Conflicting Reports About Future Of Flames' Two 2025 First-Round Picks

There are conflicting reports as to what the Calgary Flames are going to do with their two first-round picks in the 2025 draft. The Flames own the New Jersey Devils' first-round pick from the Jacob Markstrom trade and the Florida Panthers' first-round pick from the Matthew Tkachuk trade. But traded away their own first-round pick in 2025 back when they dumped Sean Monahan's contract.

Frank Seravalli first reported that the Flames are dangling both their first-round picks to acquire high end talent or move up in the draft order, but Cam Robinson, content director and director of film scouting at Elite Prospects, countered this by saying he's hearing the opposite. He said that the Flames worked hard to acquire those picks and would like to use them to bolster their pipeline, not flip them for immediate help.

Calgary may be a couple of years away from being seen as more of a serious threat if some of the younger players work out. For this reason and the contract they currently have, I would lean more towards what Cam Robinson is saying about the use of the draft picks. Those picks were acquired while sending out two former key members of the Flames. There's contracts such as Mikael Backlund and Blake Coleman that need to end before taking a step, while the Flames are hoping for the games of Morgan Frost, Joel Farabee, Yegor Sharangovich, Matthew Coronato, Zayne Perekh, Connor Zary, and Kevin Bahl to all elevate.

The players drafted won't be early in the draft, but could be in the NHL in two years, lining up perfectly. There may be some players, particularly some RFAs, that the Flames are looking to target and could possibly use one pick, but two first-round selections while just outside the cut line of the playoffs is a great place to be.

What the Flames end up doing is definitely something to watch. Both options are very possible, it just depends if Calgary can pull off a trade they want or they are indeed looking to build their pipeline and break through a little down the line.