The Calgary Flames and enigmatic forward Connor Zary are at an awkward phase in their business relationship.
Placed on waivers on Monday along with defenceman Brayden Pachal, the two went 24 hours without a claim being registered and can now be assigned to the AHL Wranglers.
This begs the question surrounding one of Calgary’s most skilled young former first round picks:
How did we get here?
Rising Star
Many will remember the 24th overall selection at the 2020 NHL Entry Draft storming onto the team in November of 2023. With a 2-6-1 record and fresh off of an embarrassing 5-2 loss to the Oilers at the Heritage Classic, rookie head coach Ryan Huska made a bold move in injecting Zary onto Nazem Kadri’s line.
Although he found the back of the net on a line with Backlund’s unit, Zary’s chemistry with Kadri and the soon-to-be called up Martin Pospisil drove the Flames to a rebound 8-4-2 November. With the insulation of a play-driving forward unit, the rest of the Flames found themselves facing lighter matchups. The Flames finished the month with four comeback wins and the season with ten comeback wins.
Zary finished the 2023-24 regular season with 14 goals and 20 assists for 34 points. A personal total that will likely go unsurpassed by the Saskatoon Sniper within the Flames organization. Times were good.
What started to show as that rookie season was just how talented Zary was. Fans and opposition alike keyed in on it. Teams began game-planning around him. While many can easily recall Connor’s highlight reel goals; the majority of his body of work was getting knocked around.
Then came his two knee injuries in his sophmore season. You can’t blame a lack of pushback on either play. The first involved Anaheim defenceman Drew Helleson and the second Dallas Stars center Mikko Rantanen.
With the injuries came a loss of speed. Zary’s speed totals nose-dived in 2025-26; as did his production.
Despite the setback, Zary got a look in the top six when Blake Coleman missed time with injury.
Showing Potential
His minutes went from 14:06 per game in the first 42 to 15:55 per game over those 12 games. He put up two goals and five assists and hit 0.58 points per game. Before that, he had 14 points in 42 games on the year; 0.33 points per game.
That is a massive jump. Zary surged to a 48-point pace over that stretch.
During that span, he also tied Morgan Frost for the team lead in power play production. The two had four points apiece. While his powerplay time per game didn’t go up massively during that time (about ten seconds), Ryan Huska and Co. did move him to a Blake Coleman spot as the bumper pass on the left side of the opposing goalie.
Zary went from 4.3 powerplay shots per 60 to 24. That is waaay higher than other members of the Flames during that time. Frost had 17.4 and Huberdeau had 17.1. Zary also led the team with 10 shot attempts that translated to 9 shots.
It has to be mentioned here that (a tired) Nazem Kadri was also moved out of a trigger position. He went from leading the team with 13.6 powerplay shots per 60 to only 6.4 while Coleman was out.
What’s most interesting about all of this?
The powerplay took off during that 12-game stretch. The Flames were running a 13.9% power play in 40 games before that and in the next 12 games, they went 26.5%.
And it ended up being the second Flames power play unit carrying the Flames over that time. Huska still rolled out Kadri, Huberdeau, and Coronato as the first unit, those three hoovered up deployment and only produced two goals in those 12 games. Kadri led the Flames in powerplay deployment while Coleman was out and only had one assist in 28 minutes.
The second unit? Scored seven goals during those 12 games with secondary minutes. Pushing the Flames to 0.75 power plays goals was huge. It wasn’t always Frost, Zary and Backlund; Yegor Sharangovich and Matvei Gridin saw increased reps too. Zary had four points and Sharangovich and Gridin each had three over those 12 games.
That was a massive moment in Calgary’s development and it got steamrolled by the impending trade deadline. For more, check out this episode of the Pilot Light: a Calgary Flames Podcast.
Any and all momentum from that encouraging stretch was wiped off the map in late March when former Flame AJ Greer took a cheap shot at Zary in a dangerous area of the ice.
The response from his team? Nothing. As usual.
Flames general manager marked the injury as a loss of momentum on the Barn Burner Podcast in late September.
Rough Start
Connor Zary didn’t do himself any favours to start this season.
Rolled out on a line with Ryan Strome and Yegor Sharangovich, Zary was indirectly called out after Calgary dropped their home opener 6-1 to the Seattle Kraken.
“Certain people were stubborn,” said Huska in his post-game media availability. “I talked about that when we’re trying to generate more offence earlier in our training camp. You gotta do things a little differently, because some things don’t work, like skating through people in the neutral zone and trying to beat people one versus two does not work in the National League. It really doesn’t.”
The Pilot Light ended up going through that brutal loss again to tally how many times Zary took the puck through the neutral zone and over the middle of the blue line. Connor did it five times in that game and gained the zone only once. One turnover led to a goal against. Another turnover led to a shot off of the crossbar. The first turnover came in his first shift and his last came in his second last shift of the game.
With Zary clearing waivers, we’re left with more questions than answers. The 25-year-old wasn’t in the main lineup at practice on Tuesday.
Enjoying a Monday off, the Flames have a few days to iron out their share of wrinkles before they play the Colorado Avalanche on Thursday.
Statistics courtesy of Elite Prospects, Capwages, and the National Hockey League.
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