Calgary Flames Enter Rebuilding Phase After Ending Teardown – Hockey Writers – Calgary Flames

As expected, general manager Craig Conroy and the Calgary Flames were silent on July 1, when the NHL’s free agency window opened. However, they made headlines the next day by sending Blake Coleman and Olli Maatta to the Minnesota Wild for Jake Middleton, a third-round pick in 2027, a fourth-round pick in 2028 and a second-round pick in 2029.

Coleman’s name came up in trade rumors throughout last season. Now, Conroy has moved Rasmus Andersson, Mackenzie Weegar and Nazem Kadri all within the calendar year, indicating that the layoff is over, and after what could be another painful season on the ice, the Flames brass can move on to the hard part of rebuilding — building the roster.

The Flames’ 2026-27 season is important

With the Flames core out of the running, it will be easy for fans to write them off before the season begins. From a results perspective, there is nothing wrong with that; this is not going to be a team that wins a lot of games.

However, after receiving a small return from Coleman, it seems that management is now prioritizing the development of new players, or at least their ice time, to find out which of their prospects will become NHL regulars, and which ones will not. As it stands, the team should have 18 forwards and 10, maybe 11, defensemen who need at least a chance to play NHL minutes this season, and that’s not including Connor Zary amid all the trade rumors.

With a 23-man roster, on paper, and between injuries and the unexpected mid-season moves of any of their six players entering the season on expiring contracts, head coach Ryan Huska should be able to manipulate his roster to make everyone look good and help management understand where the holes will be after picking all of their first-round picks that play outside the organization.

The best Flames talent is yet to come

In addition to a crowded roster, the Flames have made it known that Carson Carels, the sixth overall pick in the 2026 NHL Entry Draft, Cole Reschny and Cullen Potter, their two first-round picks in 2025, are ‘intended’ to sign with the club after their NCAA seasons. Conroy noted, “I have to keep contracts for them,” and “they said the same thing to me: ‘We all want to be out (of college hockey) after a year.'”

The team could also include Ethan Wyttenbach, last season’s Hobey Baker finalist, who shows more promise than fifth-round draft picks, Jack Hextall and Chase Harrington, selected by the Flames in the first two rounds of this year’s draft.

In addition to that, another prospect, possibly a top-10, if not top-five prospect, will be added to this team after the Flames struggled again in 2026-27.

NHL rebuilding isn’t easy

The Flames still have some very promising prospects waiting to join the team and show the full potential of the future roster. However, despite the public perception that a full rebuild is the quickest way back into contention, it is not easy to pull off.

Many NHL teams have failed to rebuild, or nearly failed. The Ottawa Senators took Brady Tkachuk in the 2018 NHL Draft, lucked out with Shane Pinto in the second round of the 2019 Draft, and put Jake Sanderson and Tim Stutzle in the first round in 2020. With all those players, the Senators have only made the playoffs twice, and lost in the first round of both series. This summer, they traded Tkachuk to the Florida Panthers at his request.

The Anaheim Ducks had the top 10 picks in every draft from 2019 to 2024, selecting Trevor Zegras, Jamie Drysdale, Mason McTavish, Pavel Mintyukov, Leo Carlsson and Beckett Sennecke during that time. The team made their first playoff appearance since 2018-19 last season and look like a team on the rise. However, they have now traded McTavish to St. Louis Blues for a draft pick and must match the Philadelphia Flyers’ $18 million annual offer sheet to keep Carlsson for the next five seasons or lose him with an additional pick. This alone could ruin the more than half a decade they spent rebuilding.

Even the Flames struggled and rebuilt. They drafted Sean Monahan, Sam Bennett, Rasmus Andersson and Matthew Tkachuk in consecutive drafts while with Jonny Gaudreau and couldn’t convince any of them, except Andersson, to stay.

After sending away veterans with trade value, the Flames have nothing to break down. Since then, they have built one of the best prospect pools in the NHL and will continue to develop it. However, from now on, the Flames need to be held accountable for every decision they make or don’t make. As we’ve seen this offseason, one offer sheet or trade request can turn an organization on its head.

There’s no reason to worry, but the Flames will enter the most challenging and lengthy part of the rebuild in 2026-27. It will be up to Conroy to find his team in the arc of the Utah Mammoth, rather than the endless rebuilding that the Senators and Ducks seem to be in.