CALGARY — By the time Nazem Kadri finished talking, you couldn’t help but notice the two words that hung in the air longer than any of his answers.
“For now.”
That’s the reality of the Calgary Flames these days: everything is temporary, everyone is movable, and even the veterans who once represented the organization’s win‑now ambitions are now staring down the barrel of a rebuild they never signed up for.
Kadri, to his credit, isn’t pretending otherwise.
He’s been around this league long enough to know his time in Calgary is coming to an end.
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The only question is when: this year or next?
It’s not speculation anymore.
It’s inevitable.
“For me, it’s always a focus of where I am,” said Kadri Monday, as his team preps for the stretch run of its fourth season of missing the playoffs.
“I’m not a ‘one foot out the door’ kind of guy, wherever I am. I exert my full energy and give it 110 per cent, so I try not to let it affect me too much. We’re all human in that sense. But you know, I’m a Calgary Flame, and my dedication is to here, for now.”
For now.
Asked about reports he’s told the team he’d be open to helping facilitate a move, he didn’t dance around it.
“At the end of the day, they can decide,” said Kadri, armed with a 13-team no-trade list.
“I think everybody has to explore every avenue as to what’s best for me, and what’s best for the team. Whether that’s here or not, I’m not quite sure, but I enjoy being here at the end of the day.”
He hasn’t asked for a trade, nor is he unhappy here.
What’s best for both sides is a trade.
The Flames are rebuilding, and Kadri wants to win.
What complicates his departure is the fact his seven-year $49 million deal still has three more seasons left on it.
Plenty of contenders would love to add him as a second-line centre, who played a vital role in helping Colorado lift the cup in 2022. But most of them will need the Flames to retain a good chunk of his salary to make a deal worthwhile.
The Flames only have one retention spot left, which may very well go towards helping maximize a Blake Coleman trade.
If so, GM Craig Conroy might have to wait until the summer, when two more retention spots open up.
Until he’s moved, the talented centre, who has lived in the rumour mill since he started with the Leafs, will continue to see his name bandied about as part of endless trade speculation.
The reality is, Kadri deserves another shot at a Cup run.
He’s still competitive, still productive, still fiery enough to tilt a playoff series. He didn’t sign in Calgary expecting to be caught up in a rebuild.
He signed expecting to be part of a contender – a goal that has eroded with a series of veteran departures the last three years.
The Flames crave and deserve the assets he can bring back. Picks, prospects – whatever the return ends up being, it fits the direction they’re headed.
So yes, the conversations have already started.
“We’ve had internal chats,” Kadri admitted of ongoing talks with Conroy about the reality of the situation.
“Obviously, those we’ll keep private, but, yeah, we’ve had discussions and communicated. I think that’s what makes it great, is having that open line of conversation and just being able to understand where everybody’s at.”
Leading the league’s lowest-scoring team with just 10 goals and 39 points in 56 games, his frustration on the ice has been apparent.
It only stands to reason that all the uncertainty with his future has affected his play.
Both sides know where this is going.
The only question left is when.
