Insider reveals Calgary Flames defenseman who is still available for offseason trade

The key word is still, and it points the other way.

Pagnotta reported this weekend that rival clubs keep checking in on Frost and defenceman Zach Whitecloud, and that GM Craig Conroy is content to keep listening. That framing has been read as a seller holding leverage.

Read the timeline instead.

Frost's availability first surfaced back in April, when Pagnotta floated moving him in a larger deal for a younger centre. He led Calgary in goals last season, so the value case is obvious.

Three months later, the update is that nothing has changed.

Frost is a pending unrestricted free agent on a $4.375 million deal that expires after 2026-27. For a buyer, that is a one-year rental, not a building block.

He also carries an eight-team no-trade list, which trims the pool of destinations before talks even start. A cap-tight contender has little reason to pay a summer premium for a rental it can chase cheaper in February.

That is the honest read of "still out there." The interest is real, but the urgency lives on the buyer's side, and buyers are not in a hurry.

Conroy has already stripped the roster down, shipping Nazem Kadri to Colorado, Rasmus Andersson to Vegas and MacKenzie Weegar to Utah. He is not pressed for cap space or picks.

Holding Frost into the season costs Calgary almost nothing. A strong first half only lifts his deadline price, and a rental always returns more in February than in July.

The likeliest outcome is not a July trade at all.

It is Frost opening the year in Calgary, with his real market arriving at the 2027 deadline.

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