Flames unveil some familiar lines and pairings on opening day of 2025’s training camp

The Calgary Flames began the on-ice portion of their 2025-26 training camp on Thursday at the historic Scotiabank Saddledome.

And the second-last training camp in Saddledome history began with three on-ice groups with some pretty familiar looks. For the most part, established NHL players played with common linemates or partners, while new faces were sprinkled throughout.

Via our pal Pat Steinberg of Sportsnet 960 The Fan (thanks Pat!), here are lines and pairings for the first two on-ice groups.

Team Red

Each of the first two groups, Red and Yellow, are essentially both 50/50 splits between likely NHL and AHL players.

Jonathan Huberdeau – Nazem Kadri – Matt Coronato
Connor Zary – Mikael Backlund – Blake Coleman
Sam Honzek – Justin Kirkland – William Strömgren
Lucas Ciona – Sam Morton – Aydar Suniev

Joel Hanley – MacKenzie Weegar
Jake Bean – Zayne Parekh
Nick Cicek – Hunter Brzustewicz

Dustin Wolf
Devin Cooley

The top two lines are both established trios, with Kadri’s line having played 131 five-on-five-minutes together last year and Backlund’s line 128 five-on-five minutes. The other two lines didn’t play together as units last season.

Hanley and Weegar were the second-most used Flames defensive pairing, with 610 minutes. The other two pairings didn’t play together last season.

Team Yellow

Joel Farabee – Morgan Frost – Yegor Sharangovich
Ryan Lomberg – Martin Pospisil – Adam Klapka
Dryden Hunt – Rory Kerins – Matvei Gridin
Andrew Basha – Clark Bishop – Martin Frk

Kevin Bahl – Rasmus Andersson
Yan Kuznetsov – Brayden Pachal
Ilya Solovyov – Daniil Miromanov

Ivan Prosvetov
Owen Say

Frost’s line has played 73 five-on-five minutes together, while the Pospisil line has less than a minute – though Lomberg played a decent amount with Pospisil and Klapka separately. Similarly, Hunt and Kerins were a regular pairing on the Wranglers, while Bishop and Frk were a bit less frequently, and both of those duos have a new face added to them.

Bahl and Andersson were the third-most used defensive pairing in the NHL last season, with 1,138 minutes together. The other two pairings didn’t play together at all last season.

Following practice, Flames head coach Ryan Huska discussed sticking with some familiar groupings to start camp off.

“We feel like we have a good idea as to what works,” said Huska, via Flames TV. “So we will use those combinations, but we also feel like there might be some combinations that we haven’t hit on yet. So early in exhibition, I think you’ll see some of that for sure, whether it’s pairs together on the back end or trying someone different in a certain situation. We have to see if there is some chemistry that we haven’t found before.”

The Flames begin their pre-season schedule on Sunday with their annual pre-season set against the Edmonton Oilers. We’ll likely see a mixture of lines and pairings from the two main practice groups in those games, complimented by some players from Team Black. On Thursday Team Black featured goaltenders Connor Murphy and Arsenii Sergeev, defencemen Artem Grushnikov, Axel Hurtig, Simon Mack, Etienne Morin, Mace’o Phillips and Jeremie Poirier, and forwards Jacob Battaglia, Parker Bell, Nathan Brisson, Alex Gallant, Carter King, Hunter Laing, Mael Lavigne, Kadon McCann, David Silye and Carter Wilkie. (The Team Black players on NHL deals are Sergeev, Grushnikov, Morin, Poirier, Battaglia, Bell and King.)