Flames Could Be Aiming To Sign Several College Players Late In 26-27 Season
- This season, the Flames signed multiple college prospects late in the year and that might be the plan next season as well. Flames Nation’s Ryan Pyke mentions (Twitter link) that forwards Cole Reschny, Cullen Potter, and Ethan Wyttenbach are all candidates to sign late in the season; accordingly, Calgary will need to leave ample room on the 50-contract limit and factor that into their offseason planning. Reschny and Potter were first-round picks last season while Wyttenbach, a fifth-round selection, was a Hobey Baker Award finalist in his first NCAA campaign.
Afternoon Notes: Stone, Devils, Korczak
The hole in the Vegas Golden Knights lineup will remain as they head into Game 2 of the Western Conference Finals. Winger Mark Stone will miss his fifth-straight game with a lower-body injury sustained in Game 3 of the second round, per Jesse Granger of The Athletic. He had three goals and seven points in nine playoff games prior to his injury.
Stone continues to fill a top role with the Golden Knights when healthy. He finished the regular season with 28 goals and 73 points in 60 games – a full-season pace of 39 goals and 100 points. Vegas has bumped Pavel Dorofeyev up to the top-line, and added Brandon Saad to the lineup, in Stone’s absence. Dorofeyev has excelled, with six goals and seven points since Stone went down. Saad has two assists, including on the opening goal of the Western Conference Finals. Vegas will continue to bank on their production while Stone targets a Game 3 return.
Other notes around the hockey world:
- The New Jersey Devils have picked up their third-year option with the ECHL’s Adirondack Thunder per a team announcement. New Jersey began their affiliation with the Thunder in the 2017-18 season, two seasons after the club relocated to the city in place of the Stockton Flames. Adirondack has made the postseason in five of their seven seasons in partnership with the Devils, going as far as the Conference Finals twice. They were knocked out of the 2026 Kelly Cup Playoffs in a first round series that went to seven games and featured three overtimes. Their lineup was led by Devils’ defense prospect Jeremy Hanzel and goaltender Jeremy Brodeur, son of Devils legend Martin Brodeur.
- Former New York Rangers prospect Ryder Korczak will continue his career in Slovakia’s top league. He has signed a one-year contract with HC Slovan Bratislava of the Tipsport Liga per a team announcement. Korczak spent last season on a one-year deal with Vlci Zilina. He finished the year with a team-leading 21 goals, and 44 total points, in 52 games played. The 2021 third-round pick was unable to continue his scoring spark into the AHL. He racked up 35 points in 117 games across two seasons with the Hartford Wolf Pack – and 10 games with the Syracuse Crunch. Korczak was a premier junior scorer, racking up 246 points in 248 games across six seasons in the WHL. He seems to have found the same spark overseas and should move into a key role on a Bratislava squad that finished second in Slovakia this season.
Flames Sign Kirill Zarubin To Entry-Level Contract
The Calgary Flames have signed goaltender Kirill Zarubin to a three-year, entry-level contract per Pat Steinberg of Sportsnet 960. The 2024 third-round draft pick spent last season in the MHL, Russia’s junior league. He was named an MHL All-Star and finished the season with 26 wins and a .930 save percentage in 48 games played. Those marks ranked fourth and 13th among 81 goalies with more than 10 games played.
Calgary acquired the draft pick used to select Zarubin in the 2024 trade that sent Noah Hanifin to the Vegas Golden Knights. The Flames used that pick to draft their fourth goaltender, and their third out of Russia, since 2020.
Zarubin brings long legs and a quickness in the crease. Those traits helped him stand out despite filling a split role through parts of the last three seasons with Chicago Blackhawks prospect Ilya Kanarsky. The duo backstopped an AKM Tula squad that made it to – but lost – the MHL semi-finals in all four seasons under their helm.
Zarubin will step onto a crowded Flames depth chart. Eight different goaltenders played games for Calgary’s AHL and ECHL affiliates last season. Zarubin will likely head to the latter to help ease his transition into the pro flight. His addition will provide more stability to Arsenii Sergeev as he moves into a full-time AHL role.
Byron Froese Expected To Retire
According to a report from Dmitry Storozhev of Championat, forward Byron Froese is expected to retire following Lokomotiv Yaroslavl’s second consecutive Gagarin Cup championship. Froese has spent the past two years in the KHL after a successful 12-year career in North America.
Speaking to the outlet after Game 6, Froese said, “I don’t know, I need time. I’ll probably finish, but you can never say never. I just need some rest. I’ve only been home for about two months in the last two years. So I need time to think and discuss it with my family.”
Froese, 35, began his professional career in 2009 when he was selected with the 119th overall pick of that summer’s draft by the Chicago Blackhawks. After spending a few more years in the WHL with the Everett Silvertips and Red Deer Rebels, Froese made the jump to professional play for the 2011-12 season. For the first several years of his career, Froese split his time between the AHL and ECHL.
Failing to carve out a path in the Blackhawks organization, Froese signed as an AHL free agent with the Toronto Marlies and was signed to a standard NHL contract by the Toronto Maple Leafs a year later. Having his contract upgraded wasn’t a surprise, given Froese scored 18 goals and 42 points in 46 games with the Marlies with a +22 rating.
In Toronto, Froese enjoyed his longest stay in the NHL over a single season. During the 2014-15 campaign, Froese appeared in 56 games for the Maple Leafs, scoring two goals and five points with a -11 rating, averaging 12:38 of ice time per game. Next season, toward the trade deadline, Froese was included in the trade package to the Tampa Bay Lightning in the deal that sent Brian Boyle to Toronto.
That trade was the starting point of a nomadic portion of Froese’s career. From the 2017-18 campaign to the 2022-23 season, Froese played in the Lightning, Montreal Canadiens, Philadelphia Flyers, Calgary Flames, and Vegas Golden Knights organizations. His last appearance in the NHL came during the 2023-24 season with the Golden Knights, when Froese registered one assist in 16 contests.
If this is the end, Froese will finish with seven goals and 20 points in 141 games with a -15 rating. Additionally, he’s credited with 142 goals and 312 points in 513 AHL contests, somehow finishing with a net-zero rating. Sadly, Froese never achieved champion status at any level in North America, but he can at least retire with two Gagarin Cup rings.
We at PHR congratulate Froese on carving out a career that spanned two continents over 15 seasons, and wish him the best on his next chapter if he does hang up his skates this summer.
Latest On Connor Zary
A welcome addition has returned to the Avalanche lineup, as Artturi Lehkonen is back tonight for Game 1 against Vegas as they’re missing superstar Cale Makar.
The last time the forward played, his Avalanche dropped Game 3 to Minnesota, at the time looking like a series which could have been much more interesting than it eventually became. While he was out Joel Kiviranta slotted in, a scratch tonight as he did not find the score sheet in limited usage.
Always a dependable role player who excels in every area, Lehkonen joins the second line, centered by Brock Nelson and opposite Nicolas Roy. Colorado handled business while he was away dealing with an upper-body injury, but with six points in seven playoff games, Lehkonen is a key factor who steps up consistently in the playoffs. This will be the third time the 30-year-old skates in the Conference Final, first doing so with Montreal, and in both times his team moved along to play for the Stanley Cup.
Elsewhere across the league:
- In an article where he looked into Calgary Flames trade candidates this summer, Anthony DiMarco of The Daily Faceoff wrote on forward Connor Zary’s unhappiness within his role, playing on the wing instead of down the middle. The 24-year-old, a first round selection back in 2020, on paper fits into the Flames plans as they move into what could be an aggressive rebuild over the next few years. However, posting just 25 points on the season, his development has stalled out in Alberta, raising the need for a fresh start elsewhere. There’s no shortage of similar players who offer a potential 1-1 swap, perhaps even a young defenseman for Calgary’s needs, but Zary’s $3.78MM AAV, carrying through the 2027-28 season, would be a factor in any discussion.
- The Vancouver Canucks reportedly rejected a team from interviewing their AHL head coach Manny Malhotra, according to TSN’s Mike Johnson on yesterday’s edition of OverDrive. After much speculation ended in an internal promotion for their general manager position (Ryan Johnson) it could be the same behind the bench, after Adam Foote was fired yesterday. Let go after just one year, of course it was a brutal season, but the decision suggests that the Canucks have somebody in mind who they’d not be willing to lose this summer. Assuming Johnson’s suspicions to be true, it very well might be the longtime NHLer who played as a Canuck from 2010-2013. An assistant at the NHL level with Vancouver as well as the Maple Leafs, Malhotra took over in AHL Abbotsford in 2024, leading them to their first Calder Cup title alongside Johnson. Connections not ending there, his son, Caleb Malhotra, is gathering noise as a possible selection of the team at third overall in the draft next month should they target a center.
Flames Open To Moving Nearly Everyone This Offseason
The Calgary Flames are heading into the offseason set on making some changes to their roster after finishing 30th in the league with 77 points and a 34-39-9 record this past season. According to sources, the Flames are open to moving anyone on their current roster aside from goaltender Dustin Wolf, forwards Matvei Gridin and Matthew Coronato, and defenseman Zayne Parekh, Anthony Di Marco of Daily Faceoff reports.
The Flames struggled collectively this year, with offensive production being at the forefront. Calgary’s 208 goals during the 2025-26 regular season were good for dead last in the NHL. Coronato, one of the aforementioned untouchables, was the team leader in points this season with just 45.
If the Flames are looking to clean house this summer on the trade market, they will have two slots available to retain salary cap, as both Rasmus Andersson and Jacob Markstrom‘s cap retentions ended after the season. If Jonathan Huberdeau did warrant any interest from other teams on the trade market this summer, it would be safe to assume Calgary would have to eat a sizeable portion of the winger’s $10.5MM cap hit that runs through the 2030-31 season.
One name that should garner significant attention is veteran winger Blake Coleman. The 34-year-old has one year remaining on his four-year, $4.9MM AAV deal, and was reportedly the player Calgary was receiving the most calls on earlier in the season. With a Stanley Cup pedigree from his Tampa Bay days and an expiring contract, Coleman profiles as exactly the type of veteran a contender would target. He does carry a 10-team trade approval clause, which slightly limits Calgary’s options, but his manageable term makes him one of the more movable pieces on the roster.
Captain Mikael Backlund is another veteran whose name could surface in trade discussions, though the situation is complicated. Backlund, who turns 37 next season, is entering the final year of his two-year, $4.5MM AAV extension and has publicly stated his desire to retire as a Flame. Insider Elliotte Friedman of Sportsnet has reported in the past that Backlund wants to remain in Calgary and be a lifetime Flame, which could give the front office pause about exploring a move. That said, if Calgary is committed to a full youth movement and Backlund is open to chasing a Cup, he would undoubtedly draw interest from contenders looking for a reliable, defensively responsible center.
Beyond the veteran core, Calgary could also explore the market for some of its mid-tier forwards. Yegor Sharangovich, Joel Farabee, and Morgan Frost are all players who could either continue developing in Calgary or be flipped for futures, depending on how aggressively GM Craig Conroy wants to lean into the rebuild. Frost, in particular, showed flashes down the stretch and finished tied for second on the team in scoring with 43 points, and had a career best 22 goals. With the demand being high for centers league-wide, Frost should have plenty of suitors.
The Flames also have a handful of intriguing trade chips among the veterans they acquired during their 2025-26 deadline sell-off. Ryan Strome, picked up from Anaheim for a 2027 seventh-round pick, performed well in Calgary, posting five goals and 12 points in 19 games down the stretch. The 32-year-old centre carries a $5MM cap hit through 2026-27, and with one year left on his deal, he profiles as exactly the kind of expiring, productive middle-six centre contenders chase at the deadline, if not sooner. The Flames could either hold and flip him later or move him this summer to maximize the return.
Calgary’s revamped blue line is where things get really interesting. Kevin Bahl, Olli Maatta, and Zach Whitecloud all emerged as legitimate pieces this past season, and any one of them could realistically be on the move. Bahl has quietly become a stabilizing presence on Calgary’s back end and projects as a top-pair option moving forward, which makes him both the most valuable and the least likely to be dealt. Maatta, meanwhile, was fantastic after coming over in the MacKenzie Weegar trade, posting 14 points in 20 games. With one year left on his deal, he could be flipped for a mid-round pick if Calgary wants to clear another roster spot for a younger defender. Whitecloud, acquired in the Andersson trade and originally viewed as a salary cap throw-in, instead played his way into a genuine role and earned a spot on Team Canada’s World Championship roster. At 29, he could either be retained as a veteran leader or moved if a contender values his defensive game as a depth piece on the back end.
Then there’s the curious case of Devin Cooley. Cooley spent large portions of the season ranked among the league’s top goaltenders by save percentage and was essentially the biggest reason Calgary climbed out of last place in the standings. He’s already been rewarded with a contract extension, which signals the Flames view him as their long-term backup behind Wolf. That said, if his stock continues to rise and a contender comes calling with a desperate need between the pipes, Cooley becomes one of the more fascinating “what-if” assets in Conroy’s toolkit this summer.
With multiple veterans on expiring deals, two open salary retention slots, and a clear willingness from Conroy to listen on nearly anyone, the Flames are positioned to be one of the most active teams of the offseason. It will be interesting to see just how aggressive Conroy is prior to puck drop in October.
Latest On Adam Klapka
- Calgary Flames forward Adam Klapka was a final cut from Team Czechia at the 2026 IIHF World Championships. The 25-year-old was a member of last spring’s team, where he recorded three points in five games. Coming up short of the Olympic team in February, a result of his lack of special teams ability, it was likely the same case for today’s ruling. At 6’8”, the winger was brute force in his first full NHL season, racking up 112 penalty minutes and finishing fourth in the league with 295 hits. The righty chipped in offensively from the fourth line as well, tallying 18 points across his 79 games. Signed through next season, he’ll utilize the offseason to rest up from a long campaign where he more than doubled NHL appearances.
Daniil Miromanov Expected To Sign In KHL
May 9: Miromanov is indeed expected to sign with SKA St. Petersburg of the KHL for next season, reports Sport-Express’ Fyodor Nosov.
Apr. 25: Things didn’t go quite to plan for Flames defenseman Daniil Miromanov, who spent most of the year in the minors. A pending unrestricted free agent, it appears that he’s considering a return home for next season, as Sport-Express’ Artur Khairullin reports (Telegram link) that Miromanov may return to the KHL next season, with SKA St. Petersburg a leading candidate for his services.
Miromanov was a full-timer on Calgary’s roster last season, albeit often in a seventh defenseman role. The 28-year-old broke camp with the Flames out of training camp this year as well, but barely a week into the season after just one game played, he found himself on waivers. He passed through unclaimed and aside from a brief recall in November, he was exclusively with AHL Calgary the rest of the way, posting 11 goals and 27 assists in 66 games as he took full advantage of playing in a prominent role.
Miromanov originally broke into the NHL with Vegas, signing with them back in 2021 as an undrafted free agent. He saw time in parts of three seasons with them before being moved to the Flames back in 2024 as part of the return for Noah Hanifin. Between the two franchises, he has 94 career NHL appearances under his belt, posting 23 points and 110 blocked shots in 17:26 per night of playing time.
A big right-shot defender, Miromanov would undoubtedly generate some interest on the open market this summer. While he cleared waivers in October, his $1.25MM contract may have been a reason for that. On a contract closer to the minimum salary ($850K starting in 2026-27), he might have a better chance at sticking on an NHL roster next season.
However, Miromanov would likely be in a seventh defender role if he caught on with another NHL team next season. If he wants to have a chance to play more prominently as he did with the Wranglers this season, he could certainly get that chance by returning to the KHL where he’d also have a chance to play much closer to home.
Team Canada Notes: Bouchard, Nurse, McKenna, Whitecloud
A pair of Edmonton Oilers defensemen are going to represent Canada at the upcoming IIHF Men’s World Championships: Evan Bouchard and Darnell Nurse. (Reported by TSN’s Darren Dreger) The addition of Bouchard gives Canada a player who could very well end up the top offensive defenseman at the tournament. The 26-year-old is coming off of a season where he scored a career-high 21 goals and 95 points. The addition of Nurse gives Canada another NHL top-four defenseman with extensive playoff experience. Nurse averaged 20:58 time on ice per game this season, No. 2 on the Oilers.
Bouchard has yet to represent Canada as a professional, but represented his country in international tournaments in junior hockey. He was part of Team Canada at the World Juniors in the 2018-19 season though his team lost in the quarterfinals. Nurse, on the other hand, has represented Canada at two World Championships: 2018 and 2019. Canada lost the bronze medal to the United States in Nurse’s first trip to the tournament, and won a silver medal in his second.
Other notes from around the hockey world:
- Top 2026 NHL draft prospect Gavin McKenna will not join Team Canada for the upcoming tournament, reversing earlier reports that indicated he would. TSN’s Darren Dreger reported the decision as a group choice meant to allow McKenna to focus his attention on the upcoming scouting combine. McKenna has long been considered the front-runner to go No. 1 overall at this year’s draft, though Corey Pronman of The Athletic recently characterized the race for No. 1 as being more wide-open.
- Another defenseman will join the Canadian entry into IIHF Worlds: Calgary Flames blueliner Zach Whitecloud, as reported by Sportsnet 960’s Pat Steinberg. This won’t be the 29-year-old blueliner’s first trip to the World Championships. He represented Canada at the 2022 tournament, scoring four points in 10 games for a Canada team that fell in overtime in the gold medal game against Finland.
Flames’ Matthew Coronato To Play At 2026 World Championship
Team USA has made a major addition to their roster for the 2026 World Championship. Calgary Flames winger, and leading scorer, Matthew Coronato is expected to play in the tournament per Sportsnet’s Eric Francis. Coronato played in the World Championship at the age of 20 in 2023. He was one of America’s top scorers with eight points in 10 games. That scoring tied NHL peers Alex Tuch, Drew O’Connor, and Conor Garland.
Coronato’s last taste of international competition came at the front-end of his pro hockey career. He has since worked his way up Calgary’s depth chart on the back of red-hot scoring in minor and major leagues. Coronato began the 2023-24 season with the Flames but was reassigned to the AHL after netting just two points in the first 10 games of the season. He proceeded to tear up the minor-leagues in his first stint with the Wranglers, netting 18 points in the first 14 AHL games of his career. That performance launched Coronato into the Wranglers’ top-six but only rewarded him with brief stints in the NHL, until he was promoted for a 19-game run in March. Even with the extended look, Coronato’s first pro season ended with just nine points in 34 NHL games and 42 points in 41 AHL games.
He kept his strong performance rolling into the 2024-25 season. Coronato broke into the NHL in a full-time role that year. He worked up to 24 goals and 47 points in 77 games, to go with two goals in two games in the minor-leagues. That performance earned Coronato a seven-year extension with the Flames in May 2025.
Coronato more than paid that trust off this season, often looking like the Flames’ most consistent forward through some of their quietest stints. His year closed with 45 points in 80 games, including a point-per-game pace through the final 15 games of the season. Coronato played upwards of 22 minutes a night through points this season – but his best value was in his ability to produce from a middle-six role in the lineup. He only averaged 16:39 in ice time, sixth-most on the Flames roster.
That will be the value that Coronato now brings to Team USA’s lineup. He will offer invaluable depth scoring, with the boost of having performed at a high-level at this tournament before. With a bit more experience and maturity under his belt, he could end up an X-factor addition for the American side.