Flames' Path To Trading Jonathan Huberdeau Getting Clearer
Huberdeau's $10.5 million cap hit consumes roughly 10.1 percent of the entire $104 million salary cap for 2026-27. At full value, virtually no team can absorb that number for a winger who hasn't lived up to expectations in Calgary.
Retention Changes Everything
The math changes dramatically once salary retention enters the conversation. At 40 percent retained, an acquiring team would carry just $6.3 million, or roughly 6.1 percent of the current cap.
At the maximum 50 percent retention allowed under NHL rules, that number falls to $5.25 million.
Daily Faceoff has already begun sketching out what a trade could look like under those terms, exploring how the Flames might eventually move Huberdeau even though he's never found his footing since arriving from Florida in the 2022 Matthew Tkachuk blockbuster.
The Case For Waiting
Huberdeau is signed through the 2030-31 season, giving the Flames time.
If he returns to the 50-to-60-point range he posted regularly in Florida, if his surgically repaired hip continues to hold up, and if Calgary eventually becomes willing to retain salary, an outside team could view his contract far differently two years from now than it looks today.
That's a lot of 'ifs'.
Huberdeau has managed just 34, 51, and 66 points in his three seasons in Calgary, well below the 115-point campaign that helped net him the record contract in the first place.
But the underlying talent that made him a former Calder Trophy winner and a point-per-game player for years in Florida hasn't disappeared, just been buried under one of the tougher transitions in recent memory.
The Flames remain in a rebuild, and moving off a declining, immovable contract would be a big step toward flexibility as young pieces like Zayne Parekh, Matvei Gridin, and Cole Reschny continue developing.
