Flames News & Rumours: Development Camp, Qualifying Offers & Free Agency

What does that mean for the guys who did receive offers? Well, for Nemec, it’s to give the Flames more time to negotiate a deal with the young defenseman, who is tough to price with how much upside he has but also how much uncertainty there is in his game right now. If I had to guess, general manager Craig Conroy is waiting for some comparables, with a few decent examples: Alexander Nikishin, Jamie Drysdale, Olen Zellweger, and Pavel Mintyukov are all restricted free agents as well.  

For Othmann and Stromgren, they’re likely holding out to see if there are any other organizations around that will offer a one-way deal to play in the NHL, or at least try to see if they can find a situation that has fewer borderline NHL players to try to find a spot where they can carve out a role in the NHL, rather than continuing to be stuck in the American Hockey League or bouncing back and forth in between.

With a contract they would sign, there would be little to no compensation going back to the Flames, so teams could end up forcing the Flames to match a deal on either of them if they want to keep them in the organization that badly.

Development Camp Roster

In addition to the contract news on Monday, the Flames released their annual prospect development camp roster.

It’s a 25-man roster that consists of four first-round picks, not including Zayne Parekh and Matvei Gridin, who have established roles in the NHL, and 19 others the Flames have signed or own the rights to, recently selected in the 2026 NHL Entry Draft.

To round out the roster, the Flames have six undrafted, unsigned players attending camp: Ryder Boulton (Brantford Bulldogs), Brett Olson (Vancouver Giants), Kody Dupuis (Shawinigan Cataractes), Kent Anderson (Calgary Wranglers), Oliver Auyeung-Aston (Northern Michigan University) and Josh Flemming (Penn State University).

The only player on the roster who will not be participating in on-ice activities is Henry Mews. The Flames’ 74th overall selection in the third round of the 2024 NHL Entry Draft is still recovering from a season-ending injury he suffered after only playing 10 games with the University of Michigan.

Camp will start on July 1 and run through July 3. The first two days will consist of two goalie groups, running at different times and two skater groups, which will happen at the same time. The final day will be dedicated to the three-on-three ‘Snowy Cup,’ where the prospects will be divided into teams and play a tournament to finish up camp.

The Flames’ development camp will be open to the public and will take place at WinSport in Calgary, Alberta.

Free Agency Speculation

While it’s been speculation for a while, we will likely get confirmation tomorrow, July 1, when free agency opens, but all three of Ryan Lomberg, Victor Olofsson and Jake Bean are expected to hit the open market rather than reach a last-minute agreement with the Flames on an extension.

These three just aren’t players the Flames need at this moment in time. They are all already established role players, so there is little to no upside with any of them, and now that the Flames have a strong pipeline of prospects, these are the type of players they need to let go to create an easier path to utilize these prospects at the NHL level and give guys the chances they need to continue developing.

From a buying standpoint, the Flames are entering the open market with $20.5 million to spend. Now, some of that will be eaten up by Nemec, who still needs an extension. But, either way, I don’t see Conroy spending much of this money, given the quality of prospects nearing NHL-readiness combined with the weakness of this free agency class.

If anything, the Flames could go after a guy like Bobby Brink, who will be a 24-year-old unrestricted free agent after not receiving a qualifying offer from the Minnesota Wild, or they could try to cause some havoc with restricted free agents, putting in offer sheets to try and steal some other teams’ younger players.

A Potentially More Exciting Offseason Than Expected

After the draft, it is expected to be a boring offseason for the Flames. However, following the trade for Nemec, Conroy may not be as patient as we originally thought.

He is clearly looking at all the options, and while the rumours have quieted down slightly, a Blake Coleman trade should still be expected this offseason, and now we have Connor Zary’s name popping up in trade conversations all over the place.

I would lean toward the Flames being one of the quieter teams in terms of volume throughout the rest of the offseason, but I think the moves you see them make will be big ones. It’ll be interesting to see how quickly things move after free agency opens on July 1.