2025/2026 Season Trade Rumours and Speculation Thread

[Wolfman]

Originally Posted by bdubbs

Why are fans perfectly happy to get riled up over what is said in the media but also happy to ignore the fact that Conroy has been executing his plan this entire time, regardless of what has been said in the media?

We're a cap floor team at 32nd in the NHL. If we were in 18-20th, maybe there would be a reason to worry but that is simply not the case.

I can't figure out what anybody wants in this thread

[Bonded]

Originally Posted by Jiri Hrdina

So you've already decided to bring out the pitchforks if that happens regardless of the reasons why? If they let Andersson go for nothing as a UFA I get it.
The others? I hope they trade one of them, but if they hang on to Coleman for another year, I'm not going to lose my ####.

I’m guessing Coleman isn’t traded given the timing of his new kid and the fact he can basically set his NTC to be a NMC

[Monahammer]

Originally Posted by Bonded

100%. I will continue to judge them by what they do and not what media and sometimes direct members of management is saying they will do.

I fixed your quote to identify why people are unhappy.
I will add that historically speaking, the flames have never leaned into the tank either. So, frankly, we need more than tepid at best actions towards tanking to believe that they will actually do it.

[traptor]

Originally Posted by Flames Fan, Ph.D.

I'm a bit confused over all the reactions to the interview.

He said what you'd expect from anyone in upper management. It's just marketing/advertising. Some of you must get really mad at television commercials.

The only off-putting part of the interview for me was the fact that he kept looking straight into the camera.

Yeah, but isn’t marketing supposed to be for the fans, many of whom are tired of the same old narrative and direction?

He could have put a more positive spin on it, addressing what a lot of fans want to hear without giving away too much. Something like:

"Focused on building a legitimate contender that competes at the highest level."
"Committed to doing what’s needed to get there, including developing our young talent."
"Genuinely excited about the future"
"Building a strong team culture and identity fans can be proud of."
"success takes patience and smart decisions."

and still keep the
"Be a team people are proud of and want to watch"
"Be a hard-out exciting team every night"

It would still be generic and not disparaging to the current roster, but with a positive spin indicating a clear future direction to build this seriously.

Instead, we got lines like:

“We’re not throwing in the towel”
“Lots of season left”
“We have a good group”
“Hard-working, playoff-capable team”

[GioforPM]

Originally Posted by Monahammer

This fact should make everyone deeply, deeply suspect about the judgement of club ownership. lol.

Well, whatever you think of him, he's the most experienced guy with the deepest background (nepotism ignored). The others are just radio/podcast dudes.

[GioforPM]

Originally Posted by Monahammer

I fixed your quote to identify why people are unhappy.
I will add that historically speaking, the flames have never leaned into the tank either. So, frankly, we need more than tepid at best actions towards tanking to believe that they will actually do it.

I'm going to need those "direct" quotes of management.

[blankall]

Originally Posted by bdubbs

Why are fans perfectly happy to get riled up over what is said in the media but also happy to ignore the fact that Conroy has been executing his plan this entire time, regardless of what has been said in the media?

We're a cap floor team at 32nd in the NHL. If we were in 18-20th, maybe there would be a reason to worry but that is simply not the case.

I'm not sure what people expect the Flames to say.

"We're purposely icing a bad team.....but please come out to games anyways...please...."

They traded away their #1 goalie, #1 centre, multiple top 4 defenders, and are near the very bottom of the league in terms of spending.

It's pretty clear this is a rebuild. The Flames have also stating that part of their strategy is acquiring young NHL ready players, as opposed to just relying on draft picks.

[Bonded]

Originally Posted by Monahammer

I fixed your quote to identify why people are unhappy.
I will add that historically speaking, the flames have never leaned into the tank either. So, frankly, we need more than tepid at best actions towards tanking to believe that they will actually do it.

Nah, I personally don’t really care about what they say publicly. If people want to get riled then go for it but I’ll judge them on what actually happens.

[GioforPM]

Originally Posted by traptor

Yeah, but isn’t marketing supposed to be for the fans, many of whom are tired of the same old narrative and direction?

He could have put a more positive spin on it, addressing what a lot of fans want to hear without giving away too much. Something like:

"Focused on building a legitimate contender that competes at the highest level."
"Committed to doing what’s needed to get there, including developing our young talent."
"Genuinely excited about the future"
"Building a strong team culture and identity fans can be proud of."
"success takes patience and smart decisions."

and still keep the
"Be a team people are proud of and want to watch"
"Be a hard-out exciting team every night"

It would still be generic and not disparaging to the current roster, but with a positive spin indicating a clear future direction to build this seriously.

Instead, we got lines like:

“We’re not throwing in the towel”
“Lots of season left”
“We have a good group”
“Hard-working, playoff-capable team”

He's trying to get people to buy tickets this year, not promising reasons for seasons tickets for "the future". He's telling people that there's a chance they'll see wins. And he's being interviewed for 3 minutes between periods. It's not a prepared press conference.

[Bonded]

Originally Posted by traptor

Yeah, but isn’t marketing supposed to be for the fans, many of whom are tired of the same old narrative and direction?

He could have put a more positive spin on it, addressing what a lot of fans want to hear without giving away too much. Something like:

"Focused on building a legitimate contender that competes at the highest level."
"Committed to doing what’s needed to get there, including developing our young talent."
"Genuinely excited about the future"
"Building a strong team culture and identity fans can be proud of."
"success takes patience and smart decisions."

and still keep the
"Be a team people are proud of and want to watch"
"Be a hard-out exciting team every night"

It would still be generic and not disparaging to the current roster, but with a positive spin indicating a clear future direction to build this seriously.

Instead, we got lines like:

“We’re not throwing in the towel”
“Lots of season left”
“We have a good group”
“Hard-working, playoff-capable team”

One thing to remember is that the casual fan is a much different than the subset of fans on here. Most casual fans I talk to have zero interest in hearing that the Flames will suck.

[Jiri Hrdina]

Originally Posted by traptor

Yeah, but isn’t marketing supposed to be for the fans, many of whom are tired of the same old narrative and direction?

He could have put a more positive spin on it, addressing what a lot of fans want to hear without giving away too much. Something like:

"Focused on building a legitimate contender that competes at the highest level."
"Committed to doing what’s needed to get there, including developing our young talent."
"Genuinely excited about the future"
"Building a strong team culture and identity fans can be proud of."
"success takes patience and smart decisions."

and still keep the
"Be a team people are proud of and want to watch"
"Be a hard-out exciting team every night"

It would still be generic and not disparaging to the current roster, but with a positive spin indicating a clear future direction to build this seriously.

Instead, we got lines like:

“We’re not throwing in the towel”
“Lots of season left”
“We have a good group”
“Hard-working, playoff-capable team”

I don't disagree that they way they are framing this to the fan base is an unforced error and feeds into a lot of existing fears about what they are doing.

[Burning Beard]

Originally Posted by bdubbs

Why are fans perfectly happy to get riled up over what is said in the media but also happy to ignore the fact that Conroy has been executing his plan this entire time, regardless of what has been said in the media?

We're a cap floor team at 32nd in the NHL. If we were in 18-20th, maybe there would be a reason to worry but that is simply not the case.

Post of the day!

[Jiggy]

Owners and management don't want to scare off season ticket holders and sponsors. Do you expect them to come out and say we want to suck and suck real bad.

[Flames Fan, Ph.D.]

Originally Posted by traptor

Yeah, but isn’t marketing supposed to be for the fans, many of whom are tired of the same old narrative and direction?

He could have put a more positive spin on it, addressing what a lot of fans want to hear without giving away too much. Something like:

"Focused on building a legitimate contender that competes at the highest level."
"Committed to doing what’s needed to get there, including developing our young talent."
"Genuinely excited about the future"
"Building a strong team culture and identity fans can be proud of."
"success takes patience and smart decisions."

and still keep the
"Be a team people are proud of and want to watch"
"Be a hard-out exciting team every night"

It would still be generic and not disparaging to the current roster, but with a positive spin indicating a clear future direction to build this seriously.

Instead, we got lines like:

“We’re not throwing in the towel”
“Lots of season left”
“We have a good group”
“Hard-working, playoff-capable team”

I think the part that I bolded is the crux of it:

1) You (and I) realize it's just 'spin' and not an honest, under-hypnosis-confession of what is truly in their minds.

2) You make an assumption around what 'a lot of fans' want to hear.

If we accept it's spin, then it's just spin. It's not meant to be methodically dissected. If you're not happy with your interpretation of the spin, then that's for you. But projecting it as a majority impression is likely not correct. We don't know how the majority of fans took it.

I'd wager that if you asked everyone in Calgary, the plurality would be 'It didn't make me feel anything' running neck and neck with 'I don't pay attention during the intermissions/I was scrolling on my phone.'

I really don't think his comments are worth even 1/1000th of the time that we've spent on them. But we're the minority and that's what we do.

[Table 5]

Originally Posted by Flames Fan, Ph.D.

He said what you'd expect from anyone in upper management. It's just marketing/advertising.

If the interview was just a marketing tactic to sell more tickets...why are they sending out a clearly nervous Gil Gunderson to do it?

Honestly, it doesn't really matter where you stand on what the Flames should do (fight for playoffs or trade everyone)... that was not an interview that inspired confidence either way.

[Matty81]

Such bad PR by the Flames right now. You don't expect them to say yes we are selling off or having a fire sale, no one demands that. But at least say something vague like, we are always open to trades that help the hockey team and we are always willing to listen. Don't send out messaging through your president of hockey ops and the media that you don't want to make any trades and aren't willing to move veterans, infuriate your own fan base and piss all over any hope they do have.

Their hockey ops guys are coming off looking like a bunch of either puppets or idiots and they've gotten themselves to a point where only the most loyal, reading between the lines hardcore fans are still in their corner.

This team's leadership is looking like a bunch of dudes wearing the emperor's new clothes right now.

[HighLifeMan]

Originally Posted by Matty81

But at least say something vague like, we are always open to trades that help the hockey team and we are always willing to listen.

Conroy literally says that in just about every interview he does.

[dino7c]

Best part of the interview was knowing how a few posters were going to react to it lol

Cap floor team is trying desperately to win it all though

[dino7c]

Originally Posted by Matty81

Such bad PR by the Flames right now. You don't expect them to say yes we are selling off or having a fire sale, no one demands that. But at least say something vague like, we are always open to trades that help the hockey team and we are always willing to listen. Don't send out messaging through your president of hockey ops and the media that you don't want to make any trades and aren't willing to move veterans, infuriate your own fan base and piss all over any hope they do have.

Their hockey ops guys are coming off looking like a bunch of either puppets or idiots and they've gotten themselves to a point where only the most loyal, reading between the lines hardcore fans are still in their corner.

This team's leadership is looking like a bunch of dudes wearing the emperor's new clothes right now.

Step away from social media

[Bingo]

Originally Posted by SuperMatt18

FFS at what point can we stop saying it's Eastern Media Click Bait.

Do you actually that all of Boomer, Rhett, Pinder, Steinberg, Francis, Pike, etc don't have insight into what's actually going on behind the scenes. I doubt Boomer is just reacting to Don Maloney's interview, he would have way more details than that.

Royle9 is great, but I trust that the aforementioned guys have better insights into what's going on in the organization than he does.

If these guys are all saying that ownership doesn't want to tank, doesn't want to move Kadri / Coleman, and still isn't ready to truly commit to a rebuild than it's because it's the truth.

That seems like an overreaction or a triggering at very least.

I'll use a different term. These guys want to generate interest in their podcasts and TV programs. There's a reason they try to shoe horn in 3 Canadian teams to every sound byte they walk out.

If you want to believe them ... fill your boots.

There is more than Royle on here saying the internal view is different and much methodical towards the future.

I CHOOSE to go with that side of it because a) there are more than one source saying such and b) it makes more logical sense than the other stuff that I treat as posturing and veteran player respect.