NHL Free Agency: Calgary Flames Face Possible Summer Overhaul

As the weeks have turned to just a few days before Thursday’s NHL Entry Draft, the Flames are at the centre of a lot of talk regarding potential players on the move.

Speaking of the big event on Thursday, don’t forget to check out our NHL Props for plenty of draft action.

Flames’ Toffoli, Backlund Could Leave

Calgary wasted no time in washing away some of the sting of 2022-2023 in the days that followed a playoff-less campaign. It seemed as if the second the locker rooms were cleaned out for summer, coach Darryl Sutter was fired. Then Brad Treviling, a long-time member of the Flames’ head office, went eastward to become the new general manager of the Toronto Maple Leafs.

In the weeks that followed Craig Conroy was announced as the club’s new GM and Ryan Huska as the new head coach. No sooner did they start warming their seats did a discussion about the team’s culture and players wanting to leave begin to sprout.

On Sunday, TSN featured a terrific conversation between SportsCentre host Jay Onrait and Calgary correspondent Salim Valji.

It would appear that there is a level of uncertainty and discontent within the Flames organization. Players who only just arrived could be on the movee already.

Tyler Toffoli, who was a Flame at the start of 2021-2022, was sent to Montreal near the trade deadline of that campaign. Lo and behold, the Canadiens shipped him back to Alberta last offseason. Despite that Toffoli gave a glowing end-of-season talk with the press – going so far as to mention how much his wife loves the city – rumour has it that he would like to play elsewhere. It’s no secret that he and former coach Sutter got along well, so the latter’s firing didn’t help.

Mikael Backlund, who has spent his entire 15-year career with the Flames, is also rumoured to be on the move.

Valji also mentioned that Elias Lindholm is someone who might be wearing a different sweater in 2023-2024.

Calgary Flames Look to the Future

After a red hot 2021-2022, the Flames weren’t nearly as on fire in 2022-2023. They missed the playoffs, in large part because of an awful start to the calendar year and some soul-crushing defeats to teams even worse than them in late March and early April.

Big summer 2022 signings like Jonathan Huberdeau from the Panthers and Nazem Kadri from the Avalanche didn’t amount to very much either. Huberdeau didn’t even reach 60 points and Kadri was a dismal -19 for the entire season.

Stay tuned to the Flames. There could be a lot of action out of Calgary in the lead-up to and on Thursday night. The team selects 16th in the first round and 48th in the second.