2025/2026 Season Trade Rumours and Speculation Thread

[SuperMatt18]

Originally Posted by Major Major

Actually this is kind of reminding me of Sharky's first year here. Extremely tentative start but I think he'll find his game. There is a player in there.

Sharangovich's struggles have a bit to do with role and linemates I think, as with a lot of the forwards on this team they just haven't really found a combination of consistent lines that work for them.

His best position is LW...but he's shifted to RW if he gets minutes with Huberdeau and Kadri and that's proven to not be effective.

He's actually worked quite well in limited minutes with Backlund and Coleman (71% xGF) but the coaches tend to like Coronato or Honzek to be in that spot.

Which has kind of left him in a weird spot with Frost, Zary, and others in what's been a bit of a mish mash of a third line, or then stuck on a 4th line with Lomberg + Kirkland/Rooney which isn't a fit for any other forward.

Down the stretch last year he had some success wth Frost-Pospisil, and with Kerins-Pelletier but with lots of those guys not on the roster right now they haven't been able to find something that works.

I post lots of lines here but I do think there are too many similar forwards on this team at times (Zary, Frost, Sharangovich, Coronato) and too often they end up playing together.

Need to do that old Nintendo hockey line combinations and have Playmaker - Finisher - Grinder types of combos.

Huberdeau - Kadri - Klapka (Playmaker - Finisher - Grinder)
Sharangovich - Backlund - Coleman (Finisher - Playmaker - Grinder)
Farabee - Frost - Coronato (Grinder - Playmaker - Finisher)
Honzek - Zary - Pospisil (Finisher - Playmaker - Grinder)

[Jay Random]

Originally Posted by Monahammer

Man when you take a break from defending pedos and hating trans people, you really lose your cool.

OK, I'm done with you. I have never in my life defended paedophiles, I don't hate trans people – I hate cheating in women's sports, or any sports – and you owe me one massive apology for those insults. I know I'll never receive it, but it just shows that you have no arguments at all except for insults. Facts, logic, mean nothing to you. Piss off.

[Jay Random]

Originally Posted by Monahammer

That was my post that Jay started to get angry about and set all of this off. You can see it's not complaining. I even say that I believe it will be different in the post. Y'all are humorless and just rude.

You were being obviously sarcastic, as the reference to Lucy and the football absolutely proves. You don't get to weasel out of that.

According to you, everything the Flames do is wrong, and everyone who disagrees with you is not only stupid but evil. You're disgusting.

[jaydub74]

Originally Posted by Aarongavey

How do you choose not to trade Kadri when he had a NMC and indicated that he did not want to be traded. We have gone over this many times and you somehow do not understand that you cannot trade somebody who refuses to be traded.

He no longer has a NMC, this year it downgrades to a NTC with 14 teams (if I remember correctly).

[Jay Random]

Originally Posted by jaydub74

He no longer has a NMC, this year it downgrades to a NTC with 14 teams (if I remember correctly).

And now there is plenty of talk about trading Kadri. But several posters were constantly harping on Conroy to trade him last year, when he had a full NMC.

[Jason14h]

The two assets that have a chance to bring a A- type prospect would be Kadri and Weegar IMO. That’s why you trade Weegar

By the time we are competing he will be old and more then likely not as good

This is where I think the Flames need to make a hard decision and commit to the rebuild fully

Late 1sts are fine and all , but the odds of them being impact players is very low .

By trading Weegar you can go for a top prospect AND increase the odds of improving your most valuable asset going forward - your own 1st round pick

[Strange Brew]

Originally Posted by SuperMatt18

Sharangovich's struggles have a bit to do with role and linemates I think, as with a lot of the forwards on this team they just haven't really found a combination of consistent lines that work for them.

His best position is LW...but he's shifted to RW if he gets minutes with Huberdeau and Kadri and that's proven to not be effective.

He's actually worked quite well in limited minutes with Backlund and Coleman (71% xGF) but the coaches tend to like Coronato or Honzek to be in that spot.

Which has kind of left him in a weird spot with Frost, Zary, and others in what's been a bit of a mish mash of a third line, or then stuck on a 4th line with Lomberg + Kirkland/Rooney which isn't a fit for any other forward.

Down the stretch last year he had some success wth Frost-Pospisil, and with Kerins-Pelletier but with lots of those guys not on the roster right now they haven't been able to find something that works.

I post lots of lines here but I do think there are too many similar forwards on this team at times (Zary, Frost, Sharangovich, Coronato) and too often they end up playing together.

Need to do that old Nintendo hockey line combinations and have Playmaker - Finisher - Grinder types of combos.

Huberdeau - Kadri - Klapka (Playmaker - Finisher - Grinder)
Sharangovich - Backlund - Coleman (Finisher - Playmaker - Grinder)
Farabee - Frost - Coronato (Grinder - Playmaker - Finisher)
Honzek - Zary - Pospisil (Finisher - Playmaker - Grinder)

Well I do think with how this team is struggling to score, it might be time to bury the concept of an energy line for the 4th line. That changes things and gets some more skill in the lineup.

I also think they’re going to have to find some room in the lineup for Gridin before Christmas at the latest. Some of the young players need to start building chemistry together at the NHL level. And with so many of the skill players performing poorly, there’s no shortage of room for him.

[Jay Random]

Originally Posted by Jason14h

The two assets that have a chance to bring a A- type prospect would be Kadri and Weegar IMO. That’s why you trade Weegar

That leaves Bahl as the closest thing to a good veteran NHL defenceman on the roster. That's not a good environment for young defencemen to learn in.

That's why you don't trade Weegar.

[ComixZone]

In the last 3 years, these are what the Wild Card spots required:

24/25: 97 Points (96 w/tie breaker)
23/24: 92 Points
22/23: 95 Points

To hit those marks, the Flames would need to go:

Low-End (92 Points): 41-25-4, .614
Middle (95 Points): 42-23-5, .636
High-End (98 Poionts): 43-22-5, .657

Does any of that seem reasonable?

How many teams played at a .614 level last season? Nine.
How many teams played at a .636 level last season? Six.
How many teams played at a .657 level last season? Four.

Effectively, the Flames would have to be a Top-10 team to even have a chance at a playoff spot, if the Wild Card spot requirements aligns with the lowest of the last 3 years. Currently the Wild Card teams are playing at .636 and .611. (Anaheim and Dallas hold them currently at a point percentage level).

Does anyone actually see that as being possible?

In my eyes the selling should/needs to begin in November. Be the first to the market - we’ve got likely the best known quantities on the market (or to be on the market), and I think there’s value in moving proactively rather than waiting for the market to start populating with players that may draw interest away.

[PaperBagger'14]

Originally Posted by Jay Random

That leaves Bahl as the closest thing to a good veteran NHL defenceman on the roster. That's not a good environment for young defencemen to learn in.

That's why you don't trade Weegar.

Agreed. Weegar has shown he can be a top pair defender and was getting consideration last year for team Canada. He has value as a mentor and as a shield for the younger D.

Unless the plan is to lose as many games as possible, which I highly doubt is the case, we are better off with Weegar on the team.

[Jason14h]

Originally Posted by Jay Random

That leaves Bahl as the closest thing to a good veteran NHL defenceman on the roster. That's not a good environment for young defencemen to learn in.

That's why you don't trade Weegar.

As long as we keep developing a winning culture who needs to win !

[Jason14h]

Originally Posted by PaperBagger'14

Agreed. Weegar has shown he can be a top pair defender and was getting consideration last year for team Canada. He has value as a mentor and as a shield for the younger D.

Unless the plan is to lose as many games as possible, which I highly doubt is the case, we are better off with Weegar on the team.

Of course we’re better off with Weegar ! That’s why he has the value to bring back a top prospect !

I truly wonder how some people here think we will ever acquire top players without being bad or trading our assets that can return players who can turn into that

Late firsts and 2nds aren’t going to cut it

[NegativeSpace]

Originally Posted by ComixZone

In the last 3 years, these are what the Wild Card spots required:

24/25: 97 Points (96 w/tie breaker)
23/24: 92 Points
22/23: 95 Points

To hit those marks, the Flames would need to go:

Low-End (92 Points): 41-25-4, .614
Middle (95 Points): 42-23-5, .636
High-End (98 Poionts): 43-22-5, .657

Does any of that seem reasonable?

How many teams played at a .614 level last season? Nine.
How many teams played at a .636 level last season? Six.
How many teams played at a .657 level last season? Four.

Effectively, the Flames would have to be a Top-10 team to even have a chance at a playoff spot, if the Wild Card spot requirements aligns with the lowest of the last 3 years. Currently the Wild Card teams are playing at .636 and .611. (Anaheim and Dallas hold them currently at a point percentage level).

Does anyone actually see that as being possible?

It's possible. Whether it is i likely is a different question. I'm cutting from SuperMatt's post elsewhere:


SuperMatt:

I think the real question from Conroy and staff will be can they get close to .500 by Dec 1 which is 15 games from now.

Flames next 10 games are a bit easier competition wise, but more road heavy and a fair bit of travel with a bit of a weird schedule of 2 road games alternated by 2 home games.

@Predators
@Flyers (B2B w/ travel)
Blue Jackets
Blackhawks
@Wild
@Blues
Sharks
Jets
@Blackhawks
@Sabres

But then it's a bit tougher again competition wise to end November. Whey they come back for one home game, before travelling West to Vancouver, before heading South East.

Stars
@Canucks (B2B w/travel)
@Lightning
@Panthers
@Hurricanes

In order to get back to .500 they need to play 10-4-1 hockey which seems really tough with that schedule, especially with the split being 10 road games and 5 home games.

Even if they play just .500 hockey though thaty would leave them at 9-15-3 and that would pretty much mean they are done (would need a .693 point percentage just to get to 90 points.

At some point over these next 15 games Conroy will have his definitive answer for this season and my guess is that's when trade action starts to pick up - between Dec 1 and the Olympic break.

I think that he's right about December 1st. So, the team in my opinion needs to rattle off a few multiple game winning streaks over the next bit to get back to flirting with "possibility".

[FBI]

I would keep Weegar to mentor Parekh.. They had such a great start together last year, why not put them together now!

[ComixZone]

Originally Posted by NegativeSpace

It's possible. Whether it is i likely is a different question. I'm cutting from SuperMatt's post elsewhere:


SuperMatt:


I think that he's right about December 1st. So, the team in my opinion needs to rattle off a few multiple game winning streaks over the next bit to get back to flirting with "possibility".

In all likelihood, the pursuit of such a path ("steady as she goes, we'll turn this around") likely returns nothing of any real value to the team as a whole.

What did the team learn from last year? Immediate returns show that year-to-year 'culture' is exactly valueless.

Maintaining the course in hopes of a course correction does not yield any tangible, significant results. Miss the playoffs, with a mushy-middle draft pick preventing the team from having a better chance at obtaining the top-end talent that it actually requires - or perhaps just sneaking into the playoffs, where know the odds of any success are next to none.

Change course, completely embrace the idea of the lost season - because that's what it is.

[Jay Random]

Originally Posted by Jason14h

As long as we keep developing a winning culture who needs to win !

Your sarcasm shows that you don't understand what the term ‘winning culture’ even means.

[Jiri Hrdina]

Originally Posted by Jason14h

Of course we’re better off with Weegar ! That’s why he has the value to bring back a top prospect !

I truly wonder how some people here think we will ever acquire top players without being bad or trading our assets that can return players who can turn into that

Late firsts and 2nds aren’t going to cut it

I think most people understand that but it's not an all or nothing approach.
Particularly for defense, I think you need someone around who can help develop these guys.

[Jay Random]

Originally Posted by ComixZone

What did the team learn from last year? Immediate returns show that year-to-year 'culture' is exactly valueless.

Culture isn't about immediate returns. You appear not to understand the concept either.

If you think the Flames' young players got no benefit from playing meaningful games right to the end of the regular season and dealing with daily pressure, then I question your judgement about anything to do with the psychology of athletes or the development of players.

Maintaining the course in hopes of a course correction does not yield any tangible, significant results. Miss the playoffs, with a mushy-middle draft pick preventing the team from having a better chance at obtaining the top-end talent that it actually requires - or perhaps just sneaking into the playoffs, where know the odds of any success are next to none.

Change course.

They're already on course for dead last in the league. What more change could they possibly make?

[Jason14h]

Originally Posted by Jiri Hrdina

I think most people understand that but it's not an all or nothing approach.
Particularly for defense, I think you need someone around who can help develop these guys.

I’m sure they can find a cap dump veteran or overpay a FA to mentor Parekh and the young D prospect we get for Weegar !

And you know - coaches - which is their job

And I’m sure Weegar is going to stay completely positive and want to mentor rookies on a team with no chance to do anything for the rest of his prime !

Theres probably a bigger risk of him checking out and setting a bad example

That’s why teams bring in past their prime role players to mentor usually

[Jay Random]

Originally Posted by Jason14h

I’m sure they can find a cap dump veteran or overpay a FA to mentor Parekh and the young D prospect we get for Weegar !

You don't learn to play good defence from a bad defenceman. Cap dump veterans and overpaid free agents are not good mentors. All they can do is teach the bad habits that got them dumped by their previous teams.

And you know - coaches - which is their job

Coaches can't teach by example. Neither Huska nor any other coach is going to put on gear and play a regular shift on D to show Parekh how it's done.

And I’m sure Weegar is going to stay completely positive and want to mentor rookies on a team with no chance to do anything for the rest of his prime !

Why not? He's done that admirably so far.