The Flames announced they’ve signed defenseman Joel Hanley to a two-year, $3.5MM extension worth $1.75MM per season. He was set to become a UFA at 11:00 a.m. Central. PuckPedia reports he’ll earn $1.25MM in base salary and a $500,00 signing bonus in 2025-26 and a $1.75MM base salary in 2026-27.
Hanley, 34, was a waiver claim back in March 2024 from the Stars. A solid No. 7/8 option for Dallas for six years, they didn’t have room for him on the roster after acquiring Chris Tanev at that year’s trade deadline. Calgary took advantage and added the veteran, who was in the first year of a two-year, $1.575MM contract, for added depth through this past season.
He ended up playing a bigger role than the Flames expected, making a career-high 53 appearances this past season. He also averaged a career-high 18:35 per game when dressed, providing two goals and nine points. Offense has never been the focus of the 5’11” lefty’s game at the pro level, but he had quite good possession impacts across the board with a +12 rating, a 52.2 CF%, and 54.8 xGF% at even strength.
The Ontario native is a great third-pairing option and even a fringe top-four one at that price point, especially for a Calgary squad whose only NHL-caliber lefties in the system without him were Kevin Bahl, Jake Bean, and Ilya Solovyov. Adding or retaining depth was a major priority for them today, and they got some business done early with this deal.
Calgary has a full active roster after signing Hanley, but has a few waiver candidates like Dryden Hunt, Daniil Miromanov, and Solovyov included in that count. They have plenty of cap space left ($18.07MM) to get new deals done for RFAs Morgan Frost and Connor Zary while making external additions today if they can.
Flames are starved for goals but I don’t expect them to do much, save for a couple depth players.