Flames face Ducks seeking first win amid growing draft speculation
CALGARY — The Calgary Flames are still looking for their first win.
Four games into the season, the Flames sit at 0-4-0 after Thursday's 7-3 loss to Colorado at Scotiabank Saddledome. Tonight they get another crack at it when the Anaheim Ducks visit for an 8 p.m. MT puck drop, the first half of a home-and-home set.
Jonathan Castagna and Aydar Suniev are expected to be in the lineup again after joining the team on Thursday. The kids are getting a look while Connor Zary and Brayden Pachal head the other way — both were assigned to the Calgary Wranglers on Tuesday after clearing waivers.
The scoring woes tell the story. Joel Farabee leads the team with three points — all assists, no goals. The winger is in his third season in Calgary after arriving part way through the 2024-25 campaign, when he posted 11 goals and 14 assists across 81 games split between Philly and Calgary. He's averaging 16:25 a night and sits at 0.50 points per game for his career (248 in 501). Six Flames share the goal lead with one apiece: Mikael Backlund, Ryan Strome, Morgan Frost, Kevin Bahl, Matt Coronato and Adam Klapka. Frost and Coronato own the only power-play goals.
The defensive numbers are uglier. Simon Nemec, acquired from New Jersey, is minus-9 through all four games. Coronato sits at minus-8, while Frost, Zayne Parekh and Matvei Gridin are each minus-7 — all having played every game.
Huska cautioned against focusing too heavily on the numbers as Nemec adjusts to his new team.
"I think he's trying to find his way right now," Huska told reporters Saturday. "When you're new to a team, there's always the focus on result, and when the results aren't there, you don't think you're doing things all that well."
But with every loss, another conversation gets louder: the 2027 NHL Draft.
If the Flames finish at the bottom of the standings, they'd carry the best odds into the draft lottery — and the consensus prize is a kid from their own backyard. Calgary native Landon Dupont, the 17-year-old Everett Silvertips defenseman, is the favourite to go first overall in 2027.
The numbers explain why. Dupont put up 18 goals and 73 points in 63 WHL games last season, then added 23 points in 18 playoff games as Everett captured the WHL championship. He earned Memorial Cup All-Star Team honours with a six-point tournament, though the Silvertips fell 6-2 to Kitchener in the final. He's now playing at the University of Michigan.
A six-foot, right-shot defenseman who quarterbacks a power play and produces at more than a point per game from the blue line — that's the kind of player who reshapes a franchise's back end for a decade.
Critics will say the Flames already have enough defensemen and not nearly enough scoring. Fair point. But when a talent like this comes around — a local kid, no less — you don't overthink positional need.
One caution: finishing last guarantees nothing. Just ask Vancouver. The Canucks finished at the bottom of the standings last season and watched the Toronto Maple Leafs — sitting fifth in the lottery odds at just 8.5 percent — leapfrog them to take Gavin McKenna first overall. Vancouver picked third.
The lottery weights the odds in favour of the league's worst team, but as Toronto proved, it's a weighted draw, not a coronation.
Huska expects Anaheim to challenge Calgary with its speed and physicality.
"They're very quick and fast," Huska said. "They also have a big, heavy team that does a good job protecting their net and they go to the net very hard in the offensive zone."
For now, the focus is tonight. After the Ducks, the Flames head to Anaheim on Tuesday and Vegas on Thursday before returning home for a four-game stand: Carolina on Oct. 18, Minnesota on Oct. 22, Detroit on Oct. 24 and Toronto on Oct. 26.
Nobody in that room is thinking about June. But with each loss, some of us can't help it.
This preview is brought to you in part by Animas Painting — interior and exterior painting in Calgary. Reach Rafael at 403-604-5529.