What the Flames have \u00a0<\/p>\n As it stands, not a ton. But it\u2019s 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.<\/p>\n The real question is which veterans join that growing list of subtractions over the next year in the name of this rebuild \u2014 and how many more holes that will open up.<\/p>\n 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\u2019s 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.<\/p>\n 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.<\/p>\n 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\u2019s just a matter of building a team in front of him.<\/p>\n What the Flames need <\/p>\n 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\u2019s 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.<\/p>\n There\u2019s also Hunter Brzustewicz, who played NHL games last year and could also turn into a support piece on defense down the line.<\/p>\n Up front, the Flames have a few players who are working toward filling some of the gaps.<\/p>\n 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\u2019s checklist. So there\u2019s bounce-back potential here; at the very least, he\u2019s a player the Flames can already depend on for goals, with room to level up.<\/p>\n 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.<\/p>\n 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\u2019s 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\u2019s another forward working toward being, at worst, a supporting piece.<\/p>\n There\u2019s more hope to be found in recent draft picks, too, even if they\u2019re 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\u2019ve been expected when they drafted him in the fifth round of the 2025 draft.<\/p>\n There\u2019s no guarantee all of the Flames\u2019 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\u2019s possible some of the incoming young guns could give him a second wind and help keep his value up.<\/p>\n In the long run, there\u2019s promise that some of the Flames\u2019 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\u2019s what makes the slide to the No. 6 pick such a disappointment \u2014 the Flames need a player with Gavin McKenna\u2019s ceiling or Ivan Stenberg\u2019s 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.<\/p>\n The big question \u00a0<\/p>\n How many more star-quality pieces can the Flames add?<\/p>\n 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\u2019s efforts to build a winner, whether that be through trade, free agency or the draft.<\/p>\n The draft is the best way<\/a> to add MVP and franchise-caliber talent. The good news is Calgary has given itself every opportunity to do that this year.<\/p>\n The Flames will enter the 2026 NHL Draft in June armed with eight picks across the first three rounds \u2014 the No. 6 pick, Vegas\u2019 first-round pick, four seconds and two thirds. While it hurts that the Flames slid in the draft lottery, it\u2019s 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\u2019s 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\u2019s latest rankings<\/a>.<\/p>\n 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.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"This year\u2019s 29th-place finish seemed like enough to earn the Calgary Flames a top-five pick for just the…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":643165,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[66],"tags":[4047,385,99],"class_list":["post-643164","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-nhl","tag-calgary-flames","tag-nhl","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/643164","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=643164"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/643164\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/643165"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=643164"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=643164"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=643164"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}![\"\"\/](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/05\/Screenshot-2026-04-27-at-4.03.42\u202fPM.png\")
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