Calgary Flames goalie Dustin Wolf gets his glove ready to catch Toronto Maple Leafs Scott Laughton’s shot at Scotiabank Saddledome in Calgary on Feb. 2, 2026. Photo by Gavin Young /Postmedia

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Dustin Wolf turned 25 in April.

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That means he is five years older than Zayne Parekh and Matvei Gridin, six years older than Cole Reschny and Ethan Wyttenbach, and seven years older than Carson Carels.

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Come next April, Wolf will turn 26 and could be fully eight years older than whoever the Calgary Flames take in the 2027 NHL draft.

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The original concern with Wolf is that he’d be too good to allow for a bottom-out and full rebuild. But the real issue may be how out of sync he is, age-wise, with the club’s new, emerging core.

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Wolf was drafted seven years ago. To put that in perspective, 2019 was the draft that featured Jack Hughes, Bowen Byram, Cole Caufield and Moritz Seider. In other words, now-established NHLers in their prime.

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But the Flames as a franchise are now looking at an extended rebuild phase. Most successful NHL rebuilds take about seven to 10 years to grow from a bottom-feeder to contender. Calgary likely has at least a couple more seasons of finishing near the bottom of the standings and drafting in the top 10 (if not the top five).

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That’s not a knock on general manager Craig Conroy or the organization. It’s just the nature of their situation.

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While the club features a handful of other younger 20-somethings (Matthew Coronato, Hunter Brzustewicz), there’s little doubt that the Flames contention core will be primarily built around the more recent round of draftees, starting with Parekh and Gridin, who were both selected in 2024. The Flames do not (as far as we know) have their era-defining forward talent in the pipeline yet, a pick that will (hopefully) happen next summer.

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Wolf’s seven-year, $52.5-million US contract that kicks in this coming season takes him to 33 years old, so the concern isn’t that he won’t stick around in the interim. It’s that the team will be stuck burning through all of his prime seasons as it restocks the cupboards and becomes competitive again.

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Unfortunately, Wolf’s age places him directly between the Brad Treliving era and the Conroy rebuild. He was too young to help push the team from the previous era over the top, and now he’s at least five years ahead of the next contending core. Of course, it’s not impossible that he will be a capable NHL starter for a decade-plus, but it’s a risk that grows the longer the Flames wander the desert.

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So what are the options?

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Moving the rebuild along so the Flames are contending sooner rather than later is the most obvious, and preferable, option. But it’s much easier said than done.

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Looking at comparable rebuilding clubs, it becomes clear how difficult accelerating the timeline can be. The San Jose Sharks drafted William Eklund seventh overall in 2021, and then landed Macklin Celebrini with top pick in 2023. They added other top prospects like Will Smith, Sam Dickinson and Michael Misa along the way.

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Despite Celebrini becoming a superstar before his 20th birthday, the Sharks still finished 24th overall last season with 86 points, five years after kicking off the rebuild. Landing Ivar Stenberg second overall in June might help speed things along, but they’re still optimistically two seasons away from competing.