10 players who will define Calgary Flames' 2026-27 season: Jonathan Huberdeau

Maybe this season will feel like a fresh start for Jonathan Huberdeau.

The 33-year-old was shut down for the season in early February so that he could go under the knife for hip resurfacing surgery, which GM Craig Conroy explained was “major” this spring.

The last we’ve heard about Huberdeau’s recovery came at the end of June, when Conroy offered an encouraging update.

“I actually talked to Jonathan three or four days ago and now he’s back skating,” Conroy explained. “He said it feels great in the gym, great doing everything else. Skating is a work in progress, but he’s got a couple months still, so he thinks he’ll be 100% ready to go (for training camp).”

Your weekday lunchtime roundup of curated links, news highlights, analysis and features.

A welcome email is on its way. If you don't see it, please check your junk folder.

What we don’t know is how Huberdeau is going to look or how the surgery will impact his play. The hip issue was causing him chronic pain and restricting his mobility, so it could potentially be a positive. That doesn’t mean anyone is expecting him to become a 100-point player again, but knowing that he was hampered by the hip problem should put his struggles last season in perspective.

The reality is that Huberdeau had a tough year in 2025-26. He finished the season with only 10 goals and 15 assists, so it was likely that had he played a full 82 games he would have ended up with the worst numbers of his four-year tenure in Calgary.

But how much of that can be explained by the hip issues? Some of it, to be sure. Huberdeau has struggled offensively in the years since he was acquired by the Flames in the trade that sent Matthew Tkachuk to the Florida Panthers, but he was clearly hampered physically last season.

Will he be able to get back to 100%? Patrick Kane is the most common point-of-comparison. He had hip resurfacing surgery in 2023 and has put up good numbers in three seasons since returning. There aren’t a tonne of other examples, though.

There does appear to be real confidence that Huberdeau will be better off for having the surgery done, though.

Assuming Huberdeau is back and ready to play for Game 1, it’s going to be interesting to see what role he plays next season. Despite getting paid US$10.5-million a year for the next five seasons, are there many people expecting him to be the Flames’ primary offensive driver? The team seemed to hit on a line that worked late in the 2025-26 season when Matvei Gridin, Matt Coronato and Morgan Frost were playing together, and you’d imagine that trio will serve as the Flames’ top line.

That could put Huberdeau on a line with Ryan Strome and potentially Yegor Sharangovich, another guy who needs to have a bounceback year badly.

Huberdeau is an easy guy to root for and has always held himself accountable since arriving in Calgary. There’s a reason he doesn’t get the same vitriol from Flames fans that other highly-paid players who put up disappointing numbers in other markets tend to receive.