Welcome back to one of our newest features here at FlamesNation: Five Flames Takes. After digging into a main topic, Mike will weigh in on five more popular discussion topics involving the Flames and their prospects.

Much has been made over the last 12 months or so about which two picks the Flames will end up with in the 2025 first round, but not nearly as much has been said about whether they might be able to get another.

The Flames have only ever made three first-round picks in the same year once in their history, and only one of them ended up panning out in any way. That, of course, was in 2013, when they hit a home run with Sean Monahan at No. 6 … before whiffing on Emile Poirier and Morgan Klimchuk at No. 22 and No. 28.

So that didn’t work out. But last year, the Flames made two first-round picks — Zayne Parekh and Matvei Gridin — and they both look to have been well worth the investment. To this point, 2013 and 2024 stand as the only two years in which Calgary has gone up to the podium in the first round more than once. For contrast, they’ve bypassed the first round entirely six times since relocating from Atlanta.

But the times are a-changing. As a result of trades they’ve made with the New Jersey Devils and Vegas Golden Knights, the Flames have two first-round picks in both the 2025 and 2026 drafts. While they could stand to add to their stockpile in the later rounds, the Flames are currently slated to end up with six first-round prospects over a three-year span.

And why stop there? The Flames need as much help as they can get, especially at centre, and the best way to land true difference-makers is in the first round. In Rasmus Andersson, the Flames have an expendable (and valuable) player who should draw plenty of interest this summer. If, as our own Ryan Pike opined last week, the Seth Jones trade between Chicago and Columbus in 2021 is of any indication, the Flames shouldn’t have any trouble getting another first-rounder for Andersson — if they decide to move him, that is.

Of course, even if the Flames do pick up another top-32 pick this year or next, it’s far from a given that they end up holding onto it.  Quality outweighs quantity, particularly in the Flames’ case, and they could be tempted to shop a few of their picks packaged together in a bid to move up in the draft order.

It’d be sweet to see the Flames enter this year’s draft with three picks in the first round (and maybe an extra bullet in the second). It’d be even sweeter if they could find a way to improve upon pick No. 18. If they move Andersson before the draft, don’t be surprised if more moves follow.

1. If I were a betting man, I’d ballpark it at about a 90 percent chance that the Flames trade Andersson this summer. But while Andersson’s situation is priority No. 1, the writing does also seem to be on the wall for Blake Coleman — at least, to a certain extent. Think about it: Coleman will be 34 in November and is cost-controlled (not to mention eligible for salary retention) for the next two seasons. A prospective suitor would have the opportunity to add Coleman to their roster for less than $2.5 million per year and have him for two playoff runs. Joel Farabee and Yegor Sharangovich are coming off disappointing seasons but both offer long-term upside that Coleman simply doesn’t at this stage of his career. While he may not have as much value as he did immediately following his 30-goal, 54-point campaign in 2023-24, Coleman would still be an appealing target for most of the contenders in the league. Moving him would be a win-win for the Flames, too, in that they’d be able to cash in on the final two years of his contract while also freeing up valuable space for younger players and prospects.

2. Danila Yurov signing his entry-level deal with the Wild just intensifies the speculation around Marco Rossi, whose name has been a fixture in trade rumours for multiple seasons. The Wild apparently intend to use Yurov as a centre, which would put him in direct competition with Rossi, who just scored 60 points but suffers from a bad case of being 5-foot-9. That seems to be untenable to Wild GM Bill Guerin, who reportedly has “no appetite” for signing the Austrian pivot to a long-term extension this summer. The Wild finally have salary cap flexibility this summer — another reason for the increase in media chatter — and Guerin will be determined to improve his team after yet another first-round exit, so don’t be surprised if Rossi ends up changing locales as part of a deal for a more proven (and playoff-suited) replacement. With Craig Conroy leaving no stone unturned in his search for help down the middle, you can bet he has an idea where the Wild stand.

3. There’s a question we discussed on the inaugural edition of “The Back Burner,” FlamesNation‘s new prospects show, during the draft lottery — aside from Zayne Parekh, who is the Flames’ top prospect? It isn’t an easy question to answer, as evidenced by the quantity of names discussed: Gridin, Hunter Brzustewicz, Andrew Basha, and Étienne Morin, to list a few. But my answer was Jacob Battaglia, who was nothing short of outstanding with the Kingston Frontenacs throughout the 2024-25 regular season and playoffs, collecting 43 goals and 106 points in 79 games. Battaglia plays a little bit like a long-lost Tkachuk brother and is one of the younger members of the Flames’ 2024 draft class, having only turned 19 on St. Patrick’s Day. Watch for more Battaglia discussion in a new Back Burner episode this coming week.