Calgary Flames trade tree: How Curtis Glencross turned into Lindholm, Hanifin and Kylington

On Mar. 1, 2015, Calgary Flames general manager Brad Treliving made one of the most impactful trades for setting up the future of the franchise for the Flames: he just didn’t know it yet. On the eve of his first trade deadline, Treliving traded Curtis Glencross to the Washington Capitals.

It ended up being the first domino to fall in a very significant trade tree.

Without further ado, let’s break this thing down.

On the eve of what would end up being a fairly uneventful trade deadline for the recently promoted GM, the Flames traded forward Curtis Glencross to the Washington Capitals in exchange for a second round pick and a third round pick in the upcoming 2015 NHL Entry Draft. Glencross would finish his tenure as a member of the Flames with 418 games played and a total of 242 points, but we shouldn’t be remembering him for his performance on the ice, at least I won’t be.

Instead, I will remember him for being the first domino to fall in a trade tree that would result in the Flames acquiring Elias Lindholm, Noah Hanifin and Oliver Kylington.

Let’s start this with probably the smallest and easiest branch in this trade tree, which saw the Calgary Flames and Arizona Coyotes link up for a small however very impactful trade, at least for Calgary’s sake. In typical fashion, Brad Treliving completed this from his seat at the draft table in Sunrise, Florida – host of the 2015 NHL Entry Draft.

The Flames moved up in the draft by sending their own third round pick (76th overall) and Washington’s third round pick (83rd overall) to the Arizona Coyotes in exchange for Tampa Bay’s second round pick in the draft (previously acquired, 60th overall).

The Flames would then go on to use that pick to select none other than the pride of Stockholm, Oliver Kylington. With the picks acquired from Calgary, the Coyotes would select Swedish forward Jens Lööke and former AJHL netminder Adin Hill. Some might argue that this portion of the trade tree alone is worth the price of losing Glencross, however, I promise you that it only gets better from here.

During that very same 2015 NHL Entry Draft in which saw the Flames work some magic in the later rounds, there was one trade that they made earlier on in the day that carried some pretty intense future implications. In a trade with the Boston Bruins, the Flames traded their own 2015 first round pick, their own 2015 second round pick, and Washington’s 2015 second round pick (previously acquired in the Glencross trade) in exchange for blueliner Dougie Hamilton.

Some Flames fans might scoff at trading the 15th overall pick, however, the Bruins didn’t do themselves any favours by using it to select Zach Senyshyn over the likes of Mat Barzal, Thomas Chabot or Kyle Connor, just to name a few. The Bruins would also use both second round picks to select Jeremy Lauzon and Jakob Forsbacka Karlsson, ultimately resulting in the Flames winning this trade on its own by a landslide.

Surely this can’t get any better for Calgary, right? The return on investment by trading Curtis Glencross has reached its peak, right?

Wrong.

Lets start by flashing forward a little bit since the original acquisition of Dougie Hamilton. In a trade that stunned a lot of Flames fans, on Jun. 23, 2018, Brad was able to pull off yet another blockbuster deal by sending the aforementioned Hamilton, forward Micheal Ferland, and the rights to college defenceman Adam Fox to the Carolina Hurricanes in exchange for defenceman Noah Hanifin and forward Elias Lindholm. You may have heard of them before.

Pretty wild, hey? I’ll tell you that after researching everything that went into this trade tree, I was shocked to see it unfold like this. It was a pleasant surprise, as they say. The best part? This trade tree isn’t even finished. Not that I wish for anything added to it, as long as both Lindholm and Hanifin remain members of the Calgary Flames, the roots of this tree will remain planted and its branches could still grow.

The beautiful part about trades, from a fans perspective, is the banter back and forth online amongst the fan base on whether or not the team won the deal, lost the deal, or broke even on the deal. I’m sure, however, that there is one thing that we can all unanimously agree on, and I’ll choose to close with it.

Thank you, Curtis Glencross!