As fans daydream about the future impact of Hunter Brzustewicz, Zayne Parekh and Dustin Wolf, Postmedia assesses when the Flames could contend for a championship
When you’re covering a rebuild or retool or reset or whatever you want to call it, you’re not expecting an assignment like this.
Keep in mind, the Flames have won only two best-of-seven series in the past two decades — advancing to the second round in 2015 and 2022.
Keep in mind that they’ve turned over about 80% of their roster in the past two-plus years.
Keep in mind they don’t have a cornerstone centre or a sure-thing starting goalie, both essential check-list items for any championship-calibre club.
As general manager Craig Conroy lays the foundation for a winning roster, as construction crews pour the foundation for a new arena, let’s look into the crystal ball. When could the Flames hoist the Stanley Cup?
Status today
The Flames are in the early stages of a rebuild. While they’re adamant this won’t be a total teardown, they have over the past year and change traded away key pieces at every position, almost all of them in exchange for future assets. Patience is now crucial, both for Conroy and for a fan-base that will likely be waiting a while for a playoff berth. The thing is, there is genuine excitement around Calgary that the Flames are on the right track, that this is an overdue overhaul for a franchise that has for too long been stuck in the NHL’s mushy middle. You don’t publicly declare an end-date for a rebuild — this is not always a smooth or speedy ride — but the higher-ups at the Saddledome are hoping that the team has turned a corner by the time they move down the street to Scotia Place, which is slated to open for the 2027-28 campaign.
Reason to believe
The Flames have assembled an impressive stockpile of potential difference-makers. Dustin Wolf, a two-time winner of the American Hockey League’s goaltender-of-the-year award, continues to silence the doubters and could in a matter of weeks be the starting netminder at the Saddledome. Flames fans are daydreaming about the 1-2 punch they may have in offensive-minded defencemen Zayne Parekh and Hunter Brzustewicz, who both put up eye-popping point totals in the Ontario Hockey League last season. Among the forwards, Martin Pospisil and Connor Zary have already established themselves as full-timers while Matt Coronato and Jakob Pelletier now have an opportunity to do the same. If guys like Matvei Gridin and Sam Honzek can reach their full potential, this could eventually be a deep and dangerous bunch. Adding to the optimism, the Flames have a GM who has earned high marks for how he has navigated some tricky trade negotiations, a head coach with strong communication skills and a solid track record in player development, and there is confidence that they have the right mix of locker-room leaders to ensure that the standards won’t slip.
Reason for skepticism
Winning a Stanley Cup without an elite centre is like winning a Super Bowl without a star quarterback — it has been done once or twice before, but it’s certainly not a regular recipe for success. The Flames quest to hang a championship banner — and the timeline for doing so — hinges on how soon they can find a future No. 1 pivot. That guy isn’t in the system yet. The best-case scenario is to check that box in the 2025 NHL Draft, but without a little lottery luck, they could wind up waiting until 2026 or beyond. From the moment that young man dons the Flaming C logo for the first time, you’ll still need to allow several years of maturation before they can be expected to hold their own against the best in the biz. Conroy played centre during his own career, so he realizes this is a must-have.
Prospect pipeline
Take it from a beat reporter who has been around a while: There was more speed and skill at the Flames’ latest summer development camp than there has been at any other point in recent memory. Before the additions of Parekh and Brzustewicz, many figured Jeremie Poirier would someday be running Calgary’s top power-play unit. Poirier’s progress was stalled by a gnarly injury last season, but he’s still only 22 and will be looking to remind everybody of the talent level that earned him a place on the AHL’s all-rookie team in 2022-23. The Flames see Artem Grushnikov as one of those simple, steady defenders who can handle tough matchups and free up his partner to jump into the attack. William Stromgren seems to be on an encouraging trajectory as he pushes for a look on left wing, while Gridin won the USHL’s scoring crown as a draft-eligible and Andrew Basha has the makings of a future fan fave in his home city.
Salary-cap situation
This certainly isn’t an issue. The Flames enter the 2024-25 campaign with nearly $20 million US in available cap space. Across the NHL, only two teams have more financial flexibility. Looking long-term, the biggest concern is all that loot owed to Jonathan Huberdeau, who is signed for seven more seasons — through the end of the 2030-31 campaign — at an annual cap-hit of $10.5 million. The hope is Huberdeau, over the next few winters anyway, can provide more bang-for-buck than he did in 2023-24, when he produced only 52 points and posted a minus-29 rating.
Postmedia predicts
The Flames will win the Stanley Cup in 2031.
Postmedia explains
It’s a long way off, we know. We can imagine Conroy, with an exaggerated sigh, reading this and exclaiming: ‘C’mon, really?!?’ Here’s our rationale: If you study the roster of recent Stanley Cup champions, the majority of their go-to guys are typically in their mid- to late-20s. Calgary-raised Cale Makar collected a Conn Smythe Trophy at only 23, but that is a rarity. Fast-forward to June of 2031 and here are the ages of the Flames’ could-be core pieces — Pelletier and Wolf at 30, Zary at 29, Coronato at 28, Brzustewicz and Honzek at 26, Parekh and Gridin at 25 and that yet-to-be-selected centre at 24 or even younger. We imagine Rasmus Andersson, who will be approaching 35, leaving the first fingerprints on the trophy as Calgary’s grizzled captain. Maybe he can hand it off to Huberdeau or MacKenzie Weegar, since both will be in the final year of their current contracts. We imagine, too, that there will be immediate talk of a repeat, since most of the Flames’ top performers will be in the prime of their careers. But hey, let’s not get too far ahead of ourselves here …