A very early look ahead at the Flames’ cap space for the 2026 off-season

It’s been a pretty quiet 2025 off-season for the Calgary Flames, gang. General manager Craig Conroy got most of his work done early, signing restricted free agents like Matt Coronato, Kevin Bahl and Morgan Frost to new deals. And while Connor Zary still needs a new deal, the summer has been pretty quiet otherwise.

And when we look forward to 2026’s off-season … it certainly sounds like we may have another quiet one next summer.

Here’s how things are looking a year in advance.

Yes, the cap will be going up again

For the 2025-26 season, the NHL’s salary cap ceiling has leapt up to $95.5 million – a pretty big jump from $88 million in 2024-25. Well, we’re going to have another big jump for 2026-27, with the cap breaking nine digits and reaching $104 million.

So how will the Flames be spending that money?

Via PuckPedia, here are the NHL regulars already locked up for 2026-27:

• No goaltenders (yet)
• Defencemen MacKenzie Weegar ($6.25 million), Kevin Bahl ($5.35 million), Joel Hanley ($1.75 million) and Brayden Pachal ($1.188 million)
• Forwards Jonathan Huberdeau ($1 0.5 million), Nazem Kadri ($7 million), Matt Coronato ($6.5 million), Yegor Sharangovich ($5.75 million), Joel Farabee ($5 million), Blake Coleman ($4.9 million), Morgan Frost ($4.375 million), Martin Pospisil ($2.5 million) and Adam Klapka ($1.25 million)

And, all things considered, we would be shocked if Zayne Parekh (and his $942,500 cap hit) isn’t on the NHL roster, too.

These commitments, all-told, account for about $63.3 million. That leaves $40.7 million of flexibility.

Some commitments coming off the books

The general expectation right now is that Rasmus Andersson (on a deal with a $4.5 million cap hit that expires on July 1, 2026) will be playing elsewhere in 2026-27. He’s been a very good Flame and will be missed.

Missed slightly less will be the $1.875 million of Jacob Markstrom’s salary cap hit that the Flames will be retaining in 2025-26, the second season of retention, as a byproduct of Markstrom’s move to New Jersey last summer.

Finally, given the sheer volume and quality of the young blueliners in the Flames system right now, it’s probably reasonable to predict that one (or both) of Jake Bean ($1.75 million) and Daniil Miromanov ($1.25 million), both unrestricted free agents on July 1, 2026, will be playing elsewhere in 2026-27. One of them could have a strong season and carve out a spot with the Flames, but both of them doing so seems pretty unlikely.

Goaltender decisions incoming

So, uh, the Flames have a young goaltender by the name of Dustin Wolf. You may have heard of him. He’s slated to become a restricted free agent on July 1, 2026 after his current contract, with its $850,000 cap hit, expires.

Wolf is gonna get paid.

Scuttlebutt is that Wolf’s representation and Flames brass are chatting about concepts for a long-term deal. We have no idea how far things have progressed, or how big his cap hit will be, but we’re probably looking at something at least in the neighbourhood of Coronato’s $6.5 million cap hit on a long-term pact.

Meanwhile, the Flames have a pair of prospective backup goaltenders who are on deals that expire at the end of the 2025-26 campaign: Devin Cooley ($775,000) and Ivan Prosvetov ($950,000). One of them  probably cements themselves as Wolf’s backup and gets a modest raise for their next deal. The other one may end up looking for opportunities elsewhere.

Veteran forward decisions incoming

Three forwards are on expiring deals, but they’re all in unique circumstances.

Mikael Backlund ($4.5 million) is the team’s captain and probably with the Flames until he decides he does n’t want to play pro hockey anymore. We imagine he’ll be re-upped on a short-term deal with a modest base salary and oodles of performance bonuses, probably linked to games played. We think his total possible cap hit might creep down a tiny bit, perhaps to the vicinity of $3.5-$4 million, but he’s still going to get decently compensated if he hits all his bonuses.

Ryan Lomberg ($2 million) is a fourth-liner. But he completely understands the assignment, and he’s a veteran player that contributes leadership and intangibles on the bottom six… but not a ton of points. He seems like a good fit for what the Flames are doing right now, so we suspect that he returns on a short-term deal with a similar cap hit to what he has now.

Finally, can Justin Kirkland ($775,000) cement himself on the NHL roster this season? He’s likely pencilled in as the fourth line centre. If he can carve out a niche for himself, maybe he’s back? Or maybe we see a younger player push to grab that roster spot instead.

Even with the raise to Wolf and bringing back a few veterans, the Flames will have oodles of cap flexibility for the 2026 off-season.

What do you think of the decisions the Flames need to make during the 2026 off-season? Do you think they might use their cap flexibility to make a big splash in the free agency market or via trade?