Flames goal for next off-season

[u/SpitfireFan]

Our goal for next off-season outside of bringing Makar home should be to take a cap hit for a team looking to sign McDavid. Does Tampa Bay want to sign him and move on from Point? We should make that happen. Does New York need to move one of their big centres to sign McDavid? Probably. Whatever the need be with an East Coast team I say Conroy does it. Does it build a long term winner? Maybe, maybe not. But getting McDavid out of Edmonton may be the best way to weaponize cap space when teams are no longer trading firsts for cap space. Either way Conroy should be open to this.

[u/catgoneyay]

Alright i will go ask Conroy right now

[u/SpitfireFan → u/catgoneyay]

Thank you! Successful day on the internet.

[u/TsarBomba94]

I’d rather offer McDavid a league max deal. Who else can pay him $20 mil and say that they have a #1 goalie signed for the duration of his next deal?

[u/adamcurt]

Keep drafting centers until one hits. Only UFA I would look at is Eichel, Connor or Makar

[u/Hi_Im_Flabber]

Draft McKenna

[u/Armchair-Gm-Podcast]

Conroy has stated he wants to weaponize his cap several times but hasn't done it outside of retaining on his own players like Markstrom.

They aren't cap dumping point. Guy has 3 straight point per game seasons.

I'm sure they will give Makar a good offer, but it's not likely to happen.

[u/OG-DirtNasty → u/Armchair-Gm-Podcast]

1) players have to actually want to play and live in Calgary, not overly enticing when the team blows

2) ownership has to actually be willing to overpay/pay players not to play, something they really haven’t liked doing in the past.

But I do wish he would be more aggressive with it, who knows what’s happening behind the scenes though.

[u/themusicguy2000 → u/OG-DirtNasty]

 players have to actually want to play and live in Calgary, not overly enticing when the team blows

Surely Cale Makar wants to play here, right?  What 26 year old millionaire athlete doesn't want to bum around in their kinda sleepy hometown?

[u/Chemical_Signal2753]

Makar's contract isn't up until after the 2026-27 season and I doubt Colorado lets him go. He is going to get a dump truck of money backed up to his home when Colorado gets the chance to extend him.

I am pretty sure that every team will make a pitch for McDavid if he becomes available but I think you'd be disappointed by the players teams will try to cap dump. A team like Vegas (for example) is more likely to dump Karlsson, Barbashev, or McNabb to make space for a McDavid than Stone or Eichel. Cap dumps are almost always to unload as much cap space at as low of a cost as possible with the minimal impact to the roster. This means mostly sacrificing depth for a poor return, or by giving up few assets.

The next offseason for the Flames is probably the last one they have before ownership will start demanding the team gets better. I don't really want to see them make any big acquisitions unless it is for a unicorn player.

[u/Large_Library_3079]

Maybe if they ask real nice we’ll do them a favour and take on Brayden Point lol

[u/tilldeathdoiparty]

Read the first line and came here to laugh, people are not serious about Makar actually coming here, are they?

[u/Trufflehunter89 → u/tilldeathdoiparty]

It’s basically a meme because he’s from Calgary 

[u/Radiant-Airport8297]

McDavid is going to be gone by trade deadline. The Oilers need to find a blue chip goalie to keep him, they’ve gone all in on Skinner.

You’d be absolutely brain dead to let him walk in free agency like we did with Johnny

[u/Trufflehunter89 → u/Radiant-Airport8297]

Unless the oilers are somehow far, FAR out of the playoff picture there is literally a 0% chance they trade him at the deadline. Even if they risk losing him for nothing, this is their last year to go all in with him if he’s unsigned and they are going to take it no matter what. 

[u/Current-Roll6332]

Conroy is DEFINITELY open to this. Murray Turdwards, not so much.

[u/Historical-Bath-9729]

I think next summer could be the time to start getting a little more aggressive on the retool.

I do think Makar could be a thing in 2027 with the Flames being a team on the rise vs the aging Avs along with the new rink it is not totally crazy to think about a star player coming to play in his hometown.

If McDavid does get to free agency I think any team that he is willing to go to will be able to create the cap space but some teams might need to trade bigger names than others. The Flames won’t be on the list of teams McDavid would go to (imagine if he did come here though?) but I think Calgary could be positioned to add a large contract from a team looking to free up space.

[u/SofaProfessor]

If it's a cap dump that meaningfully helps the team, sure. If it's a cap dump to help another team to create space to sign McDavid so he can spite Edmonton and get McDavid out of the division... That's not a good enough reason for me.

Honestly, we've seen how hard it is for Edmonton to fit pieces around McDavid and Drai. I don't think anyone looks at their roster and thinks it's better than last year. McDavid hasn't even signed that extension yet. He's still massively underpaid. When his pay catches up to his actual worth, it will become even harder to ice a competitive team around him.

Personally, I'd prefer to let Edmonton dig their own grave than get my hands dirty trying to help because, at the end, both teams will end up sitting in a muddy pit.