Kevin Rooney and Anthony Mantha likely headed to free agency, offer on table for Dan Vladar: Conroy

With the re-signing of veteran forwards Dryden Hunt and Justin Kirkland, the next most prominent pending unrestricted free agents are Kevin Rooney, Anthony Mantha and Dan Vladar.

We’ve heard some discussion on Vladar’s status before, with Steinberg on Flames Talk recently outlining that Plan A for the club is to hold onto Vladar, hence the club making him a contract offer, but working on a Plan B in the event Vladar opts to try the open market. The fact that Vladar has yet to pull the trigger on re-signing with the club may (or may not) be a clue about where his desires lie for the coming season(s).

In terms of Rooney and Mantha: with the Flames signing Adam Klapka (and him now requiring waivers) and re-upping Kirkland, the question we would pose is “where would they fit in the Flames lineup?” Those two forwards testing the open market makes complete sense, both for the team and the players.

In terms of the topic du jour around Calgary, the future of Rasmus Andersson, Conroy didn’t have very much to update on.

As he noted last week on Barn Burner, Conroy indicated there’s no hurry for the Flames and if Andersson is still under contract when the Flames come back in the fall, he knows Andersson will be a good teammate. He noted that bringing back Andersson in the fall would be different than coming into the fall with five pending UFAs, as he experienced in 2023-24.

The 2025 NHL Draft is Friday and Saturday from Los Angeles. Free agency opens on July 1.