospects:
Parekh
Backup goalie


The makeup doesn’t scream “rebuild” to me. Definitely a retool has occured. I get why some fans are frustrated. It feels like we didn’t fully commit to a rebuild agaim and our trajectory hasn't really changed.


We have some really good young pieces. it feels like we have all the pieces to be a consistent 10th-15th place team in the future.

We don't see the term journeyman the same if you're putting 25 year old Kevin Bahl in that category.

[Wolven]

Originally Posted by browntrout

I think last year was an anomaly, i see alot of teams below them making greater strides, better talent pools, San Jose, Columbus, Seattle

I could see the team "sneak" into the playoffs, but IMO sooner or later the lack of "higher end draft picks" will eventually catch up with them.

I get a sense that players like coronato, Parekh, zary, wolf, have alot of expectations placed on them, not sure it's a balanced healthy approach for a rebuilding team, living in Edmonton I saw this with hall, Nugent Hopkins, nurse, etc, the first rebuild fell apart and they had to kind of do another rebuild in McDavid and draisaitl, hopefully we are a little more patient

Hoping this team starts to compete in about 3-4 years, but being a small market team where it is hard to attract "marquee" free agents, and the lack of premier prospects within the pipeline, it does concern me.

Hope I am wrong, but this will always be my team, as I bleed the "sea of red"

I agree in that I think this season is going to be harder for the Flames to overachieve.

1) I think the majority of the bubble teams from last year are going to push harder to get into the playoffs: Canadiens, Blues, Blue Jackets, Red Wings, Rangers, Blues, Mammoth, Kraken
2) The teams that dipped are all going to try to get back into playoff competition: Predators, Bruins, Islanders
3) A lot of the bottom feeders are trying to get competitive: Sabres, Ducks, Sharks, Blackhawks

The race to the bottom is likely going to start with the Penguins and Flyers, followed by the Flames. Then it will just be a matter of watching how successful all of the above teams are in trying to improve from last season.

I come back to wanting to trade Andersson to the Sharks, not just because it would likely yield better assets back in the trade but also because I think it would accelerate the Sharks out the the basement and clear the way for the Flames to dip into the basement.

[traptor]

Originally Posted by Bingo

We don't see the term journeyman the same if you're putting 25 year old Kevin Bahl in that category.

Was an age category. I thought I made that obvious with the age range listed beside..



If you want to talk caliber, I still think Bahl would fit in the middle tier of NHLers.
Hes definitely not a star. Hes a good solid 4/5 D. Whatever you want to call that

[GioforPM]

Originally Posted by traptor

Just looking at the makeup of the projected roster:
Vets (Age 28+):
Backlund
Kadri
Huberdeau
Coleman
Weegar
Andersson
Hanley
Lomberg
Journeymen (Age 25–28):
Frost
Farabee
Sharangovich
Bahl
Kirkland
Pachal
Young Players (Under 25, full-time NHLers):
Zary
Wolf
Coronato
Pospisil
Klapka
Prospects:
Parekh
Backup goalie


The makeup doesn’t scream “rebuild” to me. Definitely a retool has occured. I get why some fans are frustrated. It feels like we didn’t fully commit to a rebuild agaim and our trajectory hasn't really changed.


We have some really good young pieces. it feels like we have all the pieces to be a consistent 10th-15th place team in the future.

This looks exactly like the first couple years of a rebuild. No rebuilding teams has gotten rid of all the vets in one year, or even two, and plenty have signed median aged guys to fill the gaps in the interim.

In Crosby's first year in the league, the Pens had Gonchar, Recchi, Leclair, Palffy, etc. They traded for a 30 year old journeyman in Eric Boguniecki.

The next year, Recchi, Gonchar, Leclair were all still there and they brought in 29 year old Ron Petrovicky, 31 year old Jarko Ruutu, 30 year old Nils Ekman, 40 year old Gary Roberts.

It's just not a one step process.

[Bonded]

Originally Posted by traptor

Just looking at the makeup of the projected roster:
Vets (Age 28+):
Backlund
Kadri
Huberdeau
Coleman
Weegar
Andersson
Hanley
Lomberg
Journeymen (Age 25–28):
Frost
Farabee
Sharangovich
Bahl
Kirkland
Pachal
Young Players (Under 25, full-time NHLers):
Zary
Wolf
Coronato
Pospisil
Klapka
Prospects:
Parekh
Backup goalie

The makeup doesn’t scream “rebuild” to me. Definitely a retool has occured. I get why some fans are frustrated. It feels like we didn’t fully commit to a rebuild agaim and our trajectory hasn't really changed.

We have some really good young pieces. it feels like we have all the pieces to be a consistent 10th-15th place team in the future.

I still think this team swings back to a top ten pick next year. I still don’t really think they are in a retool. They have barely utilized any cap space and Andersson is gone at some point this season. The other vets are harder to trade and I think people are just being impatient and it’s being amplified by the better than expected finish last season. This isn’t as much of a conversation if the team finished where they were projected to going into the season

[C_of_Red28]

I'm confused. I thought this was a Trade Rumours and Speculation Thread...

[The Cobra]

Originally Posted by Jiri Hrdina

I think everyone agrees that a 1C is critical and a big gap right now.
And that is underscored by the Athletic article I posed a week or so ago - that showed that it was the most critical position.
But that also showed that amongst SC winning teams, with two strong centers - those centers were acquired of ways.

https://forum.calgarypuck.com/showth...ic#post9480939

Moreover, tanking doesn't provide a guarantee to get a #1 center. Detroit has been for a very long time, and doesn't have 1 (they have a couple that could be #2 Cs with Danielson and Kasper).

The Kings thought they had their guy with Byfield but that may not be the case.

The Jackets have struggled for years to find their #1 center.

The Habs, by all accounts, have a very good re-build going. They don't have a long-term #1 center. Suzuki is good, but isn't an ideal top line center including due to size.

So you can tank, but it still doesn't mean you just get a top center.

Syzuki had 89 points last years, and his point total improves each year. 6th most among centres in the NHL. I think he’ll do.