31 Thoughts: Flames among ‘most aggressive teams’ in trade market
By Ryan Pike
4 years agoSportsnet’s Elliotte Friedman emptied his Stanley Cup Final notebook in the latest edition of his 31 Thoughts column. In this edition, he listed the Calgary Flames as among the “most aggressive teams” in the trade market.
There’s a ton of trade talk. Among the most aggressive teams: Buffalo, Calgary, Chicago, Minnesota, Nashville, Philadelphia, Pittsburgh, Toronto, Vancouver, Vegas, Washington and Winnipeg. Depending on how the draft goes, we could see some frenetic attempts to move up and down.
Friedman also touched on a potential James Neal trade – something he discussed on Sportsnet 960 The Fan last week – noting that the Flames had “tested the market” for the forward.
One team that was reportedly curious about acquiring Neal: the Edmonton Oilers:
I think the Flames at, the very least, threw around the idea of Lucic for Neal, but decided against it. Word is the Oilers were willing, thinking Neal could work with one of their top centres. Another team pointed out an additional problem with Lucic’s situation — he has to be protected for the expansion draft.
Lucic has a full no-move clause in his contract, while no current Flames player has such a restriction in their deal – Mikael Backlund, Michael Frolik, Mark Giordano and Michael Stone have no-trade clauses of various kinds, but nothing that would potentially tie Brad Treliving’s hands in the 2021 expansion draft.
Based on the level of trade chatter out there, and Treliving’s history of making moves, next weekend’s NHL Draft could be a busy time for the Flames.
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