The trade deadline passed at 1 p.m. MT on Monday with the Calgary Flames making three trades before the checkered flag fell. General manager Brad Treliving had a few chats with the media in the aftermath, and here’s the nuggets of information you need to know about.
Treliving’s been vocal about not spending high picks on rentals and in both his press conference at the team hotel in Boston and his chat with the guys on Sportsnet 960 The Fan, he was adamant that they didn’t want to spend first or second round selections on players without term.
So they took a look at the players available and tried to find ways to fill “jobs” that they couldn’t do internally – with an eye towards having a bit more balance on the blueline.
  • Erik Gustafsson was described as a “premier power play player.” His puck poise was compared to Rasmus Andersson’s – in terms of his ability to hold onto the puck and find lanes – and Treliving praised his shot from the point.
  • Derek Forbort was described as rangy, and adding some size, weight and defending ability to the club.
One thing that was mentioned was that the moves were, in part, made with an eye towards lessening Mark Giordano’s workload on both sides of special teams.
The Brandon Davidson trade to San Jose was based on the Flames initially not wanting to lose him on waivers – they were working on trades but it wasn’t clear what would get done – and once the trades ended up being made, they had too many blueline bodies and wanted to give him a chance to play somewhere.
It was mentioned that the Flames liked Alexander Yelesin, but they wanted to be careful with using somebody with four NHL games under his belt on the stretch drive. If you were concerned that they were an injury away from Rinat Valiev being in the NHL, good news: so were they. They prioritized blueline depth and the “job descriptions” (roles) they felt they could address was the most prudent way to go.
Also, there was this very painful metaphor about grocery shopping:
No forwards added? Well, it was a combination of prices and liking their internal mix. Treliving noted that they’ve had good contributions from young players and they didn’t want to put Andrew Mangiapane and Dillon Dube “in the back seat,” but rather wanted to keep giving them opportunities. He also praised Sam Bennett’s recent performances.
In short? Treliving didn’t want to spend picks “adding people but maybe not improving the team.”
In terms of injuries: they should have an update on Tuesday following morning skate against Boston. He’s very close to a return.