It’s the middle of January, and the Calgary Flames sit well outside of a playoff spot. That comes as no surprise, as this team was never expected to make much noise in 2025-26. Many even believed going into the season that they were destined to be a draft lottery team.
While Flames management appears to have hit on some draft picks in recent years which suggests things will improve in the future, they’ve still got a long ways to go before they morph into a legitimate Stanley Cup contender.
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Not only do the Flames lack any potential game-breaking prospects outside of Zayne Parekh, but they also have a number of veterans who they’ve yet to move on from. While we know that Rasmus Andersson is likely to be moved in the near future, there’s been less noise on some other veterans who would likely bring back solid returns. It’s puzzling as to why the Flames are being so hesitant on making these moves. The time is now for management to step up and make some of these trades that will help improve the overall future of the organization.
Flames Can’t Be Too Patient
It seems that all season long, the message from both the organization and some media with strong connections have been preaching patience. To a certain extent, you can understand that. After all, you don’t want to move players such as Andersson, Nazem Kadri, or Blake Coleman just for the sake of making a trade. It’s imperative that if or when they are moved, the Flames are maximizing their value.
That said, the longer this plays out, the more desperate the Flames may end up becoming. While both Kadri and Coleman have term left on their deals, the same cannot be said of Andersson, who is set to become an unrestricted free agent at seasons end. With no extension appearing to be on the horizon, management needs to really begin putting things into high gear on a trade.
The worst part about being overly patient is that the Flames could potentially find themselves in a spot where their veterans, and Andersson in particular, remain on their roster right up until the trade deadline. If that were to be the case, they could find themselves in a position where they wind up being forced into moving Andersson for an underwhelming package coming back.
The perfect example of this is the Vancouver Canucks. Knowing they weren’t going to be re-signing Quinn Hughes in the offseason, they elected to trade him to the Minnesota Wild in mid December. They received a fantastic return for the superstar defenceman, bringing in Zeev Buium, Marco Rossi, Liam Ohgren, and a 2026 first-round pick.
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By no means is Andersson on the same level as Hughes. The latter is widely regarded as the second-best defenceman in the NHL today. That said, Andersson is believed to be the best defenceman on the market. There are plenty of teams who would love to have him, and the return on Hughes shows teams are willing to pay a pretty penny to make it happen. It’s up to Flames management to get those conversations going and proceed forward with them in quick fashion.
Time is Ticking
We are now less than two months away from the March 6 trade deadline, and the Flames have yet to make a deal this season. There’s no reason left to continue remaining patient, and doing so for much longer could end up impacting these potential trades in a negative way. General manager Craig Conroy and his staff need to act quick and start speeding up trade talks with all 31 teams across the NHL to ensure they maximize returns, as failing to land proper packages for all three, specifically Andersson, would be an outright failure.
