With the launch of early access to EA NHL 26, let\u2019s see how the upcoming Calgary Flames season would unfold in Franchise mode. I used the roster as constructed by Craig Conroy, making no trades or additional free agent signings, and only adding in Connor Zary\u2019s new contract.<\/p>\n
The Flames would start the season with a 4\u20132 loss to their provincial rivals\u2014the Edmonton Oilers\u2014on the road.\u00a0Calgary would bounce back the next night with a win against the Vancouver Canucks before heading home to win their home opener against the St. Louis Blues.<\/p>\n
Next, the Flames would win the following two games, improving to a 4\u20131\u20130 record before falling in their next six games in an early-season losing streak.<\/p>\n
Just over 0.500 at American Thanksgiving<\/p>\n
Moving ahead to American Thanksgiving, the Flames sit sixth in the Pacific Division with a 12\u201310\u20133 record. In their next 16 games, Calgary would pick up seven more wins by the midway mark of the season, just slightly improving to a 19\u201316\u20137 record.<\/p>\n
The Flames would then start to roll and move into fourth in the division, finding themselves in a playoff spot with a 33\u201321\u20138 record at the trade deadline. They would hold onto the fourth spot in the Pacific, finishing the season with 98 points and a 45\u201329\u20138 record.<\/p>\n
Heading into the playoffs<\/p>\n
Facing the Winnipeg Jets in round one of the playoffs, the series would take all seven games. The Flames took out the powerhouse Jets on the back of a Dustin Wolf shutout in a 4\u20130 win.<\/p>\n
The Flames would once again face a tough match-up, taking on the Colorado Avalanche in round two. Once again, they would be in another seven-game series. However, this time, they would fall short and be eliminated from the playoffs.<\/p>\n
A few surprising things caught my eye. First up, the Vegas Golden Knights not only missed the playoffs, but they also finished with the fourth-best lottery odds. You can see where this is going\u2026 The Flames, who hold the Knights\u2019 2026 first-round pick, lucked their way into the first overall pick.<\/p>\n
The second thing: Ryan Huska wins the Jack Adams Trophy.<\/p>\n
Alright, you can wake me up from this dream now.<\/p>\n
Looking at player stats<\/p>\n
Top ten players<\/p>\n
PlayerGoalsAssistsPointsNazem Kadri285381Jonathan Huberdeau274471Matt Coronato 253863Yegor Sharangovich243660Morgan Frost164359Connor Zary173148MacKenzie Weegar54146Rasmus Andersson142842Mikael Backlund152641Blake Coleman181735<\/p>\n
Nazem Kadri once again leads the team in points and goals, this time with 28 goals and 81 points.\u00a0<\/p>\n
According to this sim, Flames will have no 30-goal players, with the next highest scorers being Jonathan Huberdeau at 27 goals and Matt Coronato with 25.<\/p>\n
After signing his brand new contract, Connor Zary had a full, healthy season, scoring 17 goals and 48 points. <\/p>\n
Now, let\u2019s take a look at Dustin Wolf. He appears to have no sophomore slump, picking up 35 wins with a 0.910 save percentage, a\u00a02.95 goals against average, and two shutouts.<\/p>\n
Rookie Zayne Parekh scored 11 goals and 31 points, but unfortunately, it was not enough to be in the Calder Trophy talks. <\/p>\n
Parekh would grow from an 80 overall up to an 84 overall by the end of the season. <\/p>\n
Closing thoughts<\/p>\n
I don\u2019t think it\u2019s out of the realm of possibility for this Flames team to make the playoffs, building off just missing it last season by one point.<\/p>\n
However, I think it would take more than just a fourth-place division finish for Huska to take home Coach of the Year.<\/p>\n
Now, here are a few things that I think the sim got wrong.<\/p>\n
I believe the Flames do have a few 30-goal players in them. Kadri still has it in him to score 30-plus after scoring a career high last season. Coronato has the tools to take himself to the next level, too, after a 24-goal campaign.\u00a0<\/p>\n
My next thought: if Parekh makes the team and plays a full season with the Flames, I can see him recording more points than how he sims. He has the talent to score into the 40\u201350 mark and could be in talks for the Calder.\u00a0<\/p>\n
What are your thoughts on how the game simmed? Let us know how you think the season will go. <\/p>\n
\n\tRelated<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"With the launch of early access to EA NHL 26, let\u2019s see how the upcoming Calgary Flames season…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":128121,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[556],"tags":[64,63,32858,78214,69198,79864,89492,41070,88135,42101,89493,44028,88139,88143,575,89494,89495,85,88150],"class_list":["post-128120","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-nhl","tag-au","tag-australia","tag-connor-zary","tag-craig-conroy","tag-dustin-wolf","tag-ea-nhl","tag-ea-nhl-sports","tag-ea-sports","tag-ea-sports-nhl","tag-ea-sports-nhl-26","tag-easports","tag-flames","tag-jonathan-huberdeau","tag-matt-coronato","tag-nhl","tag-nhl26","tag-sim","tag-sports","tag-zayne-parekh"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/128120","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=128120"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/128120\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/128121"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=128120"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=128120"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=128120"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}