Right winger Matt Coronato signed a seven-year extension with the Calgary Flames, the team announced on Saturday.
Coronato will earn $6.5 million annually through the 2031-32 campaign on this next deal and has a 10-team no-trade clause in the final two years of the contract, according to PuckPedia.
This contract takes the 22-year-old through the beginning of his prime years as the Flames look to their youngsters to propel the team forward.
“Matt wants to be here long-term, and that says a lot about him and where this is kind of going, moving forward,” Flames GM Craig Conroy said in a statement.
Coronato had a breakout season with the Flames in the final year of his entry-level contract, scoring 24 goals and 47 points in 77 games. Only Flames veterans Nazem Kadri and Jonathan Huberdeau had more points than him on the team.
Coronato also ended the season on a high note with a seven-game point streak where he scored four goals and four assists for eight points.
Coronato was a crucial piece to Calgary’s late-season push to make the Stanley Cup playoffs, but the team missed out by a tie-breaker scenario that favored the St. Louis Blues.
This was his first full season in the NHL, as he made 34 appearances last season.
He spent most of that campaign with the AHL’s Calgary Wranglers, where he had an impressive 42 points in 41 games, along with a solid playoff campaign with six points in as many games.
Although the Flames missed out on post-season this time, having Coronato signed until he’s 29 years old is just one step to having the younger players take charge and drive the team back into the playoffs in the long term.
Along with Coronato, Flames rookie goaltender Dustin Wolf led the way for Calgary and its young core. In 53 games, the Flames’ netminder had a 29-16-8 record, a 2.64 goals-against average and a .910 save percentage.
As part of Calgary’s young group of players, Zayne Parekh made his NHL debut in the final outing of the regular season. The ninth pick in the 2024 draft doesn’t require a new contract until the 2027-28 campaign, but he has the upside to join the young Flames’ core in the future.
Parekh scored in his debut against the Los Angeles Kings, clocking 20:31 of ice time and a plus-three rating. The 19-year-old came off a 107-point campaign with the OHL’s Saginaw Spirit, recording 33 goals and 74 assists in 61 games. He was the second defenseman in OHL/OHA history to score 30 goals in multiple seasons. Bobby Orr was the other D-man to accomplish that from 1964 to 1966.
NHL Rumor Roundup: Calgary Flames Could Face Another Busy SummerLast summer, the Calgary Flames were sellers, shipping out goaltender Jacob Markstrom and left winger Andrew Mangiapane after missing the playoffs.
Left winger Joel Farabee and center Morgan Frost will also look to hit the ground running next season after recording six and 12 points with Calgary, respectively. The Flames acquired the 25-year-olds in a trade with the Philadelphia Flyers in January.
After this signing, Calgary GM Craig Conroy has a handful more RFAs to deal with heading into next season, including Frost. Connor Zary could be next on the list, as he emerges to be a middle-six forward on the roster. He finished the season with 13 goals and 27 points in 54 games.
Others RFAs include center Sam Morton, right winger Adam Klapka and defenseman Kevin Bahl.
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