Flames’ 2026-27 Roster Projection 1.0: Post Draft & Free Agency

We are through the busiest week of the NHL’s offseason. The 2026 NHL Entry Draft and July 1’s Free Agent Frenzy are behind us, which means we now have a clearer picture of each team’s outlook as we move closer to the 2026-27 season.

Now that we have some clarity, it’s time to look at the Calgary Flames’ roster from top to bottom and make some predictions for the rest of the offseason. Which players will still be moved, which prospects could have an impact, what will the lineup look like when the puck drops in the Flames’ first game of the season, and what can we expect from the Flames this season?

Flames’ Contracts & Cap Space

In the past couple of seasons, the Flames took care of some major business, signing Matthew Coronato and Dustin Wolf to long-term extensions, locking down the two new faces of their franchise. This offseason, they don’t have any big contracts to negotiate. The decisions they have to make, by comparison, are quite minor, which means it could amount to quite a boring offseason.

The players the Flames have let walk as unrestricted free agents are Victor Olofsson, Ryan Lomberg, John Beecher and Jake Bean. At this time, we’re still waiting, but we’re expecting the Flames to sign restricted free agent Simon Nemec after trading for him and Maxim Tsyplakov a few days before the draft.

This deal will eat some of the money the Flames have remaining. However, they are still in a great place relative to the rising salary cap, with $20.5 million in available cap space. Their projected cap hit for the 2026-27 season is $83.46 million, comfortably above the $76.9 million salary cap floor (via Puck Pedia). Which means that after Nemec is signed, the Flames can work on trading away players like Blake Coleman and Connor Zary without worrying about salary cap implications.

Even with Jonathan Huberdeau’s disaster of a contract on the books. The Flames are doing a great job of keeping money open to be flexible and make smart moves when they become available, such as their gamble on 22-year-old Nemec.

Projected Offseason Moves

To cap off a long saga of rumours, a deal involving Coleman will likely materialize at some point this offseason. With a weak free-agent class, several teams failed to address key needs for the upcoming season, and the Flames have Coleman, who can play a variety of roles. It’s reasonable to assume that one of these teams that missed out will be interested in a guy who has scored 65 goals in the last three seasons.

The other move that should probably be expected is Zary heading out the door. The 24th overall pick from the 2020 NHL Entry Draft has never carved out a consistent role for himself with the Flames and doesn’t have a particular skill that makes him indispensable. Darren Dreger of TSN has reported the Flames are looking for a second-round pick in return for Zary.  

The only other name I may throw into this mix out of left field is Morgan Frost, whose contract expires after the 2026-27 season, and teams could end up paying a premium after missing out on an already weak class of centres in free agency.

After trading away the 2027 and 2028 first-round picks to land Nemec, it wouldn’t be shocking to see the Flames try to overfill their future draft capital cupboard again by trading these two away rather than hunting down hockey trades.

This is the offseason when the Flames really need to start making space for young guys to get opportunities, with several prospects nearing NHL readiness and needing to establish whether they will have a future in the show with the Flames, which can’t be done without a few players heading out the door.

Projected Roster

Here is my best guess as to what the Flames’ roster will look like on opening night…

Jonathan Huberdeau – Morgan Frost – Matthew Coronato
Joel Farabee – Mikael Backlund – Matvei Gridin
Yegor Sharangovich – Ryan Strome – Adam Klapka
Samuel Honzek – Rory Kerins – Martin Pospisil

Extra Forwards: Maxim Tsyplakov, William Stromgren, Brennan Othmann
To play some NHL minutes: Aydar Suniev, Tyson Gross, Jonathan Costagna

Kevin Bahl – Simon Nemec
Zayne Parekh – Zach Whitecloud
Yan Kuznetzov – Olli Maatta

Extra Defensemen: Brayden Pachel, Joel Hanley
To play some NHL minutes: Hunter Brzustewicz, Abram Wiebe, Axel Hurtig

Dustin Wolf
Devin Cooley

Extra Goalie: Arsenii Sergeev

The Forward Core

To be bluntly honest, this forward core is still a disaster. Matvei Gridin is obviously the bright spot with his outstanding rookie campaign last season, which came much earlier in his development than expected. However, after that, there is so little to be excited about here.

I would add Coronato to that list, given his excellent individual chance creation analytics last season. But it’s hard to be truly excited when he’ll be playing with Morgan Frost and Jonathan Huberdeau, who just aren’t competitive enough first-liners to allow Coronato to show just how good he is. The good news is that he is signed long-term, and the Flames have time to find those players who can help elevate his game to the next level.

Outside of those two and maybe Samuel Honzek, there are very few players up front who will be around when this team turns the corner to compete for a playoff spot. Especially now after adding Nemec and drafting Carson Carels with the sixth overall pick, the Flames desperately need to start overhauling the forward group as they’ve scored the fourth-fewest goals of any team over the last three seasons.

The Defensive Core

Contrary to my opinion on the group of forwards, I quite like what the Flames are doing with their blue line. Nemec’s roaming offensive style should fit very well with Kevin Bahl’s physical, stay-at-home style. I’m still very high on Zayne Parekh and his offensive upside. A permanent move over to the left side should allow him to create more open lanes and plays for himself and others on his off hand, and he and Zach Whitecloud found some nice chemistry late last season.

With the final pairing, I’d like to see the Flames get off Olli Maatta’s contract to allow for more of these AHL-NHL tweeners to get looks with the Flames, but the smartest way to do that would be to wait until the season starts.

2026-27 Season Outlook

Between the goaltending staying the same, the forward group being relatively similar, or likely worse if Coleman is traded, and the blue line maybe receiving a small upgrade, it’s hard to argue that the Flames will be anything different from last season’s team.

The one argument you could make is that they’re due for some better results next season because of their league-low PDO, a stat that loosely measures puck luck by combining save percentage and shooting percentage, in 2025-26 (via Natural Stat Trick).

However, their finishing last in that stat is largely due to their shooting percentage, which was the worst in the NHL by 0.32%, and it’s hard to say that will improve meaningfully enough to make a difference in the standings without the Flames adding any goal-scoring over the offseason.

But the good thing is that the Flames will likely play themselves into position to land another top-10 pick, if not a top-five one. This will land them another top-tier prospect, whom the Flames can add to their collection of first-rounders transitioning into the NHL, likely after this season.

It may be another boring and painful season on the ice, but it is just part of the process leading to a very bright future.