A brief history of Brad Treliving’s trades

Photo credit:Sergei Belski-USA TODAY Sports

5 years ago

The National Hockey League’s trade deadline is nearly upon us. Past behaviour is a great predictor of future behaviour, so we’ve dug through Brad Treliving’s trades since he’s become the boss of the Calgary Flames.

2014 trades

Treliving wasn’t very active in 2014, as he was only on the job for seven months of the year and spent much of that time trying to wrap his head around the team and its needs. It’s safe to say that he spent a good amount of this year learning the ropes under Brian Burke.

June 28: 2014 third round pick (83rd, Matt Iacopelli) to Chicago for Brandon Bollig
The Flames had extra picks and Bollig was on his way out of Chicago, but could reasonably be expected to eat up bottom six minutes for a very young, small Flames team.

2015 trades

Treliving began to make more moves after spending some time assessing the Flames’ organizational needs and assets. Pretty much all of the 2015 trades were punting on expiring assets in an attempt to get some future value out of them.

Jan. 9: Corban Knight to Florida for Drew Shore
Trading one of Jay Feaster’s acquisitions for a different asset.
March 1: Curtis Glencross to Washington for 2015 second round pick (52nd, traded to Boston) and 2015 third round pick (83rd, traded to Arizona)
Trading a pending UFA for some futures.
March 2: Sven Baertschi to Vancouver for 2015 second round pick (53rd, Rasmus Andersson)
Trading one of the prior regime’s prized assets for futures. (Let’s be honest, too, Johnny Gaudreau had already surpassed him and it gave them a pick to work with.)
June 26: 2015 first round pick (15th, Zach Senyshyn), 2015 second round pick (45th, Jakob Forsbacka Karlsson) and 2015 second round pick (52nd, Jeremy Lauzon) to Boston for Dougie Hamilton
Packaging assets from prior trades to upgrade the blueline.
June 27: 2015 third round pick (76th, Adin Hill) and 2015 third round pick (83rd, Jens Looke) to Arizona for 2015 second round pick (60th, Oliver Kylington)
Trading up to get a highly-touted prospect.
July 1: Max Reinhart to Nashville for conditional 2016 fourth round pick (not converted)
Giving someone that wasn’t in the team’s plans a chance to play elsewhere.
Oct. 4: Conditional 2016 seventh round pick (not converted) to Colorado for Freddie Hamilton
Giving someone who wasn’t in another team’s plans a chance to play with his brother.
Nov. 12: Future considerations to Tampa Bay for Kevin Poulin
Giving someone who wasn’t in another team’s plans a chance to play.

2016 trades

Treliving continued some savvy moves, primarily trading away expiring assets for draft picks (since it worked so well for him the year prior).

Feb. 22: Markus Granlund to Vancouver for Hunter Shinkaruk
Trading one of Feaster’s picks for a different asset.
Feb. 27: Jiri Hudler to Florida for 2016 second round pick (54th, Tyler Parsons) and 2018 fourth round pick (104th, Demetrios Koumontzis)
Trading a pending UFA for some futures.
Feb. 29: Kris Russell to Dallas for Jyrki Jokipakka, Brett Pollock and 2016 second round pick (56th, Dillon Dube)
Trading a pending UFA for some futures.
Feb. 29: David Jones to Minnesota for Niklas Backstrom and 2016 sixth round pick (166th, Matthew Phillips)
Trading a pending UFA for another expiring contract and a future.
June 24: 2016 second round pick (35th, Jordan Kyrou) and conditional 2018 third round pick (not converted) to St. Louis for Brian Elliott
Packaging assets to upgrade goaltending.
June 27: Patrick Sieloff to Ottawa for Alex Chiasson
The Flames wanted Chiasson, a pending RFA, and Ottawa wanted Sieloff.

2017 trades

After a few years of asset accumulating, Treliving went out and spent assets in 2017 in an effort to add some NHL bodies (and Curtis Lazar).

Feb. 20: 2017 third round pick (78th, traded to Edmonton) and conditional 2018 fifth round pick (136th, traded to Washington) to Arizona for Michael Stone
Packaging assets to add some defensive depth for the playoffs.
March 1: Jyrki Jokipakka and 2017 second round pick (47th, Alex Formenton) to Ottawa for Curtis Lazar and Michael Kostka
Swapping a young defender (and a pick) for another team’s underachieving asset.
June 17: Chad Johnson, Brandon Hickey and 2018 third round pick (74th, Niklas Nordgren) to Arizona for Mike Smith
Packaging assets to upgrade goaltending… again.
June 24: 2018 first round pick (12th, Noah Dobson), 2018 second round pick (43rd, Ruslan Iskhakov) and 2019 second round pick (pending) to NY Islanders for Travis Hamonic and 2019 fourth round pick (pending)
Packaging assets to upgrade the blueline… again.
June 29: Keegan Kanzig and 2019 sixth round pick (pending) to Carolina for Ryan Murphy, Eddie Lack and 2019 seventh round pick (pending)
A swap of depreciating assets in an attempt to get goaltending depth. (Flames bought out Murphy the day after this trade.)
July 1: Tom McCollum to Detroit for conditional 2018 seventh round pick (not converted)
Having fulfilled his purpose – helping the Flames meet expansion draft requirements – McCollum was sent to a farm system with a spot for a goaltender.
Dec. 30: Eddie Lack to New Jersey for Dalton Prout
Having been demoted to the AHL, Lack swapped for minor league defensive depth.

2018 trades

2018 was defined by a bunch of lateral moves, as well as a few instances of the team punting on existing assets in an effort to get some futures (or some farm depth).

Feb. 26: 2019 seventh round pick (pending) to Ottawa for Nick Shore
Paying a low, low price to kick the tires on a potential fourth line center.
June 23: 2019 fourth round pick (pending, traded to Los Angeles) to Montreal for 2018 fourth round pick (122nd, Milos Roman)
Trading into the 2018 NHL Draft to get a player they liked.
June 23: Dougie Hamilton, Micheal Ferland and Adam Fox to Carolina for Elias Lindholm and Noah Hanifin
Changing up the mix of the team by moving a couple older assets (and a top prospect) for a couple younger assets.
Aug. 20: Hunter Shinkaruk to Montreal for Kerby Rychel
Punting on Shinkaruk, adding a player who needed a change of scenery.
Oct. 1: Brett Kulak to Montreal for Matt Taormina and Rinat Valiev
Opening up an NHL roster spot for Juuso Valimaki and adding some minor league defensive depth.
Nov. 27: Morgan Klimchuk to Toronto for Andrew Nielsen
Punting on Klimchuk, adding a player who needed a change of scenery.

Trends and tendencies

Treliving always makes a trade leading up to the deadline, even if it’s a minor one like the Nick Shore swap. But more often than not he’s leaned into either accumulating assets or packaging them to upgrade his team – there really hasn’t been a deadline middle ground.

Similarly, Treliving always makes a move during the NHL Draft weekend. Since he’s been GM he’s added Bollig (2014), Hamilton (2015), Elliott (2016), Hamonic (2017) and Lindholm/Hanifin (2018) at the draft.

He also has a tendency to make multiple trades with the same partners. He’s made multiple trades with the GMs in Arizona, Florida, Ottawa, Montreal and Vancouver. At the very least, you know he doesn’t throw out any phone numbers.

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