Friends, it’s the middle of summer, and the Calgary Flames have completed most of their big 2025 off-season tasks. (The lone exception being a new deal for restricted free agent Connor Zary…)

And since summer 2025’s to-do list is largely complete, why not look ahead to the decisions that the Flames have at hand for 2026’s off-season, one year from now?

Let’s dive in!

Restricted free agents

The Flames have 10 potential restricted free agents on July 1, 2026 – presuming they all receive qualifying offers. These 10 players are goaltenders Dustin Wolf and Owen Say, blueliners Nick Cicek and Artem Grushnikov, and forwards Martin Pospisil, William Strömgren, Carter King, Lucas Ciona, Sam Morton and Parker Bell. Wolf, Pospisil and Morton will all meet the age and experience requirements to be eligible to file for salary arbitration, if desired.

The 10 RFAs are split almost evenly between players aging out of their entry level contracts – Say, Grushnikov, Strömgren, King, Ciona and Bell – and players coming off second (or third) deals, such as Wolf, Pospisil, Morton and Cicek.

Wolf is undoubtedly the most important player in this potential RFA group, but figuring out Pospisil’s trajectory is important, too – is he going to be a key long-term piece, or is he simply going to be a depth player?

Unrestricted free agents

The Flames also have nine potential unrestricted free agents on July 1, 2026. Among them are goaltenders Devin Cooley and Ivan Prosvetov, defencemen Rasmus Andersson, Jake Bean and Daniil Miromanov, and forwards Mikael Backlund, Ryan Lomberg, Justin Kirkland and Clark Bishop.

It’s a pretty unique mix.

Three of them – Andersson, Backlund and Lomberg – are established NHLers. Andersson seems primed to hit the market to cash in on being a really effective, underpaid blueliner over the past several years. But it seems probable that Backlund re-ups, and perhaps Lomberg, too. (We’ll see how that plays out.)

Then we have a quintet of players who have yet to carve out clear roles within the organization: Cooley, Prosvetov, Bean, Miromanov and Kirkland. We’ll see if any of them can take advantage of opportunities in 2025-26 to cement themselves as future pieces for the club.

And finally, Bishop is the Wranglers’ captain. He has a clear role on the farm team, and barring his game falling off, we suspect he may be around for awhile as a reliable AHL veteran and a potential short-term NHL call-up option.

Potential Group 6 UFA (or RFA)

Finally, there’s blueliner Ilya Solovyov. He’s on an expiring deal. If he plays 65 NHL games in 2025-26, he’ll be an RFA. If not, he’ll become a Group 6 UFA.