Puck drop is finally here.

The Calgary Flames will open their 2025-26 campaign in Edmonton at Rogers Place against the defending Western Conference champions and in-province rivals Oilers.

Fresh off from signing a new two-year contract extension, the most obvious threat for this Flames blueline will be Hart Trophy-favorite forward Connor McDavid.

This isn't a one-man army, as on his left side, he will be joined by last season's Rocket Richard Trophy winner Leon Draisaitl, who scored a team-high five points in three games during the pre-season.

The home team will have a new recruit on their offensive front with Matt Savoie, who will look to be in the running for the Calder Trophy.

On defence, Evan Bouchard re-signed with the team on a four-year extension. His top pairing with Mattias Ekholm will be what Calgary's offence will need to worry about.

On the Flames, as we've reported throughout the off-season, several players have signed extensions so there should be no shortage of motivation.

This includes forwards Matt Coronato and Morgan Frost who will be playing on the second line alongside a surprise, but well-deserving inclusion to the roster, Matvei Gridin.

Nazem Kadri who scored a career-best 35 goals last season will be looking to pick up where he left off. Can he put up another personal-best? At his age, highly unlikely, but tempting to think about.

Connor Zary, with contract and injury issues now in the rear view mirror, is now eyeing this to be his breakout season. He gets his first shot Wednesday night.

Yegor Sharagovich is another player looking to get back to his max potential.

On defence, social media was outraged when Zayne Parekh was a healthy scratch in the season opener, but I'm not worried. It's only a matter of time before he suits up.

On a good note, MacKenzie Weegar and Joel Hanley will be the top pairing. It makes sense as they gave up the least Expected Goals Against (xGA) on the team last season for pairings that played 140 minutes or more.

The Rasmus Andersson trade talk is seemingly behind us, for now at least, as the rugged Swede will lace up his skates for an eighth consecutive season for the only NHL team he's ever played for.

He and his partner Kevin Bahl, who also signed a contract extension in the off-season, spent the most time on the ice this last season for the team and the third-most in the league. The duo produced the seventh-highest Expected Goals For (xGF) and fourth-highest Shots For (SF) in the league for players with 200 or more minutes, according to Natural Stat Trick.

Bottom Line

The Oilers are favorites to win the Pacific Division and will show exactly why on Wednesday night.

Calgary has the talent and skills to put up a fight and win, but it won't be a pretty win.

The Flames did win 4-1 in Edmonton in the first game of their three contests last season. Calgary eventually lost the other two, making sense that Edmonton made it into the postseason and Calgary didn't.