Flames close fourth straight season out of playoffs, look to crucial draft and future

CALGARY – A fourth straight year of missing the NHL playoffs puts pressure on the Calgary Flames to parlay a plethora of high draft picks into hope for fans.

Calgary (34-39-9) capped the regular season ranked 29th out of 32 teams, and posted the team’s worst record in an 82-game season in 23 years.

After missing the 2025 post-season by a measly tiebreaker point, the Flames weren’t close after a 2-8-2 start.

They scored the fewest goals in the league (212) and had the worst road record (11-26-4). Only the Philadelphia Flyers had a worse power play.

Jonathan Huberdeau’s hip issues that shut him down for the season in early February were a further drag on Calgary’s production.

The Flames’ rebuild, in anticipation of a scheduled 2027 fall opening of the $1.22-billion Scotia Place, accelerated with trades of No. 1 centre Nazem Kadri (Colorado) and top defencemen Rasmus Andersson (Las Vegas) and Mackenzie Weegar (Utah).

“It was a tough year, of course,” Flames captain Mikael Backlund said Friday. “Not the start we wanted. To lose a lot of good players and people, it was hard. 

“We want to be better. We want to be in a different situation than we are today. The way the guys competed and battled — give a lot of guys credit. No one should be satisfied with anything because we missed the playoffs and we lost more games than we won.”

The Flames head into the off-season holding a franchise-record eight draft picks in the first three rounds of the June 26-27 draft in Buffalo, N.Y.

“Right now, it’s hard to say are we going to make all the picks? Right now, yeah, today we are going to make all the picks,” said general manager Craig Conroy. 

“But as we get to the draft, can we move up? Is there an opportunity to make a trade for a player that we feel is someone who can help us now and in the future? We’re going to look at all those options for sure.”

Calgary has an outside shot — 9.5 per cent — at the No. 1 pick in the May 5 draft lottery, although the last-place Vancouver Canucks, Chicago Blackhawks and New York Rangers have higher probabilities of their names being drawn.

The Flame finished the season 8-1-1 at the Saddledome. The playoffs were virtually out of reach after the trade deadline; however, Backlund bristled at social media suggestions that “tanking” was an option to increase the team’s chances at the first overall pick in Buffalo.

“That question shouldn’t even come up. We’re professional athletes,” Backlund said. 

“Fans should know we get paid to play the best we can and go out every night and compete. People pay a lot of money to come watch us play. The smallest thing we can do is show up for the fans and for teammates and play hard for the organization.”

Conroy is under the microscope to generate optimism that will sell seats in a new arena, and recruit complementary talent for a 25-and-under cohort that includes Matt Coronato, Conor Zary, Samuel Honzek, Zayne Parekh, Matvei Gridin and Dustin Wolf.

More goal scoring is the priority. Calgary’s lack of it — plus penalty minutes that ranked fourth in the league — made life hard on 25-year-old goaltender Wolf, who was the 2025 runner-up for NHL rookie of the year, and backup Devin Cooley. 

Matt Coronato led the team in points (45), and Morgan Frost in goals (22).

“We’re going to go and try to do whatever we can to help the team and make it better, but a lot of it is going to come from within,” Conroy said. 

“It’s going to be young players taking another step, and the veteran players that are here to have big years. To have Huberdeau back healthy next year, that’s an important thing.”

Ryan Strome, acquired at the trade deadline for a draft pick, 20-goal scorer Coleman, Frost and defencemen Joel Hanley and Brayden Pachal each have a year remaining on their respective contracts before unrestricted free agency in 2027.

Forwards Ryan Lomberg and Victor Olofsson and defenceman Jake Bean become UFAs in July.

Conroy, head coach Ryan Huska, hockey operations president Don Maloney and assistant general managers Dave Nonis and Brad Pascall all signed two-year contract extensions, announced earlier this season, through to 2027-28. 

“We have to make sure that as individuals, we do everything we possibly can to be a faster team next year,” Huska said.

“When we talk about the speed of the game, that’s something that has to change for our power play. That isn’t the foot speed part of it. It’s the puck speed. We have to be a lot quicker with what we do to move the puck instead of handling it, handling it, make a play. Far too many times, we allowed penalty kills to get themselves into position.”

Calgary has reached the second round of playoffs just twice since a Stanley Cup final appearance in 2004. 

It’s an NHL market that will continue to hunger for playoff success into next season, and the team’s last at the Saddledome.

This report by The Canadian Press was first published April 17, 2026.