Rumor: Full scale rebuild coming for the Flames?

If you're a Calgary Flames fan, you might want to put a pause on any Noah Hanifin or Elias Lindholm jersey purchases for now.

Sportsnet Flames insider Eric Francis reports that the team's dreadful 2-6-1 start has forced general manager Craig Conroy to do a re-assessment of his team's roster and to put a pause on any pending contract negotiations. Both Hanifin and Lindholm are high profile pending free agents, whom the team had hoped to sign this past offseason. Both Hanifin and Lindholm have elected to take a 'wait and see' approach with negotiations, much like Johnny Gaudreau and Matthew Tkachuk did a couple years back and we all know how that worked out...

Both Jonathan Huberdeau and Nazem Kadri, the team's prize acquisitions in the 2022 offseason, have been abysmal this season. In fact, only goaltender Jacob Markstrom has played to his ability, the rest of the roster has been mediocre at best.

Now, GM Conroy is reportedly reviewing his entire roster and is assessing the trade market for the likes of Hanifin, Lindholm and other pending free agents like Chris Tanev and Nikita Zadorov. Ditto for goaltender Dan Vladar.

More from Francis:

Twenty games in, this season could be a complete write-off.

Thus, a pause on contract talks.

No sense in continuing to lock up a core that hasn’t been able to get it done.

Something has got to give, and if the next stretch is anywhere close to how bad they’ve been recently, the wheels will be set in motion for an overhaul.

That means sending Lindholm and Hanifin elsewhere for young players and draft picks, trading Dan Vladar to make room for Dustin Wolf and making tough decisions on the fate of pending UFAs Chris Tanev and Nikita Zadorov.

Friedman was bang-on (as usual) last week when he reported Hanifin and the team were getting close on a long-term extension.

However, what’s transpired since then has thrown management into an understandable holding pattern.

A significant pivot seems inevitable, and much sooner than anyone could have predicted.

- Eric Francis

The thing is... the Flames can cut around the edges all they want but if they want to do a full scale rebuild that means finding someone to take on some absolutely ENORMOUS contracts.