Calgary Flames trade rumour round-up: chatter four weeks from the deadline

The 2022 National Hockey League trade deadline arrives at 1 p.m. MT on Monday, Mar. 21. The Calgary Flames have probably made their big splash of this trade season, acquiring @Tyler Toffoli from the Montreal Canadiens on Valentine’s Day.

But with some cap space left and a bit of roster flexibility, the Flames probably aren’t done with tweaking their roster entirely.

If there’s one consistent thing we’re hearing from everybody with the term “insider” appended to their job title, it’s that the Flames would like to add defensive depth.

Over at the Toronto Star, Chris Johnston noted in his weekly column that “Calgary remains in the market for a depth centre and a left-shot defenceman.”

At Daily Faceoff, Frank Seravalli noted in his Trade Deadline War Room rundown for the Pacific Division that the Flames are generally looking for defensive depth, adding “You can never have too many defensemen, or so the saying goes.” Seravalli cited the Flames’ 2022 2nd-round pick and forward @Dillon Dube as pieces that could potentially be on the move. (He also linked the Flames to prior interest in Chicago’s @Brandon Hagel, but noted that’s probably off the table after the Toffoli trade.)

Sportsnet’s Elliotte Friedman added, in last week’s 32 Thoughts column, that the Flames spoke with the Canadiens about both Toffoli and blueliner @Ben Chiarot before they ended up pulling the trigger on a Toffoli swap.

Over at The Fourth Period, they also discussed the Chiarot chatter, and their trade watch list links the Flames to several pending UFA blueliners such as Chiarot, @John Klingberg (Dallas), @Calvin de Haan (Chicago), @Mark Giordano (Seattle), @Justin Braun (Philadelphia) and @Robert Hagg (Buffalo). The Flames would need a bunch of complex cap moves to have enough space for Chiarot ($3.5 million AAV), Klingberg ($4.25 million) or Giordano ($6.75 million), but the others may be feasible.

The Flames have 23 players on their roster presently. Only one player of those 23 is waiver exempt this season: @Adam Ruzicka. While Ruzicka has gotten a permanent place in Calgary, indicating that he’s in the NHL for the long haul, he would be eligible to be assigned to the AHL (short-term) in order to facilitate some kind of trade deadline day move.

(For the curious, the 23-man roster limit applies until the 1 p.m. MT trade deadline, but after that point teams are allowed to have more than 23 players on their active roster as long as their roster was salary cap compliant.)

In terms of cap space, the Flames are currently spending over the daily cap by a tiny bit – they banked a bunch of space earlier in the season, which allowed them to add Toffoli. Should they wait until deadline day, they would be able to add $935,000 in cap hits and remain cap compliant.

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