Flames Won’t Win Much This Season and That’s Great News – The Hockey Writers – Calgary Flames

Another NHL season is just around the corner, which is always an exciting time for hockey fans. Not only do they get to watch some great action they were missing throughout the summer months, but it also gives many fan bases plenty of excitement believing this could be the season for their team to win it all. Unfortunately, that feeling won’t be experienced amongst Calgary Flames fans.

While many teams are heading into the year thinking they could be Stanley Cup contenders, the Flames are not that. After an already disappointing 2025-26 season, this team, at least on paper, is even worse than they were one year ago.

That’s a disappointing realization for many, as fans always enjoy watching games more when their team is competitive. That said, every team in the NHL experiences a rebuild at one point or another, and the Flames find themselves in one right now. It will be painful short term, but could see the organization reap the rewards in the years to come.

Flames Have Strong Shot at Landing First-Overall Pick

Heading into the 2025-26 season, some thought the Flames had an outside chance of landing the first-overall pick. As it turns out, they were in the running having finished 29th in the NHL standings. Unfortunately, the draft lottery didn’t pan out as hoped, and resulted in them picking sixth overall.

While that pick got the Flames a very good prospect in defenceman Carson Carels, it wasn’t the pick that the fan base was hoping for. The good news, however, is that this team seems to have an even better shot at landing the first-overall pick this time around, thanks in large part to the work by general manager (GM) Craig Conroy.

The Flames are a worse team than a year ago, with veterans like Nazem Kadri, MacKenzie Weegar, Rasmus Andersson, and Blake Coleman having all been traded. Their centre depth consists of Morgan Frost, Mikael Backlund, Ryan Strome, and Martin Pospisil. Their blueline, meanwhile, will be one of the weakest in the entire league.

Though it could be a tough season to tune into, the Flames will likely be adding another great prospect, perhaps at first overall, to continue building what looks to be a very bright future. On top of Carels, they also have several other great young pieces such as Zayne Parekh, Hunter Brzustewicz, Matvei Gridin, Cole Reschny, Cullen Potter, Jack Hextall, Henry Mews, and several others.

Despite all those great pieces listed above, the one thing the Flames are lacking is a true game-breaking talent. They are hoping Parekh can be that from the back end, though even if he does become that, they could still use a difference maker up front.

Finding true difference makers through trade is extremely difficult, if not often impossible. That makes it crucial to find those types of talents in the draft, and the Flames may have no better opportunity than to do that this coming season. While defenceman Landon DuPont is currently projected to go first overall, several forwards including Nazar Privalov and Alexis Joseph are viewed as potential building blocks for an organization.

Tides Will Soon Change

For years, or even decades, Flames fans have been begging for ownership and management to ice a true Stanley Cup contender. They’ve gotten further away from that over the last few years, but are taking the right approach to ensure that they will be a very competitive team in the future.

Though these next few seasons could be painful for both the team and fans, there are much brighter days ahead. This team is on the right path to being a Cup contender for many years, and struggling this coming season and perhaps even in 2027-28 will only help further. Soon enough, the Flames will be a consistent playoff team, and they’ll be doing that in their brand-new arena.