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Jonathan Huberdeau, Calgary Flames (Photo by Brett Holmes/Icon Sportswire via Getty Images)

Flames One of Worst Positioned Cap Teams Based on New Model

Originally posted on The Hockey Writers
By Rupert McDonald | Last updated Aug 12, 2025 4:00 PM ET

The Calgary Flames may have more than $15 million in cap space, but their entire salary-cap situation may not be in as good of shape as you’d expect. That cap space has come due to general manager (GM) Craig Conroy shipping several veterans out of town in exchange for draft picks and prospects, and while it’s certainly nice to have right now, their cap situation could become a problem once they are ready to truly compete for a Stanley Cup.

It’s important in today’s NHL to do your best to ensure you have no bad contracts on the books. While doing so is nearly impossible, the league’s best teams are able to limit the number of bad deals, while also having some bargain ones to help even things out. Unfortunately for the Flames, they don’t have a ton of bargain deals on the books, which has resulted in them ranking very low in terms of contract-efficient teams in the NHL based on a new model from The Athletic.

Flames In a Rough Cap Situation

Recently, Dom Luszczyszyn of The Athletic put out a ranking of the worst 10 contracts in the NHL. Unsurprisingly, Jonathan Huberdeau was not only on that list, but ranked in the top spot. The 32-year-old, of course, still has six seasons remaining on his contract that carries a cap hit of $10.5 million. (from ‘Dom Luszczyszyn: NHL contract efficiency rankings 2025: Which teams spend their money most wisely?’ The Athletic 08/06/25).

Having that bad of a contract on the books can be detrimental to a team’s success, though thankfully it hasn’t had the worst impact on the Flames just yet given that they are in a retooling stage. In the coming years, however, it could haunt them, and it’s a big part of the reason as to why they are ranked 23rd of all 32 teams in terms of contract efficiency.

Luszczyszyn does praise the MacKenzie Weegar contract, which he admits wasn’t far off of being ranked a top-10 contract in the NHL. He also appears to be a big fan of the Matt Coronato extension, though neither deal is enough to make up for not just Huberdeau’s contract, but an extension handed to Kevin Bahl which doesn’t bode well with the analytics community.

“That doesn’t do enough to offset having Jonathan Huberdeau’s league-worst deal on the books, and Kevin Bahl’s strange new deal on top of that,” Luszczyszyn wrote. “If not for those two, the Flames might actually be in decent shape. But those two losses are too big to come back from and still be league-average.”

While there is certainly use in analytics, you won’t find many Flames fans who were surprised or upset to see Conroy give Bahl a six-year, $32.1 million extension this offseason. Perhaps the one risk of it is that he’s only played one season in Calgary thus far, but based on how he looked in 2024-25 suggests that, even with the lack of offence, he’s worth his $5.35 million tag. His strong defensive play, paired with his 6-foot-6 frame, makes him an extremely valuable player even if the analytics may not suggest so.

As for Huberdeau, there is no logical argument to be had on whether or not his contract is a bad one. He’s one of the game’s highest-paid players and is coming off of a 62-point campaign, which was viewed by many as a bounce-back season. His $84 million extension simply hasn’t worked out, and his $10.5 million cap hit essentially ensures that he is untradeable.

Flames Can’t Make Any More Mistakes

Though Conroy inherited Huberdeau’s ugly contract, it is now his job to deal with it. While the Flames can become a contender with that contract on the books, it can only be done if Conroy is to ensure he gives out good deals to anyone and everyone else needing them in the future. One or two more mistakes would handcuff the Flames and make it a near impossibility to compete for the duration of Huberdeau’s deal.