This year’s 29th-place finish seemed like enough to earn the Calgary Flames a top-five pick for just the second time in the team’s history; the last time was back in 2014, when Sam Bennett was drafted with the No. 4 pick.

The most likely landing spot was the No. 5 pick, which the Flames had a 44.6 percent chance at. Instead, the worst-case scenario happened: The Flames slid as low as they possibly could to sixth.

Despite that unlucky bounce, there is still promise ahead in Calgary. It’s just going to be a long road back to contention.

Just how much work is ahead?

Here’s where the Flames stand going into the 2026-27 season. All projected values are age-adjusted based on each player’s profile of comparable peers. Here’s a primer on the Cup Checklist.

What the Flames have  

As it stands, not a ton. But it’s somewhat by design; moving out NHL-caliber talent for a promising future is the name of the game in a rebuild. Over the last year, Calgary moved out Nazem Kadri, MacKenzie Weegar and Rasmus Andersson, but added two first-round picks and five second-rounders in the process, to hopefully find that next way of starring and supporting talent.

The real question is which veterans join that growing list of subtractions over the next year in the name of this rebuild — and how many more holes that will open up.

As it stands, Blake Coleman is the ideal supporting forward. He is the kind of all-situation utility player contenders crave to complete a top nine, which is why he can only be penciled into next year’s lineup at this point. Coleman is in the final year of his contract, which makes him an even better fit for a team with playoff aspirations next season; at 34, he is projected to carry a plus-1.2 Net Rating, which could shift higher with enough support around him.

The next wave of veteran support comes from Jonathan Huberdeau and Mikael Backlund. Neither one is a true needle-mover at this point in their respective careers, but at the very least, they can help take the pressure off incoming talent by absorbing bigger minutes when needed. The reality is that these two will likely slide even lower by the time the Flames are competitive again.

On the flip side, there are a few young players already showing a lot of promise. The most exciting is in net, in Dustin Wolf, who showed what a difference-maker he could be in a starting role. Now it’s just a matter of building a team in front of him.

What the Flames need

Zayne Parekh should help with that; he already has shown flash, flair and high-level skating at the start of his NHL career, with experience quarterbacking the power play. At 20, he is already a passable supporting core piece. But he might have the highest ceiling of all Flames prospects right now. He could one day be the team’s franchise defenseman if he continues to trend upward and follows in the footsteps of comps like Erik Karlsson and Jakob Chychrun. If Jamie Drysdale and Sam Girard, with whom he also shares some similar traits, prove to be more fitting matches, then his current placement could be the sweet spot to grow into.

There’s also Hunter Brzustewicz, who played NHL games last year and could also turn into a support piece on defense down the line.

Up front, the Flames have a few players who are working toward filling some of the gaps.

Matthew Coronato, a first-round pick from the 2021 draft, still has room to grow as a consistent scorer but has a terrific shot. Had he not taken a step back this year, he would have been included in this year’s checklist. So there’s bounce-back potential here; at the very least, he’s a player the Flames can already depend on for goals, with room to level up.

Connor Zary is another first-rounder who can carry the puck in transition, but stagnated statistically. The hope is that Zary can still trend upward as a 24-year-old.

Matvei Gridin, a first-round pick from the 2024 draft, has shown a lot of promise, confidence and skill through the first 37 games of his NHL career. The fact he’s shown he can hang at the NHL level is a promising sign for the 20-year-old, though the Flames must be prepared for any hurdles to come in his sophomore season. But that’s another forward working toward being, at worst, a supporting piece.

There’s more hope to be found in recent draft picks, too, even if they’re still far from being everyday NHLers. Cole Reschny drew rave reviews as a two-way force in the WHL and was still a near-point-per-game player at the collegiate level. Ethan Wyttenbach is the fastest-rising prospect in the Flames system, leading the NCAA in scoring as a freshman, and his ceiling might be much higher than what might’ve been expected when they drafted him in the fifth round of the 2025 draft.

There’s no guarantee all of the Flames’ prospects will pan out or stay on their roster as the rebuild continues. In the meantime, there are players like Morgan Frost, Joel Farabee, Yegor Sharangovich, Huberdeau and Backlund, among others, who can help while the team is in transition. Someone like Huberdeau could end up sliding down the checklist ladder as he ages, but it’s possible some of the incoming young guns could give him a second wind and help keep his value up.

In the long run, there’s promise that some of the Flames’ up-and-comers could fill holes in the support and depth core as they develop. That still leaves Calgary with one clear pressing need: elite forwards to lead this next window of contention. And that’s what makes the slide to the No. 6 pick such a disappointment — the Flames need a player with Gavin McKenna’s ceiling or Ivan Stenberg’s potential. But even if this team can find a hidden gem with their stockpile or draft capital (or move up in the order to add a higher-caliber forward), the 2026 draft alone may not be enough to build an elite core. This is going to be a process.

The big question  

How many more star-quality pieces can the Flames add?

The goal for any rebuilding team is to find and develop star-quality players. The Flames, clearly, have a lot of room for growth here, with just one of five elite core pieces in place. So this is what will ultimately define management’s efforts to build a winner, whether that be through trade, free agency or the draft.

The draft is the best way to add MVP and franchise-caliber talent. The good news is Calgary has given itself every opportunity to do that this year.

The Flames will enter the 2026 NHL Draft in June armed with eight picks across the first three rounds — the No. 6 pick, Vegas’ first-round pick, four seconds and two thirds. While it hurts that the Flames slid in the draft lottery, it’s still a real boost from last season, when Calgary picked 18th and 32nd in Round 1 and only had two picks across the next two rounds. This year’s draft should give Flames management ample opportunity to find gems who can be developed into future stars for this team, and boost a prospect pool that already ranks third in Scott Wheeler’s latest rankings.

Having a lot of talent in the prospect pipeline is obviously encouraging; so is having a star goalie in Wolf, plus a promising defenseman in Parekh as a starting point. But there is still a lot of work to be done. Calgary has to turn all that potential into real NHL-caliber talent and still hit on home runs in the draft to build an elite core to lead this next wave of Flames hockey.