The dream is simple.
It’s the fall of 2027 and the Calgary Flames skate out onto the ice at the brand-spanking new Scotia Place for the first time with a team that looks like it’s on the come-up.
They’re ready to contend, finally, after a couple of lean years where the focus was on getting younger and building back to this point.
A new arena, a new sense of optimism.
“I think we’re going to have a team that is going to build aggressively over the next three years,” said Robert Hayes, the new president and CEO of Calgary Sports & Entertainment Corporation at Monday’s groundbreaking ceremony for the new events centre. “We just had 10 draft picks in the most recent draft. I think we have some incredible veterans on our team. I think we’re going to be a very competitive team moving forward and building towards September 2027. I think the fans are going to be pretty excited to be Calgary Flames fans.”
That’s easier said than done, of course.
So what do the Flames have to do to actually get back to being a contender by the time they move into the new events centre?
Here’s what we think needs to happen:
Get a centre in the 2025 draft
This is a big one. The Flames have replenished their prospect pool in a serious way since Craig Conroy took over as GM, but they don’t have a player in their system who looks like he’s a true No. 1 centre.
Fortunately, there are a couple of guys who fit the bill in the 2025 NHL Draft and it’s not at all unreasonable to assume the Flames will be picking early next summer.
The likes of Boston College’s James Hagens, Anton Frondel of Djugardens in Sweden, and Michael Misa of the Saginaw Spirit are all high-end, exciting centres who will be draft-eligible next year — and the Flames selected Misa’s brother Luke in this year’s draft.
Is it reasonable to expect that a player who is drafted in 2025 will be making a massive impact in the NHL by the fall of 2027? Honestly, when we’re talking about high-lottery picks, the answer is probably yes.
In terms of veterans in the middle, Nazem Kadri will still be under contract when Scotia Place opens, but Mikael Backlund will be 38 years old. Yegor Sharangovich and Martin Pospisil could both be options and will still very much be in their primes.
But first-line centres are franchise cornerstones and they rarely, if ever, hit free agency. The Flames need to get one in the draft before they can really be said to be out of rebuilding mode and are just straight-up building towards contention.
Steady as she goes on the blueline
By the time 2027 rolls around, there’s every reason to believe the Flames are going to be in great shape on the blueline.
It’s a genuine area of strength, and 2024 first-round draft pick Zayne Parekh should be coming into his own as an NHLer by then, while the likes of Hunter Brzustewicz and Etienne Morin will likely be in the same position.
Their young depth goes a lot deeper than that, too, with the likes of Henry Mews, Artem Grushnikov and Joni Jurmo all carrying high hopes for the next couple of years as well, and Kevin Bahl — acquired in the trade that sent Jacob Markstrom to the New Jersey Devils, he has only recently turned 24 and already has 148 games to his name.
Rasmus Andersson, Daniil Miromanov and Jake Bean will all become unrestricted free agents a year before the Flames move into their new home, but MacKenzie Weegar will still be under contract for the 2027-28 season and it’s entirely possible that one of those three other veterans will re-sign.
The Flames look like they’re set for the future defensively, and the plan should be starting to come together by the time Scotia Place opens.
Dustin Wolf develops
It’s not like Dustin Wolf is the only goalie in the Flames system.
Dan Vladar is going to get a chance to make the starting spot his own this season, while Russians Kirill Zarubin, Yegor Yegorov and Arsenii Sergeev are all young and have high upside. The Flames added Finnish shot-stopper Waltteri Ignatjew in April, too.
Wolf, though, has long been considered the franchise’s goalie-of-the-future and his development is going to be a big factor in whether they can be playoff contenders by the fall of 2027.
He took a big step towards becoming an everyday NHLer last season, appearing in 17 games and winning seven while posting a 3.16 goals-against-average and an .893 save percentage. He was especially impressive down the stretch, where he won his final four games.
The importance of goaltending obviously can’t be overstated, and that means Wolf is going to be under the microscope as he makes the transition from being the best goalie in the AHL to, hopefully, stealing games for the Flames.
If he’s among the NHL’s elite in three years’ time, that will go a long way towards helping the Flames start strong in their new building.
Leverage their draft capital
Replenishing your system is always a good thing and Conroy has done a nice job getting draft picks and young players back in return for the long list of veterans he’s traded away over the past 13 months.
They’ve got five first-round picks in the next three years, as well as four second-rounders and a lot more in the later rounds.
There are obviously conditions attached to some of those, but there’s potential for them to add a tonne of talent through the draft in the next couple of years.
It also puts them in a position of strength when it comes to trades, though, and it wouldn’t surprise anyone if Conroy uses some of those picks to acquire NHL-proven talents.
It’s pretty much impossible to guess who is going to be on the trade market in a few years’ time, but if the Flames are serious about contending by the time they move into Scotia Place they’re in a strong position to move out draft assets and young players in exchange for a legitimate, ready-now difference maker or two.
It certainly doesn’t hurt that they have a lot of cap space to play with, either.
Speaking of which …
Get aggressive in free agency
Conroy smartly avoided giving out long-term contracts in free agency this year and didn’t get involved in the bidding for the NHL’s most highly sought-after UFAs.
Given where the team is in its development process, it just didn’t make sense to spend that sort of money.
But they won’t be in that same place forever, and with Puckpedia estimating that they have more than $20 million in cap space this season, they have money to play with.
And at some point, spending big on a player who might help someone like Jonathan Huberdeau — who will still be getting paid $10.5 million in 2027-28 — rediscover his offensive game makes sense.
Names like Cale Makar and Mitch Marner are going to get tossed around, and whether or not you think they’ll a) be available or b) are perfect fits in Calgary, all of that cap space means the Flames can definitely make competitive offers.
A new arena might make Calgary a lot more enticing for free agents and if the team thinks it’s getting close to contention they’ll absolutely be justified in trying to fast-track that process by splashing out on some star power over the next couple of years.