On Wednesday night, the Calgary Flames kick off the 2025-26 regular season with a Battle of Alberta showdown in Edmonton. The following night, they’re in Vancouver wrapping up the tail of a back-to-back against the Canucks. Two days later, they host the St. Louis Blues for a 2:00 P.M. matinee home opener.
Hockey foie gras.
It should go without saying that there won’t be much time to sit and reflect, but we do have a day to examine how the team did in the preseason and analyze the current roster. Today we’ll be doing a rundown of every player who made a squad that includes two rookies to start the year.
As a precursor, lets take a look at the projected lines for Wednesday’s season opener:
Farabee-Kadri-Klapka
Gridin-Frost-Coronato
Zary-Backlund-Coleman
Lomberg-Kirkland-Sharangovich
Pospisil
Hanley-Weegar
Bahl-Andersson
Bean-Pachal
Parekh-Miromanov
Wolf
Cooley
Forwards
Matvei Gridin: A+
Why not start with the biggest story out of camp? 19 year old Matvei Gridin has made the roster. Not only that; he’s made the top six and is set to play on a line with Morgan Frost and Matthew Coronato.
This may be a temporary situation. Jonathan Huberdeau is currently day-to-day after an awkward collision against the Vancouver Canucks.
Matvei looked more offensively dangerous than every forward on the roster not named Nazem Kadri when the team started playing NHL-calibre opposition. His three goals in three games were no coincidence.
No big deal. Just Gridin going five-hole on last season’s Vezina Trophy winner.
Nazem Kadri: A+
While much is made of Dustin Wolf and his ability to carry a team, the Flames arent going anywhere if Nazem Kadri isn’t on his “A” game for the majority of the year.
Things look good so far. Naz capped off his preseason with a two-goal performance against the Winnipeg Jets on Friday. His 2.09 goals per 60 minutes is rivalled by only Matvei Gridin’s 2.02.
What may be most interesting is that Kadri starts the year on a new-look first line with Joel Farabee and Adam Klapka. The three took a game to figure out where to go, but they’ve figured out the formula prior to game one.
Joel Farabee: B+
Farabee scored two goals and picked up a primary assist in four games this preseason. For a guy who put up an anemic three goals and three assists in his first 31 games in a Flames sweater, perhaps there is hope for the 25 year old power sniper.
The dangerous shot that Farabee used to deploy doesn’t seem to be back, but he’s doing a great job cleaning up in front of the opposing net.
Adam Klapka: B+
Most fans wouldn’t have guessed that the towering Czech would start 2025-26 on the first line.
Yet here he is. Klapka’s speed both with and without the puck helps secure controlled zone entries and his physicality opens up space for a volume shooter like Kadri to generate clean shots.
Morgan Frost: A
The 26 year old Frost led the team in scoring with seven points (2G, 5A) in six games this preseason. The 26 year old center has been burdened with slow starts in the last few years. We’ll find out soon whether his hot streak carries on into the season.
Matthew Coronato: C+
The 13th overall pick in 2019 looks ready to be the volume shooter on his own top six line this season. A far stretch from being a healthy scratch for half of Calgary’s games last October.
Coronato scored just a single goal in six preseason games, but was doing the right things on the ice. No need to panic for the 22 year old sniper.
Connor Zary: B-
Zary got right back to getting beaten up for 20 minutes a night this preseason after havign his season end early due to a knee injury. A goal and a primary assist was respectable for the freshly-signed forward.
In terms of his on-ice play, Zary appears to have not missed a step from his injury. He could have looked a little sharper with the puck, but he’ll come around. To the dismay of those who want to see more offence out of the Saskatoon Sniper, Connor starts the season on the left side of Mikael Backlund and Blake Coleman.
Mikael Backlund: D
Zero points and two goals against on the penalty kill in three games for Calgary’s capatin. Not his best preseason. We’ll see how he looks against the NHL’s most dangerous power play on Oct. 8.
Blake Coleman: D
Outchanced by a small margin and outscored by a large margin in three preseason games. The Flames scored zero goals with Blake Coleman on the ice in three games. The opposition scored four even strength goals and one power play goal.
Backlund and Coleman need to be much better by Wednesday. Both offensively and defensively.
Ryan Lomberg: C
Calgary’s resident five-foot-nine enforcer looked a little faster this camp. Originally breaking into the NHL by using his blazing speed, we may see that aspect of his game return with time.
Unfortunately, Ryan was another veteran that wasn’t on the ice for a Flames goal this preseason. Good teams need all four lines producing offence and that wasn’t the case this camp.
Justin Kirkland: C
Similar to Lomberg, no points. One goal against at even strength over five games.
Solid, but not moving the needle. Kirkland banked a shootout goal against Winnipeg at least.
Yegor Sharangovich: D+
Arguably the strangest preseason of the forwards, Sharangovich banked a goal and a primary assists in three games.
His play in puck battles was plain awful. The 27 year old Belarusian doesn’t appear to be starting the season on the right foot.
Martin Pospisil: C
Injured by a sucker punch from former Flame Derek Forbort, the scrappy Slovak starts the year as day-to-day. Pospisil was starting to get his feet going prior to his injury and drew praise from head coach Ryan Huska.
Jonathan Huberdeau: D+
Calgary’s highest paid player put up a troubling preseason. One secondary assist and a strange net drive that led to him being injured.
It was a solid gesture that sent a message amidst an 8-1 blowout at the hands of the Canucks: give what you can.
It would have been a greater gesture if he showed off more of his immense talent. The 32 year old is missing some swagger to start the season.
Defencemen
Joel Hanley: C-
It’s been a strange story for Hanley in Calgary. The 34 year old journeyman starts the year on MacKenzie Weegar’s pairing.
Ryan Huska is comfortable deploying the two in important situations, but do the pair stay together all season?
Hanley was outscored 2-5 at even strength over four games.
MacKenzie Weegar: B+
Could we have seen a better showing from Weegar in three games? Yes.
Was he playing poorly? No. MacKenzie Weegar looked like he was taking a few warmup reps, which he was. The 31 year old blueliner put up strong underlying metrics despite being outscored 2-3 at even strength.
Kevin Bahl & Rasmus Andersson: D
The two struggled this preseason. They looked better in the second half of the game against the Jets, but Andersson looks slow and Bahl doesn’t look like he’s hitting the ground running.
Jake Bean: D
Bean’s underlying stats looked terrible and the eye test had him looking just OK. Keeping him and Daniil Miromanov on the roster may have been more of a financial decision due to the one-way status on their contracts.
Brayden Pachal: C-
Pachal threw his body around well enough. Eight hits in five games. Him and Bean simply played replacement level this preseason. We’ll see what they do with their opportunity. If they keep bleeding goals, we’ll have a new-look blueline.
Zayne Parekh: B-
The 19 year old blue chip defenceman had good moments and bad moments. If we could magically erase a -4 night against Vancouver, Parekh would have been 4-2 at even strength.
He scored a powerplay goal against Winnipeg amid a 4-2 loss.
Zayne is capable of much more than one goal in six games. He also appeared to receive a slash to the hands in the final preseason game against the Jets which required him to go down the tunnel.
Parekh starts the season out of the lineup. It won’t last forever, but some fans are discouraged.
Daniil Miromanov: C
The 28 year old pending UFA was a bit of a ghost this camp. He got into two games. His metrics were fine. He picked up a secondary assist on the power play.
Goalies
Dustin Wolf: A+
Cool and calm as ever. Six goals against in three games and a 0.929 save percentage. Calgary’s best player.
Devin Cooley: C
An ugly performance against Vancouver appears to have decided the goaltender derby between Ivan Prosvetov and Devin Cooley. The latter was slightly less bad.
Huska sites familiarity as to why Cooley gets the backup position. Neither of the two blew the doors down.
Stats courtesy of NaturalStatTrick, Puckpedia and the National Hockey League. Credit to Robert Munich for the highlights.
KEEP READING:
Neufeld: 11 Calgary Flames Preseason Thoughts & Observations
Neufeld: 7 Bold Predictions Heading into the New Season
9 Reasons the Calgary Flames Struggled Last Season
Remarkable Turnaround: How the Flames PK went from 30th to 1st
Five Former Flames Head Coaches: Where are they now?
Follow on X: @Trevor_Neufeld
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