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.

The Flames closed their season Thursday with a 3-1 win over the visiting Los Angeles Kings, who reached the playoffs for a fifth straight season and will face the Colorado Avalanche in the first round.

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 was 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 centre Nazem Kadri (Colorado) and defencemen Rasmus Andersson (Las Vegas) and Mackenzie Weegar (Utah).

“There’s been a lot of change,” said veteran forward Blake Coleman. “We came into the year pretty optimistic, and vying for a playoff spot last year, expecting to get back to that spot or take another step. We weren’t able to do that.

“We kind of had a tough start that set us back early. It’s tough to recover when you put yourself in that kind of hole. Lessons got to be learned for next year to start on time and get off to a good start.”

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.

Calgary has a shot 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 drawn.

Flames general manager Craig Conroy is nevertheless 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.

The 19-year-old Parekh’s game-winning goal Thursday was a laser over Anton Forsberg’s far shoulder.

“You look at our record and we’re a different team from the start of the year, but at home we’re over .600 (so) just trying to squeeze a few more wins out on the road,” the defenceman said. “That’s big for us.”

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.

“The million dollar question is, what do we improve and how do we get to that next level? Our high-end production leaves a little bit to be desired,” Coleman said. “The leading scorer is in the forties (points) and hard to go too far with that.

“You’ve got to draft well, you’ve got to let your guys grow in-house and maybe make some moves in the off-season. But I know everyone’s doing everything they can to keep improving and go up from here. I think that’s the plan as far as I understand it. If everything trends that direction, I think there’s a lot to look forward to.

“We’ve got some 19-year-olds in this lineup that naturally had their ups and downs. Once they hit their twenties, I imagine they’re going to be superstars in this league.”

Ryan Strome, acquired at the trade deadline for a draft pick, 20-goal scorer Coleman, 22-goal man Morgan 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.

“Our job is to put enough points on the board to get the team to play more games than what the regular season schedule shows,” said Huska. “We’re excited about a lot of the people that are within our organization now. There is no question about that.

“It’s our job to make sure that those younger people, older people play together and play well so we can get enough points to get in at the end of the day.”

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.

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

Donna Spencer, The Canadian Press