4 Flames Who Could Have Breakout Seasons in 2026-27

There wasn’t much to write home about after the Calgary Flames wrapped up their 2025-26 campaign. They finished with the third-fewest points in the NHL, which led to several Flames having underwhelming seasons.

However, the future is bright, and while the light is starting to show through the cracks of the doorway at the end of the proverbial rebuild tunnel, 2026-27 will likely be another ugly season on the ice; there is reason for some optimism that a few of the younger Flames could have breakout seasons.

Let’s look at who that could be.

Matt Coronato

The Flames’ 13th overall pick from the 2021 NHL Entry Draft broke out in 2024-25, in his first full NHL season, scoring 24 goals and totalling 47 points.

There was a bit of regression in Matthew Coronato‘s point totals last season, with his totals dropping slightly to 18 goals and 45 points. But when you look at the underlying numbers, they don’t suggest his numbers should have regressed. In fact, it should have been quite the opposite, which is why he will be due for some puck luck this season.

Let’s look at a quick comparison…

With this, you can see he has improved in every major advanced statistical category, besides arguably the most important in terms of stat sheet results, shooting percentage.

Even with a noticable drop in his finishing, Coronato still had excellent play-driving numbers, improving his individual point percentage to 70.31% from 58.22% in 2024-25, meaning he had seven points for every 10 goals the Flames scored while he was on the ice.

There isn’t likely to be a huge offensive improvement from the Flames this season, but with Jonathan Huberdeau back, Matvei Gridin continuing to be more impactful with every game he plays, and Simon Nemec and Zayne Parekh playing more minutes to improve the Flames’ puck-moving and transition play, Coronato could have a huge season.

Connor Zary

Whether it’s in a Flames uniform, or another, with trade rumours swirling around Connor Zary’s name. However, if deployed correctly, he could be poised to have a breakout campaign wherever he is playing this season, and for the Flames’ fans’ sake, that’s Calgary.

He was drafted 24th overall back in the 2020 NHL Entry Draft after a dominant season in the Western Hockey League, where he scored 38 goals and put up 86 points in 57 games for the Kamloops Blazers. Since then, his development hasn’t been linear.

In 2020-21, he only played 21 games split between the Blazers and the then-Stockton Heat, the Flames’ affiliate in the American Hockey League. After playing two more productive seasons in the AHL, he made his NHL debut in 2023-24, and between that season and 2024-25, he averaged 0.52 points per game while playing fewer than 16 minutes per game.

Unfortunately, last season his production dropped to 0.33 points per game, while playing a career-low 14:22 minutes per game.

To me, this all stems from egregious misuse in his deployment by head coach Ryan Huska. When Zary was averaging a perfectly acceptable half point per game in his first two seasons, Huska was giving him 12.03 offensive zone starts and 24.40 offensive zone faceoffs per 60 minutes, which is a huge part of production.

However, last season, these numbers dropped drastically to 8.86 O-Zone starts and 18.4 O-Zone faceoffs per 60 minutes. With his on-the-fly shift starts, ranking third-highest on the Flames, only behind Ryan Lomberg and Adam Klapka, it’s pretty evident Huska was trying to shelter Zary and give him as many meaningless minutes as possible.

Zary is a smart and talented offensive player. He’s not necessarily a play driver but more of a transition puck handler. Let him play alongside some other offensive talent that excels on the rush and isn’t a black hole when the puck lands on their stick.

He has also bounced around the Flames’ lineup more than any other player in recent years. If given the chance to play with other smart offensive players consistently and get more run time on the power play. I don’t think a 20-goal, 60-point season is out of the question for Zary if he is deployed in a useful way.

Simon Nemec and/or Zayne Parekh

This one could go one way, or the other, or both, but I don’t see a world where neither Nemec nor Parekh has a breakout season.  The reason I am lumping them into the same spot is the lack of clarity about how they will be deployed.

The biggest reason I think these two have the potential to break out is their similarity. Both are guys who love to jump the play offensively and are often referred to as roamers because of their weaknesses in the defensive zone.

Now, having two defensemen who can be a liability while doing their main job defending could be viewed as a major concern, and if that’s the way you’re looking at it, it’s hard to blame that thought process.

However, we’ve seen several other players around the league with skill sets similar to Nemec’s and Parekh’s thrive, and it simply comes down to the support those guys are getting from other teams, which gives them the freedom to make plays and contribute more offensively.

Having these two will force Huska to adapt to the team’s systems and build them around these two guys on the blue line; at least that’s what should be expected, given that it will be the only way to get full value out of either player. It’s not really major changes either; it will just be drilling the fundamentals of always having forward support around Parekh and Nemec to limit the risk of odd-man rushes coming back the other way if the puck is turned over after they try to jump a rush.

The other key piece in who will break out this season is power-play usage. Which one will get the top powerplay unit time, or could they both? Running them separately may be the most likely option, with most units running four forwards and one defenseman on the man advantage, and the Flames not having a third option to run the second unit if they play together on the top unit.

Personally, I have a lot of faith in both players’ skills, provided the Flames adapt to them rather than forcing them to adapt to the way the Flames have been playing over the last few seasons. With so much up in the air about how much ice time they will get in different situations, it’s hard to project how much they could improve, but my bold take is that one of these two will be the Flames’ most effective player next season.

Bottom Line

It’s will be another tough season in the wins-and-losses column, but that’s to be expected, and, on some level, finishing near the bottom of the standings again will be the best thing for the Flames’ future. But at least this season, fans will be able to take some interest in watching young players get more opportunities in impact roles, which will hopefully translate into breakout seasons.