After coming oh-so-close, Calgary Flames seek step forward into NHL playoffs

The Calgary Flames need to pick up where they left off, and do more, to return to the NHL playoffs.

Calgary (41-27-14) capped last season with a 15-6-6 run after February's 4 Nations Face-Off, but finished outside the post-season for a third straight year in a tiebreaker for a conference wild-card spot.

With most of the same personnel returning, and the youth movement general manager Craig Conroy injected last season, stronger from that playoff push, the Flames seek to both maintain their 15-point gain over the previous season and move the needle further.

"We've just got to take that step to find one, two, three more points," said centre Nazem Kadri, who led the Flames with 35 goals and 32 assists last season.

The Flames open the 2025-26 regular season with back-to-back road games Wednesday in Edmonton and Thursday in Vancouver before their home-opener Saturday afternoon against the St. Louis Blues.

"It's going to be a tough schedule to start the year off. It's going to be fast and teams aren't going to take us lightly," said defenceman MacKenzie Weegar.

"Teams are going to want to come for us this year as opposed to last year, where maybe teams kind of [thought] it was going to be an easy night against us, I should say. This year, it's going to be much harder."

Ryan Huska starts his third season as Calgary's head coach with some security after signing a two-year contract extension through the 2027-28 season.

Huska continues to rely on captain Mikael Backlund, who signed a two-year contract extension on the eve of training camp, Blake Coleman, Jonathan Huberdeau, Kadri and Weegar to drive a culture of "work hard and have fun."

As he settled into the two-way, defensively responsible game Huska demands, Huberdeau's 62