Breaking down the immense struggles plaguing the veterans on the Calgary Flames to begin the 2025-26 NHL season.

The Calgary Flames 2025-26 season has gone from bad to worse after yet another loss last night. By dropping their sixth straight game, the Flames record now sits at 1-6 on the season. After seven games, that is officially the worst start in franchise history since the team moved to Calgary in 1980. 45 years of Flames hockey, and this team stands alone for all the wrong reasons.

It is no secret that the Calgary Flames have been struggling to open their 2025–26 season. Multiple reasons have contributed to this. From a lack of offence, no chances were created, to struggling defence, Dustin Wolf was left out to dry. Arguably the biggest reason, however, has been the struggles of the veterans on the roster. This is a team that has mentioned the importance of having guys with experience like Jonathan Huberdeau or Nazem Kadri for the young kids to learn from.

The Calgary Flames announced today that they had made two moves in advance of tonight's game. While the team has been rotating their lines through the first six games, Coach Ryan Huska has decided to scratch forward Yegor Sharangovich and put Justin Kirkland in with Adam Klapka. Further, the team announced today that they have placed Daniil Miromanov on waivers for assignment to the AHL's Calgary Wranglers.

The Calgary Flames were one of the major talking points on the latest edition of the 32 Thoughts podcast with Elliotte Friedman. After publicly being called out by Kevin Bieksa and Friedman on the Sportsnet panel over the weekend, the topic of tanking versus going for it in Calgary has reached the national media. Here's what Friedman had to say on the state of the Flames.

The 2025–26 season has been a nightmare for the Calgary Flames. With a massive live to the Vegas Golden Knights on Saturday night, the Flames start went from bad, to historically bad. Sitting at a 1–5 record with just two points, the Flames have matched the worst start to a season in franchise history. So how did those seasons go and how do they compare to this year?

According to their fans, the Calgary Flames should be in full tank mode, and they're right. The team has had a miserable 1-5-0 start to the 2025-26 season, as the future of many players is now up in the air. Among those individuals is Nazem Kadri, who is a notable part of the current veteran core in Calgary. Fans know that Kadri loves playing in Canada and currently possesses a full NMC.

Well, if you weren’t convinced the Calgary Flames were off to a bad start before last night's game against the Vegas Golden Knights, I’d hope you are now. Saturday night's 6–1 loss marked the Flames’ fifth consecutive loss, starting the season with a 1–5–0 record. It’s evident something isn’t working, but this week we wanted to know how much Flames fans are concerned with the team to start the regular season.

The Calgary Flames' 2025-26 campaign so far has been far from ideal. The team is now 1-5-0, as it seems like this may be another season where the Flames dominate news headlines. At this point, it makes sense for the team to sell and aim for a high draft pick. However, certain reports are saying something different. The Flames are reportedly interested in finding a left-shot defenceman, and according to the Daily Faceoff's Anthony Di Marco, Philadelphia Flyers player Egor Zamula is on the team's radar.

The Calgary Flames are going to be sticking around at the bottom of the standings for the foreseeable future. Heading into Saturday evening, the Flames were last in the entire NHL, and that won't change heading into Sunday. A 6–1 defeat was extremely demoralizing as the team struggled to get anything going anywhere. Multiple things should be looked at and scrutinized.

The Calgary Flames currently sit 32nd in the NHL—dead last heading into their sixth game of the season. There’s still plenty of hockey to be played, but the playoffs can certainly slip out of reach well before game 82. Craig Conroy and Flames management made minimal changes to the roster this offseason. Running it back with a veteran-heavy team that finished 29th in scoring does not seem like the right approach for ending your playoff drought.

The Calgary Flames acquired forward Blake Coleman in the summer of 2021. It was a fantastic add by General Manager Brad Treliving, who had some questionable free agency decisions in the past. Since then, Coleman has been a reliable depth forward for the organization. Not to mention, he is also a great leader who knows what it takes to win a Stanley Cup.

This afternoon, it was announced that the Calgary Flames have sent down Matvei Gridin to the AHL to play with the Calgary Wranglers. This roster move was done to activate Jonathan Huberdeau from injured reserve. Huberdeau suffered an injury in a preseason game against the Vancouver Canucks, which held him out for the first five games of the season.

When Dan Vladar left the Calgary Flames via free agency in the summer, the team required a new backup goaltender. Although Devin Cooley was in the organization, the Flames ideally wanted someone else to take on the job. They ultimately settled on Ivan Prosvetov, a 26-year-old Russian goaltender who spent the entire 2024-25 season in the KHL. Prosvetov signed a one-year, $950K deal and was considered the consensus option for backing up Dustin Wolf this season.

The 2025–26 season hasn't gone to plan for the Calgary Flames. After a surprise 2024–25 season that saw them miss the playoffs by a single tiebreaker, there was some renewed optimism heading into this season. While it's still early, the Flames have gotten off to a disastrous start. They currently sit 32nd in the NHL with just one win in five games.

The Calgary Flames decided before the season began to extend their Head Coach, Ryan Huska, to a two-year contract extension with a year remaining on his current contract. It was met with a split down the middle from the fanbase; some were very happy with it, and others, like myself, thought it was extremely premature to extend him now, considering the circumstances that played out last season.

The Calgary Flames' lack of elite talent has been the main focus for fans ever since Johnny Gaudreau and Matthew Tkachuk left the organization in 2022. It's clear that in today's NHL, to win championships, you need high-end, talented players to lead the way. As of right now, the Flames don't have any true game-breaking players besides Zayne Parekh and Dustin Wolf, but the team also isn't going to be a Stanley Cup contender anytime soon.

On January 30, 2025, the Calgary Flames made a bold move. They traded a struggling Andrei Kuzmenko, along with youngster Jakob Pelletier, a second-round pick and a seventh-round pick to the Philadelphia Flyers. In return, two young players, struggling to find the production they had just a few years ago, in Morgan Frost and Joel Farabee, went the other way.

With most Calgary Flames prospects now playing with their regular teams, the 2025–26 hockey season is now fully underway. Flames fans should continue to watch the NCAA, as many key prospects, including both 2025 Flames first-rounders, are off to a solid start. Let's take a look at everything prospects related from this past week. Welcome to The Win Column's Calgary Flames prospect update.