2025/2026 Season Trade Rumours and Speculation Thread

[CliffFletcher]

Originally Posted by SuperMatt18

Hmm, retaining $10.5M is a tall ask TBH.

I'd expect a huge return if they are getting Kadri for $3.5M.

If the return is a 1st + Propsect then I'm not sure I'd be willing to retain 50%.

If I'm retaining 50% and paying $10.5M for him to help you win a cup then I'd want another 1st round pick on top of that.

My guess is teams are willing to pay the price Conroy wants for Kadri without retention, but want retention.

And aren't willing to pay the price that Conroy actually would want for full retention.

My guess is for most teams Kadri without retention is a non-starter. Everything COL has been doing for the last couple years has been with one eye to the $$$$ it will cost to re-sign Makar. If taking on Kadri's full cap hit jeopardizes that, they won't do it.

[Jiri Hrdina]

Originally Posted by Ashasx

It depends on the amount of retention. If the Flames aren't willing to retain even a little bit on that contract, they can't expect to trade him (or trade him for value). Retention is a necessity to entertain a trade to begin with.

Doesn't make sense to me why they can't retain on Kadri and take a contract back when trading Coleman

I've said this before. Teams often don't want to deduct from their roster. They want to add. And it's not just about retention this year, they want to manage their cap risk in the next 3 years. If you look at the likely teams and try to find a player that
- Has a similar cap hit
- Has similar term
- The team would want to dump.

It ain't easy to find a fit.

EDIT: If they take a player back on Coleman it's really only about this year and next.

[TheIronMaiden]

Originally Posted by Rhett44

Also for everyone who is saying we will get more in the off season. Dreger just said he believes there is a good chance Kadri's stock drops considerably in the off season and for next year.

My read isn't that this is the motivation. The Flames only have 1 retention spot for this season. Conroy and team are doing the math for which gets you more in return.

Option A) Coleman retained, Kadri not retained ( potentially unable to be moved)

Option B) Kadri Retained, Coleman not retained ( potentially unable to be moved)

Option C) wait to trade either Kadri or Coleman in the summer/ next year, when another retention spot opens up.

Option D) Take back dog #### contracts that will get in the way when this team is trying to be competitive.

Because there is a lot of different pathways, there is going to be a lot of conflicting information.

[SuperMatt18]

Originally Posted by savardandjokinen

Per Dreger

Kadri - one team in west and one team in east with decent offers that he will not go to. Avs and Habs would jump immediately if Conroy would retain. There is a pecking order and Kadri is behind Trocheck and Thomas. Unwillingness to retain and not sure if that will change between now and Friday afternoon. Offers are "reasonable".

My guess is Utah is that team in the West, and either Buffalo or Carolina in the East.

Kind of funny that Kadri leveraging his NTC might screw us over a second time, but this time we are on the trading side of the equation instead of the buying side of the equation.

[howard_the_duck]

Originally Posted by TheIronMaiden

My read isn't that this is the motivation. The Flames only have 1 retention spot for this season. Conroy and team are doing the math for which gets you more in return.

Option A) Coleman retained, Kadri not retained ( potentially unable to be moved)

Option B) Kadri Retained, Coleman not retained ( potentially unable to be moved)

Option C) wait to trade either Kadri or Coleman in the summer/ next year, when another retention spot opens up.

Option D) Take back dog #### contracts that will get in the way when this team is trying to be competitive.

Because there is a lot of different pathways, there is going to be a lot of conflicting information.

Also weighing the offers you think you could get for moving Coleman now, Kadri next season, and vice versa.

One retention slot might mean you just move one of them. Who fetches more now by comparison to waiting?

[Otto-matic]

Originally Posted by Ashasx

It depends on the amount of retention. If the Flames aren't willing to retain even a little bit on that contract, they can't expect to trade him (or trade him for value). Retention is a necessity to entertain a trade to begin with.

Doesn't make sense to me why they can't retain on Kadri and take a contract back when trading Coleman

But also taking a player back that doesn't help the flames in the future doesn't make sense either as a cap dump. You might as well keep Coleman and dangle him again in the summer.

[Jason14h]

There could also be a wait Kadri out component to this . On Friday if the only teams willing to trade for him are less desirable does he waive to get out of Calgary

I imagine he has his heart set on Colorado but once / if it’s clear they are out maybe he changes his tune

[Ashasx]

Originally Posted by Jiri Hrdina

I've said this before. Teams often don't want to deduct from their roster. They want to add. And it's not just about retention this year, they want to manage their cap risk in the next 3 years. If you look at the likely teams and try to find a player that
- Has a similar cap hit
- Has similar term
- The team would want to dump.

It ain't easy to find a fit.

If that's correct, then they better hit the Coleman trade out of the park because I just don't see Kadri's value increasing beyond this TDL. Leverage the Coleman trade and sacrifice a bit of the potential Kadri trade.

[TheIronMaiden]

Originally Posted by howard_the_duck

Also weighing the offers you think you could get for moving Coleman now, Kadri next season, and vice versa.

One retention slot might mean you just move one of them. Who fetches more now by comparison to waiting?

Yeah, lots of soothsaying. Tough to speak in absolutes until 1-2 years from now.

[Buff]

Does anyone know if the Flames have double checked that their fax machine is fully operational and well maintained? I'd hate for it to fail on deadline day.

[ResAlien]

Big picture here is that keeping a dissatisfied and checked out Kadri will certainly help the tank. It will also likely continue to depress his value the longer the player is here but meh we suck anyway so nbd if we don’t get value on what seems to be our most valuable moveable asset. Sometimes life gives you lemons and you just suck on lemons.

[Macho0978]

Originally Posted by Rhett44

Dreger just confirmed again on Barn Burner that Kadri would be gone if Conroy was willing to retain salary. But at this point we are not willing to retain salary.

What a joke lol.

I agree. 3 years of RS and 2 open spots for next year changes his value dramatically in a trade.

Other than Parekh, we have 0 current Flames that will get huge money. If we lucked out and got McKenna/Stenberg, their ELC is up when Kadri RS is up.

I don't know why he won't look at it unless Murray says no. Flames are getting close to enough players gone that we might not need to RS on many more players in a trade anyways.

[savardandjokinen]

After playing Dallas last night and looking more at their roster, their bottom 6 is underratedly bad. Coleman makes too much sense for them.

Top 6: Rantanen, Robertson, Hintz, Johnston, Duchene, Benn
Bottom 6 (and beyond): Steel, Bourque, Back, Blackwell, Faksa, Hryckowian, Erne, Bastian

I think their roster looks a lot better with a Bourque-Steel-Coleman third line

[TheIronMaiden]

Coleman is such a stud, I have convinced myself that a forward group of 12 Colemans would win the cup.

[Royle9]

Originally Posted by Rhett44

Dreger just confirmed again on Barn Burner that Kadri would be gone if Conroy was willing to retain salary. But at this point we are not willing to retain salary.

What a joke lol.

Yep, sounds accurate to what I said just 2 pages back.
I don't think his value will go up for the rest of its existence sadly.
Last year and this year are it in terms of real value, especially if CGY continues the re-biggle.

Shame.

[Niemo]

To those of you who keep saying we can wait until next offseason for Kadri and/or Coleman - technically you are right, but I disagree whole heartedly that offers will improve. We aren't holding onto 30 year olds here. Next year, they will be 36 and 35 yrs old and most likely worse than this year.

Trade them now! While I am not an insider - nor does my word mean anything in reality - I can at least guarantee you the cycle of narrative won't change:

@Trade Deadline
Narrative: We can hold him and trade him at the draft when we can retain and we will get more when other teams have cap space.
Truth (at the draft): Everyone wants to hold their draft picks unless it's an undeniable core piece. Offers are worse or no 1st round picks. Teams also wait to see what they can get on the UFA market.

@UFA Time:
Narrative: Teams that miss out on players will want to trade for them and will be willing to pay the price.
Truth (after July 1st): Teams that miss out will be spending the next 2 months poking around other teams and seeing what they have internally and giving some younger players a chance to push. Also, they may want to see that the old guys (Kadri/Coleman's) haven't lost a step.

@Early Season
Narrative: A team will get an injury and be willing to pay the price for our old guys - otherwise, we can just wait until the deadline where prices are at it's highest. We don't HAVE to trade our guys now, they have term.
Truth: At the deadline is where this cycle starts over again. It's an issue if our guy is a UFA because teams don't want a rental, they want term AND it's an issue when our guy has term because they want cap flexibility in the future.

Fun times.....

[Bingo]

Originally Posted by Jiri Hrdina

Me too. I'm not that worried about how much of a chance they get, because if they are middle 6 forwards (which I doubt), they are adequate at best.

The pipeline for forwards (particularly winger) is good but just not ready. I don't think anyone that is impactful is being held back. Gridin is getting a lot of opportunity, and he's the only one right now I think that is NHL ready.

Suniev is getting better as the season progresses in the AHL, but he needs more time.

Exactly.

I'm certainly not anti-youth ... I'm just not promote and give ice to someone that isn't ready.

The team seems to be pretty good at assessing things.

Honzek went from not making the team to carving out a big role.
Kuznetsov went from not making the team to a top four defenseman.
Gridin went from making the team, to more seasoning to PP1 and top six.

That's not a team holding anyone back.

I think if the argument was framed for what it was ... fans want action, they want trades and they get frustrated and lash out when they may not happen it would be a much calmer discussion.

[gvitaly]

Originally Posted by sureLoss

The hotel incident was 2023.

The substance abuse program violation was 2024.

Both incidents took him out of the playoffs in those years.

As to why now? Making room for Makar. Plus it looks like Landeskog is healthy for the first time in years. Also wouldn't be surprised if there were more incidents that the team managed to keep out of the public eye behind the scenes.

Nichushkin actually spoke about the hotel incident in a Russian interview 2 offseasons ago.

Regarding the Seattle incident. It was a very difficult season. We had a bunch of injuries after the cup. I missed 2 months after undergoing surgery to get my Bursitis removed. When I returned from Finland in February we had an extremely tight schedule. We probably set the record for back to backs, because we had at least 3 consecutive back to backs, with more upcoming. March was pretty similar. I had another shoulder injury that was bothering me, and was really interfering with my sleep schedule. I was getting injections that were helping me through it. When we arrived in Seattle the team and I decided that I wouldn't be playing the game, and fly out to get an injection instead. It just so happens I had friends in town, and I knew I wasn't going to play any more games in that round, because you need to rest some time after the injections for them to have an effect. As you know when you're barely getting any sleep, and are constantly in pain it takes a toll on your mental health. So emotionally I wanted the whole thing to be over with. In hindsight I made a bad decision, and I went out with friends. I flew out of town on the next morning. The whole situation with that woman actually had nothing to do with me. It's a shame the team didn't make it into the next round because I would've been playing. Eventually the media blew everything out of proportion. I decided not to comment because of my mental state at the time. The club was also telling me to not pay it any attention. Telling me not to say anything, so it doesn't make any news headlines again. I think that was the wrong decision. I should've addressed it right away, so people don't make up their own stories.

The guy won a Stanley cup on a broken foot that required 10 screws to fix. I don't think anyone can question his actual compete level. As far as the substance abuse program, I don't think he has spoken in depth about it, but I'm guessing that pain management after a long cup run with drugs that make you feel superhuman is the culprit.

I think Nichushkin would be a very big piece for COL to lose, and a lot of teams need exactly that type of player in the playoffs. One that can shut down the opposition, play physical, and add some scoring.

[Bingo]

Originally Posted by Rhett44

Dreger just confirmed again on Barn Burner that Kadri would be gone if Conroy was willing to retain salary. But at this point we are not willing to retain salary.

What a joke lol.

We've pretty much summarized the one slot two players needing retention about a half dozen times this morning.

[Willi Plett]

Originally Posted by Rhett44

Dreger just confirmed again on Barn Burner that Kadri would be gone if Conroy was willing to retain salary. But at this point we are not willing to retain salary.

What a joke lol.

Well, there is one retention spot. If Coleman is attracting better offers than Kadri is, and retention is needed on those deals, then why would Conroy retain on Kadri?

I would think that is one of the hold ups. The Flames are trying to move both players with the combined best return, but have to choose one to retain on. So you’re waiting on better offers on either without the retention and/or an even better offer on one with the retention.

The demand for Coleman has been rumored to be high, but I would presume those offers are based on retention.

Would you retain on Kadri to take a subpar offer and torpedo the potential Coleman deals? Kadri has more years left - can move him at the draft or even the next trade deadline. Now, if offers for Kadri with retention are far better than Coleman and a good deal for Coleman that doesn’t need retention is on the table, then maybe it goes that way.

As early as 2-3 weeks ago, I recall one of the media saying we might only be able to move one or the other, simply because the Flames run out of time at the deadline. I didn’t understand that early observation at the time, but I do now. The best deal for either player may come too close to the deadline and use retention. Maybe you could get the 2nd deal done if you could find a 3rd team to take retention, but then is there time to pull that together still?

At the end of the day, it is the combined value for both players, and moving either one without retention is not likely to get the best offer. So you’re playing a waiting game on offers on both with and without retention. If the offer on X without retention is garbage, you only move one of them.

Seems prudent to me.