Handicapping Flames lineup battles midway through 2025 training camp

Pals, we’re a week into Calgary Flames training camp and after four pre-season games, we’re about halfway through the exhibition calendar. So at the unofficial midway point of camp, with four games to go to evaluate bubble players, we felt we should give a snapshot of how things are shaping up.

In some ways, we have clarity about the Flames’ roster. In other ways, the 2025-26 Flames remain a bit of a mystery.

Goaltenders

Lock: Dustin Wolf

Trending towards NHL: Ivan Prosvetov

Trending towards AHL: Devin Cooley

AHL bound: Arsenii Sergeev, Owen Say

If the season began tomorrow, the starting tandem would be Dustin Wolf and Ivan Prosvetov.

Prosvetov is the only goaltender to play twice, both times on the road, and both times he was really good and gave his group a fighting chance. Cooley was decent enough in his one game, but he’ll need to show that he’s a stronger option than Prosvetov to avoid the AHL.

Defencemen

Locks: Kevin Bahl, MacKenzie Weegar, Joel Hanley, Rasmus Andersson, Brayden Pachal

Trending towards NHL: Zayne Parekh

Toss-up: Jake Bean, Daniil Miromanov, Yan Kuznetsov, Ilya Solovyov

AHL bound: Hunter Brzustewicz, Nick Cicek, Etienne Morin, Jeremie Poirier, Artem Grushnikov

It sure does feel like the starting six defenders on Oct. 8 in Edmonton will be Kevin Bahl, MacKenzie Weegar, Joel Hanley, Rasmus Andersson, Brayden Pachal and Zayne Parekh. (Pachal is the one I feel least confident about of those six, but worst-case he would be the seventh defender.)

Beyond that? We’re not quite sure. The four defenders in the “toss-up” category have all played a bit so far, but they’ve all had sort of mixed pre-seasons so far. And the challenge is that you probably need somebody as a seventh (or eighth?) defender that can kill penalties. If we had to guess right now, we’d project Jake Bean as the seventh defender, but we’re not fully convinced that won’t change between now and the start of the season.

But the Flames will be putting at least two pretty decent players on waivers from their blueline group.

Forwards

Locks: Jonathan Huberdeau, Nazem Kadri, Matt Coronato, Connor Zary, Morgan Frost, Martin Pospisil, Joel Farabee, Mikael Backlund, Blake Coleman, Yegor Sharangovich, Ryan Lomberg

Trending towards NHL: Adam Klapka

Toss-up: Justin Kirkland, Sam Morton, Rory Kerins

AHL bound: Carter King, Matvei Gridin, William Stromgren, Andrew Basha, Lucas Ciona, Aydar Suniev, Sam Honzek, Clark Bishop, Dryden Hunt, Parker Bell

The action here feels like it’s along the roster fringes, but in a productive way. We won’t call Adam Klapka a lock quite yet, but he’s not far off, and that means 12 forward spots are spoken for.

That leaves one or two spots, and three forwards vying for it. If we were choosing one, we’re leaning towards Sam Morton. If we’re leaning towards two, we’d probably give the other spot to Rory Kerins. Justin Kirkland has been solid in camp, but the other two have really stood out. But it feels like we’re heading towards a battle between these three gentlemen for the last spot(s) on the Flames roster.

Which players do you want to have on the Flames roster to start the season?