2025/2026 Season Trade Rumours and Speculation Thread

[Burning Beard]

Originally Posted by Royle9

In laughable news, Dougie is being touted as a "perfect fit" to land in Toronto.
Brad doing Brad things and the media just pumping his tires.

Robertson and a 5th but it has to happen now.

Hahaha that will push them to cup contender status against the Panthers for sure.

[Enoch Root]

Originally Posted by FBI

Kadri is such a frustrating player. Sometimes he looks all world, and sometimes he looks pathetic and gives hardly any effort.

That is true. But when he is motivated, he is a VERY effective player. And in the playoffs, everyone is motivated - and he has shown that he rises to the occasion in the playoffs.

As for declining this year, I am not buying it. I think it's just a motivation thing - in the games where he is engaged, he has been every bit as effective as he has been in the past. His game is still there, he just needs to want to bring it.

[Enoch Root]

Originally Posted by Monahammer

We need McKenna. Stenberg is great, but what we need is McKenna. It is our time.

100%

The Flames are doing a great job of building a really deep talent pool that is gaining depth at every position. We still need another high-end C, but what we need more than anything else is high-end talent. We need 2 highly skilled offensive players, and then we're ready to start the upswing.

And McKenna is the most offensively gifted player in this draft.

[blankall]

Originally Posted by Macho0978

I think 5th pick would still be great, but it seems that the top 4 is what we need and there might be a bit of a drop at 5.

I've read Lawrence in the discussion with McKenna and Stenberg and some have Verhoeff #1. We NEED 1 of these 4 players IMO.

Fair enough.

There are still a bunch of prospects jockeying for position behind the top 4. Any one could emerge as a player on their level. This year especially it seems like a lot of things can change between now and the draft. Although, I guess that window is closing.

Obviously, the higher the pick the better. Even among a pool of 4 great prospects, it gives the Flames more control over their destiny.

The Flames are sitting second from last, with the potential to trade 3 of their top 5 scorers. The Flames should be looing at going all in on the tank this year and do it sooner than later.

[mdubz]

Originally Posted by YyjFlames

Must save this thread for arguing about whether the Flames are rebuilding or not!

Exactly. There's a thread dedicated specifically to the upcoming draft. Nothing more annoying than seeing this thread bumped and it's just people bickering about something off topic.

[YyjFlames]

Originally Posted by Royle9

In laughable news, Dougie is being touted as a "perfect fit" to land in Toronto.
Brad doing Brad things and the media just pumping his tires.

Robertson and a 5th but it has to happen now.

He's no team's perfect fit, but I could see him potentially helping Toronto if NJ ate a big chunk of his salary and probably took cap back.

It's not pushing the Leafs into Stanley Cup hopeful, but they might be able to continue to make the playoffs and get knocked out in the first round with him.

[The EBUG's EBUG]

Originally Posted by Enoch Root

100%

The Flames are doing a great job of building a really deep talent pool that is gaining depth at every position. We still need another high-end C, but what we need more than anything else is high-end talent. We need 2 highly skilled offensive players, and then we're ready to start the upswing.

And McKenna is the most offensively gifted player in this draft.

More of a draft thread conversation and quite far out but the 2027 draft has some tasty looking centers in the top 5.

If they can nail this deadline it puts them in an excellent position to pick high this year and next and ho boy you could be cooking with gas.

McKenna on Alexis Joseph's wing? Or Milan Sundström? With Reschny, Potter, Gridin, Wyttenbach, Vegas 1st in tow? A guy can dream.

[Enoch Root]

Originally Posted by Wolven

Frost is in a great position with the Flames for an overpayment. Considering our C depth and our cap structure looking ahead a couple of seasons we are going to be struggling to reach the floor if Kadri is off the books.

Currently we are sitting at $49M, without Kadri that would be $42M.
2026-27 RFAs would need to be signed: Beecher, Stromgren, Poirier, Grushnikov, etc. All pretty small potatoes
2026-27 UFAs would need to be signed or replaced: Lomberg, Kirkland, Bean. Replacing 4th liners and 3rd pair D could come from the farm or the budget bin of UFAs.
2027-28 RFAs: Klapka, Suniev
2027-28 UFAs: Frost, Coleman (gone before then)

Unless Klapka really breaks out and surprises everyone, I think most of those raises will be pretty minor (if we even retain all of these players). Which means we are going to be well below the $83.9M floor.

We could pretty easily give Frost $10M/year and still be looking for ways to add cap to get to the floor. Maybe we give him $13M for shorter term?

Holding on to Huberdeau and Sharangovich's bloated contracts is going to get more and more important over the next few seasons.

Regardless of how much cap space they have, they aren't going to give Frost $10m, obviously.

They are still in the early to mid stages of the rebuild. Having a ton of cap space next year says, to me, that the right plan would be to sign mercenaries that you can then flip at the deadline. There are always guys (like Mantha and Barrie last year) that are looking for a place to get ice time. This is the perfect time for the Flames to be doing that, and then they start looking for more permanent assets in 27 and 28

[blankall]

Originally Posted by YyjFlames

He's no team's perfect fit, but I could see him potentially helping Toronto if NJ ate a big chunk of his salary and probably took cap back.

It's not pushing the Leafs into Stanley Cup hopeful, but they might be able to continue to make the playoffs and get knocked out in the first round with him.

The Leafs seem like a bit of an aloof group already. I guess maybe Dougie Hamilton will fit in? It's a group of guys who do their job and then go home. Dougie is having an absolutely abysmal season. I guess a lot of NJ is though.

[Niemo]

I assume you are kidding about giving Frost 10-13MM on any term. To me, Frost is a trade piece next year - especially if we don't trade Kadri.

We have 4 Center spots (and shifting any of them to winger doesn't make sense because we are jammed there). Add in a young C from the draft or trade and that's our top 3 Cs. Frost is a tweener we don't need to be paying good money to.

[GioforPM]

Originally Posted by Royle9

In laughable news, Dougie is being touted as a "perfect fit" to land in Toronto.
Brad doing Brad things and the media just pumping his tires.

Robertson and a 5th but it has to happen now.

I don't think Treliving has done a good job there, but if the media is touting Hamilton, how is that on him?

[bluejays]

The salary cap issue doesn’t seem like a fit between the Leafs and Devils, but I do believe BT is probably desperate to make a splash to save his job this year. He loves building from the back end outwards, and he’s also in on anyone hyped. Would be amazing if he got Hamilton and he weighed that cap down forever.

[Beninho]

Top 3 in the draft would be great but trading Andersson almost ensures the Flames will be in the lottery for at least the next 2 years after this one imo. There will be other chances to get a franchise level forward and other very good players in this drafts top 10. I won't lose sleep over the Flames picking 6-10, history is always against this franchise with the lottery balls too so can't rely on those.

[ComixZone]

Originally Posted by Niemo

I assume you are kidding about giving Frost 10-13MM on any term. To me, Frost is a trade piece next year - especially if we don't trade Kadri.

We have 4 Center spots (and shifting any of them to winger doesn't make sense because we are jammed there). Add in a young C from the draft or trade and that's our top 3 Cs. Frost is a tweener we don't need to be paying good money to.

God we need to trade Kadri.

It makes zero sense to keep him around. We’ve got Backlund, we’ve got Weegar. The kids are in good hands.

[BigThief]

Originally Posted by GioforPM

I don't think Treliving has done a good job there, but if the media is touting Hamilton, how is that on him?

Wizard powers

[Johnny Makarov]

holy crap. 15 pages in 3 days.

Great writeup about Douglas Hamilton though.

[Tbull8]

Originally Posted by Beninho

Top 3 in the draft would be great but trading Andersson almost ensures the Flames will be in the lottery for at least the next 2 years after this one imo. There will be other chances to get a franchise level forward and other very good players in this drafts top 10. I won't lose sleep over the Flames picking 6-10, history is always against this franchise with the lottery balls too so can't rely on those.

100%. Any combo of this years top 5-10 with a Joseph, Privalov, or Dupont next year will set this team up for years

[Niemo]

Originally Posted by ComixZone

God we need to trade Kadri.

It makes zero sense to keep him around. We’ve got Backlund, we’ve got Weegar. The kids are in good hands.

If it were up to me, Kadri wouldve been gone last deadline, Coleman and Ras gone before the Olympic freeze. Heck Weegar wouldve been gona last deadline too.

[Macho0978]

Originally Posted by Tbull8

100%. Any combo of this years top 5-10 with a Joseph, Privalov, or Dupont next year will set this team up for years

The problem is can you guarantee the Flames are bottom 3 next year?

They are bottom 3 right now and there are 35 games left. NYR could keep falling but most the teams just ahead of the Flames will not be making big rebuilding trades. Winnipeg resigned their best players and normally are a very good team.

35 games left and it's a race between Vancouver, Calgary and St Louis. Other teams IMO just are not going to make massive sell everything moves other than maybe the NYR, but they have a bit of a lead on the Flames and Shesterkin won't be traded when he gets back.

[Tbull8]

Originally Posted by Niemo

If it were up to me, Kadri wouldve been gone last deadline, Coleman and Ras gone before the Olympic freeze. Heck Weegar wouldve been gona last deadline too.

For anything? thats horrible asset management