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Calgary Flames, Craig Conroy Nearing Extension

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According to Sportsnet’s Elliotte Friedman, the Calgary Flames are nearing an extension with General Manager Craig Conroy. Ryan Pike of Flames Nation relayed a note from Sportsnet’s Eric Francis indicating it’s a two-year agreement.

It’s a relatively expected outcome for the third-year front office leader. Outside of his nine-year career with the Flames on the ice in the early to mid-2000s, Conroy had spent the nine years preceding his appointment as the team’s General Manager as Calgary’s Assistant General Manager. Putting it all together — Conroy has spent the last quarter-century involved with the Flames in some capacity.

Embarked on a retool for his tenure up to this point, the Flames have yet to bear the fruits of Conroy’s labor. In the first few years as General Manager, Conroy shipped out several veterans, such as Tyler Toffoli, Nikita Zadorov, Elias Lindholm, Chris Tanev, Noah Hanifin, and Jacob Markström, among others.

There’s consensus that Conroy has used the returned assets to good use. Although they haven’t returned to postseason contention under his stewardship yet, many rankings from before the 2025-26 season indicate that the Flames have a top-10 prospect pool in the league.

Additionally, Conroy had the task of finding a new bench boss for Calgary, ultimately landing upon Ryan Huska ahead of the 2023-24 campaign. Before this season, Huska had a 79-66-19 record as the Flames’ head coach, averaging 89 points a year.

Unfortunately, Calgary has seemingly taken a step backward this season. Finishing one regulation win outside of the 2025 Stanley Cup playoffs, the Flames currently find themselves in 31st place with an 8-13-3 record. Much of that has to do with a lethargic offense, which has averaged 2.38 GF/G.

At any rate, Flames ownership appears happy with the work Conroy has done thus far and is giving him additional time to see the organization through the rebuild. Given their position in the standings, Conroy will have his work cut out for him leading up to this season’s trade deadline, as the Flames could once again offload several veteran players.

The Flames Have To Pick A Direction

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The Flames are expected to be active in the trade market, but don’t expect a complete teardown. Team president Don Maloney opposes the idea, telling Sportsnet’s Eric Francis that a last-place finish is “the farthest from our mind.”

Calgary has tasted precious little playoff action over the last decade and a half, appearing in the postseason just five times since 2009 and not at all in the previous three seasons. This lack of meaningful hockey likely means that the fans and the franchise don’t want to stomach a full-scale rebuild that could mean another three to five consecutive seasons – at least – without playoff action.

That being said, floating the idea of stripping the roster down to the studs isn’t surprising given that the Flames have hit the bottom of the standings and have some veteran players who probably aren’t part of the team’s future. Defenseman Rasmus Andersson is a pending UFA and will attract plenty of interest from contending teams as the season approaches the trade deadline. Nazem Kadri remains a top target for teams, although Calgary seems relatively lukewarm about trading the veteran center, with Maloney commenting that Calgary needs more Kadri’s and not less. Most of the trade speculation isn’t the main issue on the ice, but it’s definitely a consideration for some players. Last year, Calgary seemed ready to take a step forward this season, but after a rough start, the rest of the year’s outlook appears uncertain.

Calgary experienced a quiet summer, leaving them uncertain about their short and long-term plans. They are not a contender at the moment, but they also do not appear fully committed to a rebuild, creating an interesting dynamic similar to the one the Capitals had a few years ago. Back then, they made forward-looking moves in the interim, hoping to retool on the fly.

That strategy proved very successful for Washington last season, as they became one of the top teams in the NHL. It seems to be a blueprint other teams are adopting to avoid the lengthy rebuild that became common in the 2000s and 2010s. While it has worked for Washington and helped the Penguins through part of this season, it’s a gamble because the risk is becoming a non-playoff team that neither qualifies for the postseason nor gets a high draft pick. That’s where Pittsburgh has been over the past three seasons, and a similar situation occurred with the Flames before trading Jarome Iginla to the Penguins in 2013.

Calgary has several desirable players who could bring future assets in the trade market. The aforementioned Andersson and Kadri are the top trade chips, but the Flames also have several other pending UFAs. Forward Ryan Lomberg and defenseman Jake Bean are both in the last years of their contracts, and although neither is a high-impact player, they should have a market as the deadline nears. Lomberg is a former Stanley Cup winner who doesn’t get much ice time in Calgary and is a frequent hitter. He has just three goals and 11 assists in 100 games as a member of the Flames, but he wasn’t signed for his scoring. Despite being undersized at just 5’9”, Lomberg plays a high-energy game and can get under opponents’ skin. All of these traits are highly valuable during the playoffs, which should make him an easy trade for the Flames, but he might not return much in a deal.

Bean is another player on an expiring deal who probably won’t fetch much if Calgary decides to move him. The 27-year-old has been a virtual non-factor since signing a two-year, $3.5MM deal in 2024, with nine points and a -7 rating in 77 games. For someone whose puck-moving ability is his calling card, that’s simply not enough output. As such, he’s become a frequent healthy scratch, only skating in three of Calgary’s last 11 contests.

Andersson, Lomberg, and Bean are the Flames’ notable UFAs this season, but apart from Andersson, they won’t significantly contribute to building future assets. This puts the team in a tricky position if they don’t plan to move Kadri. Should they trade their UFAs, keep everyone else, and wait until next summer to restart their rebuild? Should they approach next summer with caution, like they did this past year? Or should they completely tear down the roster and rebuild around Dustin Wolf and their younger stars? Flames general manager Craig Conroy will need to answer these questions soon, as the answers will shape the team’s direction. It’s okay to change course if circumstances change, but if Calgary doesn’t develop a clear plan soon, it risks losing its direction.

Nobody expected them to be Stanley Cup contenders this season, but the hope was that the young players would continue to develop. Since it’s still early in the season, there is time for that to happen. Some players have already moved up to the NHL (Wolf, Matt Coronato, Zayne Parekh), with more expected to follow in Cole Reschny and Hunter Brzustewicz. However, it’s fair to question whether the Flames will have enough top-tier talent when they’re ready to compete, which makes it essential to gather future assets for current veterans – especially when those veterans likely won’t be part of the Flames’ next competitive window.

The Kadri discussion is confusing, but it might be the Flames playing a long game to get the best value for the 35-year-old. Calgary doesn’t have many top-tier players to trade, and Kadri could be one of their last chances to acquire valuable pieces for the future. After posting an impressive 35 goals and 32 assists in 82 games last season, Kadri has started slowly this season with just four goals and 10 assists in 22 games. While his numbers look to be dropping off, it is fair to point out that he is shooting just 5.6% this season, compared to 12.5% last year and 10.9% over his 17-year NHL career. If he regresses to the mean, he should still pot 25 goals this season and will remain in demand on the trade market.

Calgary might hit a boiling point soon if they keep losing, and it could turn into a situation where they try to move every player over 30 who isn’t Mikael Backlund. While that might be the plan, it’s hard to see anyone trading for Jonathan Huberdeau and his hefty contract. But a player like Blake Coleman might generate some interest (with money retained), or even defenseman MacKenzie Weegar could be moved, despite still having plenty of term left on his deal. Coleman has actually garnered the most tangible interest of the Flames’ trade chips thus far in the season and has already been linked to a return to the Devils.

Regardless of what Calgary does, it’s hard to imagine them continuing the season in their current direction. They have more young players coming up and still have veterans who can perform at a high level. While Huberdeau’s contract isn’t going to age well, the rising salary cap will lessen its impact.

Flames Reassign Sam Morton

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The Flames announced today that center Sam Morton has been sent back to the AHL’s Calgary Wranglers. Since he’s only been rostered for eight days and played three games since clearing waivers during the preseason, he doesn’t need them today.

Morton, 26, is in his second pro season after inking with the Flames as an undrafted free agent out of Minnesota State in 2024. The Colorado native was the Mavericks’ captain in his final season – his sixth year of NCAA hockey, thanks to COVID – and broke out for 24 goals and 34 points in 37 games to be named the CCHA’s Player of the Year and make himself a finalist for the Hobey Baker Award.

Morton’s age meant he had no trouble adjusting to the pro game. He rattled off five goals and seven points in 13 AHL games to end 2023-24 on a tryout with the Wranglers and then had 20 goals and 45 points in 70 games for them in his first full pro season in 2024-25. That led the Flames to call the 6’0″ pivot up to make his NHL debut in the final game of last year’s regular season, and he notched his first goal in the process.

This season, Morton went unclaimed on waivers on his way down to the Wranglers but took the training camp cut in stride. He had a 4-8–12 scoring line through 16 games, good for sixth on the team, before earning a call-up last week.

Calgary gave Morton a brief trial as the fourth-line center, but that job will now go to waiver claim John Beecher. In three games, he went an impressive 16-for-24 (66.7%) on faceoffs but didn’t record a point and had a -1 rating, averaging just 9:20 per game. The Flames were outshot 11-10 and outchanced 9-8 in Morton’s 5-on-5 minutes.

Should The Flames Make Room For Matvei Gridin?

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It’s safe to say the 2025-26 season has been disappointing for the Calgary Flames. One season after finishing one regulation win outside of the final wild-card spot in the Western Conference, the Flames are one of two teams that haven’t managed a .400 win percentage through the first quarter of the 2025-26 campaign.

However, it’s relatively easy to find the problem. Calgary is in second-to-last place in total offense, averaging 2.38 GF/G. Additionally, the team’s power play is also the second worst with a 13.41% success rate. The Flames have scored one or fewer goals in seven games this season.

When they do score, the usual suspects are contributing. Nazem Kadri and Rasmus Andersson lead their respective positions in scoring, followed by Matthew Coronato, Mikael Backlund, Morgan Frost, and Jonathan Huberdeau at the top of the table. Still, with the likes of Yegor Sharangovich and MacKenzie Weegar struggling to live up to their typical standards, would it make sense for Calgary to inject more offense into its lineup?

Fortunately, the Flames have an in-house candidate in the wings. The 28th overall pick of the 2024 NHL Draft, Matvei Gridin, who’s already appeared in four games with Calgary this season, is off to an exceptional start with the AHL’s Calgary Wranglers.

Currently in his first professional season in North America, Gridin is second on the Wranglers in scoring with eight goals and 20 points in 17 games, one point off veteran Martin Frk for the team lead.

Furthermore, Gridin is the highest-scoring rookie in the AHL up to this point, managing a two-point lead over the Chicago Blackhawks’ prospect, Nick Lardis. Not only is Gridin sitting first amongst rookies, but he’s tied for third in the entire league.

Despite the dreadful start to the season, the Flames are only six points back of the last playoff spot in the Western Conference, giving them plenty of time to catch up. Although he shouldn’t be considered a cure-all, Gridin could provide the necessary offense, both at even strength and with a man advantage, to make Calgary much more competitive on the offensive side of the puck.

Still, there are other things to consider outside of salvaging this season. Given his age, Gridin is eligible to have his entry-level contract slide should he appear in nine or fewer games with the Flames this season. If Calgary has already decided to punt on the 2025-26 campaign, it wouldn’t make sense to recall Gridin this season.

Flames Focused On Balancing Short-And-Long-Term In Trade Market

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The Calgary Flames have reached an impasse, stuck between whether to push for contention or rebuilding after a few up-and-down seasons. That gap widened on Friday, when team president Don Maloney said that the team shouldn’t blow up to try and build up the future in an interview with Sportsnet’s Eric Francis. Maloney added that general manager Craig Conroy has no restrictions on deals he thinks can impact the long-term, but reminded fans that Calgary must push through the short-term as well, pushing a need to stay competitive.

Calgary is shopping high-value veterans like Nazem Kadri and Rasmus Andersson just a few years after trading away a heap, including Noah Hanifin and Jacob Markstrom. They are plowing towards a new era, on the back of multiple young pros, but the kids haven’t quite proven themselves yet. Kadri and Andersson have helped supplement Calgary’s rookies while they find their spots in the lineup.

At the same time, the pair of vets could fetch serious returns in a buyer’s market. Kadri has 14 points in 22 games this season, and scored 35 goals and 67 points in 82 games last year. He remains a clear top-line scorer, who could boom on a stronger offense. The same can be said for scoring-defender Andersson, who has 12 points in 22 games this year and scored 11 goals and 31 points last year.

Landing more young firepower – like Winnipeg’s Brad Lambert or Anaheim’s Pavel Mintyukov – could be the piece that ramps up Calgary’s rebuild. But they’ll have to make sure they’re not jeporadizing their next few seasons to do it. It will be a balancing act for novice GM Conroy, and one that should underscore the future of Flames hockey.

Parekh (Upper Body) Resumes Skating

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  • Flames defenseman Zayne Parekh has resumed skating as he works his way back from an upper-body injury, relays Flames Nation’s Ryan Pike (Twitter link). He has missed the last couple of weeks due to the injury and even if he’s cleared to return sooner than later, he won’t be with the team for long as he has already been confirmed to be going to the World Juniors if healthy by then.  Parekh is in his first full professional season after recently surpassing the nine-game threshold and has an assist in 11 outings so far while averaging a little less than 15 minutes per night of playing time.

Flames’ Samuel Honzek Likely Done For Season

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Flames center Samuel Honzek’s regular season is over after undergoing upper-body surgery, Pat Steinberg of Sportsnet 960 reports. He’ll be out for six months, meaning a potential return in May if Calgary makes the playoffs and makes it that far. Considering they’ve been in last place for most of the season with a 6-13-3 record, though, meaning he’s all but played his last hockey of 2025-26.

That’s a jarring change from Honzek’s initial week-to-week timeline. The 21-year-old was injured in last weekend’s game against the Jets when he collided with teammate Mikael Backlund in open ice, leaving the game and not returning. Such a lengthy recovery timeline indicates he sustained potentially significant shoulder damage or a collarbone fracture.

That collision ended what was a disappointing stretch for the 2023 first-round pick. Drafted 16th overall two years ago, the 6’4″ Slovak winger was a late inclusion on the opening night roster after it was apparent Martin Pospisil would miss significant time. While he’s gotten his first extended taste of NHL time, he hasn’t been able to do much with it. Despite being stapled to the left wing with Backlund and Blake Coleman in a top-nine role, Honzek only managed two goals and four points in 18 appearances. That’s no doubt influenced by a lack of power-play usage, which has limited his ice time to 12:21 per game.

Offense has been a consistent concern in Honzek’s game since being drafted, though. He had 56 points in 41 games for the WHL’s Vancouver Giants in his draft year but dipped back under the point-per-game mark for them in 2023-24. Upon turning pro last season, he only scored eight goals and 21 points in 52 games for AHL Calgary. That’s not a bad scoring line for a first-year pro, but for someone with his draft pedigree, the Flames were definitely looking for more production. Nonetheless, he still ranked as the Flames’ No. 2 prospect entering the season, according to Elite Prospects.

The good news is that Honzek was well on his way to establishing his floor as a third-line checking piece. While his unit with Backlund and Coleman hasn’t been explosive offensively, they’ve had great two-way chemistry and have been among the league’s better defensive forward lines. They’re only allowing 1.98 expected goals per 60 minutes at even strength, per MoneyPuck. That’s sixth in the league out of 37 forward trios with at least 100 minutes together this season.

Honzek will remain waiver-exempt next season in what will be the final year of his entry-level contract. With 10 months out of competitive action by the time he suits up in training camp next year and his point production turning pro lacking, it’ll be a storyline to watch to see if the Flames send him to the AHL out of the gate in 2026-27 to try to build up his scoring confidence.

The immediate result will be consistently elevated minutes for fellow first-rounder Connor Zary for the remainder of the season. After a round of drawn-out contract talks last summer, the Flames signed Zary to a three-year, $11.33MM contract but stuck him on the fourth line to begin the year. Understandably, that’s resulted in the 24-year-old only posting a goal and an assist in 20 games for the offense-starved Flames. He’s stepped up onto the wing with Backlund and Coleman in Honzek’s absence and should remain there for the foreseeable future.

Flames Will Loan Zayne Parekh To Team Canada For World Juniors

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Flames defenseman Zayne Parekh will be on Canada’s roster for the World Junior Championship when it’s announced in December, Eric Francis of Sportsnet reports. First, he’ll need to recover from the upper-body injury that’s kept him out since Nov. 7 and has him listed as week-to-week.

Parekh has already been ruled out through the Flames’ ongoing road trip, Francis writes, but the team is targeting an early December return for their 2024 ninth overall pick. They have a four-game homestand to kick off the month and will look to get him into a couple of those games before letting him join the Canadian national junior team, which commences its camp in Niagara Falls on Dec. 12. He’s also eligible for a conditioning stint with AHL Calgary as a result of his missed time, something Pat Steinberg of Sportsnet 960 reports is under consideration.

The ultimate deadline for Parekh’s inclusion on the Canadian roster is Dec. 20, though, according to Francis. Even if Parekh can’t get on the ice before then, that would at least leave him enough time to get into a couple of exhibition games in Minneapolis and St. Paul, the host cities of this year’s WJC.

The injury has dotted what’s been a trying adjustment to pro hockey for Parekh. As a result of the 19-year-old being ineligible for a full-time assignment to the AHL, he’s been stuck operating as a No. 6/7 piece on the Flames’ NHL roster and hasn’t gotten extended playing time. He was a healthy scratch on multiple occasions before sustaining his injury. He was only averaging 14:46 of ice time per game when in the lineup, limiting him to one assist through 11 appearances.

Calgary’s only other option was to send him back to junior hockey for the remainder of the season. That was never something the Flames were seriously considering, though. Parekh has won back-to-back OHL defense scoring crowns with the Saginaw Spirit, putting up back-to-back 33-goal seasons from the blue line and logging 107 points in just 61 games last season. But depending on the state of their defense after Parekh returns from the World Juniors, letting him finish the season in Saginaw – where he’ll at least get back to playing top-pairing minutes – might be a better outcome for his readiness heading into training camp next fall.

Calgary Flames Claim John Beecher

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The Calgary Flames have claimed center John Beecher off of waivers from the Boston Bruins, Sportsnet’s Elliotte Friedman reported today.

The Flames held the top waiver priority slot due to their place in the standings, meaning it’s possible more teams placed a claim on Beecher, a 2019 first-round pick, than just Calgary.

Per Derek Willis, the Flames’ radio play-by-play commentator, Calgary is likely to play tonight in Chicago with freshly called up forward Sam Morton as their fourth-line center. While the undrafted 26-year-old has been a strong AHL contributor since signing out of Minnesota State of the NCAA, he has just one prior game of NHL experience.

By claiming Beecher, the Flames have added to their roster a player who is not only younger than Morton, but also brings a considerably greater level of experience in a fourth-line center role. The 6’3″ pivot broke into the NHL on a full-time basis in 2023-24, and played in a total of 52 games that year and 12 playoff games. Upon his arrival from the team’s AHL affiliate, the Providence Bruins, Beecher was also a plug-and-play option for the Bruins’ penalty kill, averaging 1:40 shorthanded time-on-ice per game as a rookie.

Beecher maintained his fourth-line, penalty-killing role in 2024-25, a season where he set career-highs in games played (72) and points (11). But Beecher has not been able to take a step forward and become the kind of reliable shutdown defensive center who can elevate his value proposition to a team despite fourth-line usage.

With that said, despite the fact that the Bruins elected to waive him, Beecher still has some positive, valuable qualities as a player. He plays extremely fast for someone his size, and has a career faceoff win rate of 53%. For a Flames team that doesn’t figure to enter into the playoff picture in 2025-26, this waiver claim gives the team an opportunity to see if it can develop Beecher into a more valuable all-around player than the Bruins were able to over the course of his 136 games with the club.

Worth noting is that Beecher is a pending restricted free agent, carrying a $900K AAV. If the Flames elect to qualify him, he will hold arbitration rights.

Flames Recall Dryden Hunt, Sam Morton; Reassign Rory Kerins

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The Calgary Flames have made a few changes to their active roster. Calgary announced that they’ve recalled forwards Dryden Hunt and Sam Morton. Additionally, the team has reassigned forward Rory Kerins to the AHL’s Calgary Wranglers in a corresponding roster move.

Today’s recall presents an opportunity for Hunt to play in his first NHL game of the season. Despite seeing his role reduced over the last three years in Calgary, Hunt re-upped with the Flames on a two-year, $1.65MM contract this past summer.

Regardless of seeing his opportunity drop at the NHL level, Hunt has become an exceptional offensive force for the Wranglers. Since coming to the organization in a minor swap with the Toronto Maple Leafs at the trade deadline during the 2022-23 season, Hunt has scored 33 goals and 102 points in 104 games for AHL Calgary. Unfortunately, this has not resulted in NHL success, as Hunt has contributed only three goals and 11 points across 33 games while averaging 11:13 of ice time since his move to Alberta.

Likewise, Morton is another depth forward in the Flames organization who’s been highly successful at the NHL level. Calgary signed Morton as an undrafted free agent out of Minnesota State University in the 2023-24 season. Since then, he’s scored 29 goals and 64 points in 99 games with the AHL Wranglers. Still, he’s hardly gotten an opportunity at the NHL level. He’s only played in one game for the Flames up to this point, a game in which he scored his first NHL goal.

Meanwhile, Kerins returns to the Wranglers after participating in a couple of games for the Flames. He did average 15:51 of ice time over his recent recall, but went scoreless with a -1 rating. He’s scored five goals and 14 points in 13 games with AHL Calgary this year.

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