Could the Calgary Flames be contemplating some significant moves?
By Ryan Pike
1 year agoFolks, the 2021-22 Calgary Flames were a powerhouse in the regular season. The Flames attempted to run it back in 2022-23, swapping out Johnny Gaudreau, Sean Monahan and Matthew Tkachuk for Nazem Kadri, Jonathan Huberdeau and MacKenzie Weegar.
Unfortunately, things just haven’t worked out as planned for the Flames and the team sits just outside of a playoff spot as the trade deadline looms. On Tuesday’s edition of The Jeff Marek Show on the Sportsnet radio network, Marek and Elliotte Friedman contemplated whether the Flames’ challenging season could cause them to contemplate making some big moves.
One exchange about the Flames led into a broader conversation:
Marek: “It seems to me as if Calgary is stunned that they’re in this situation on February 28, and if I’m a rival general manager I’m probably trying to take advantage of Brad Treliving and force him into making a decision he didn’t think he was going to have to even contemplate this deep into February. Agree or disagree?”Friedman: “I agree, and I do think that’s going on. I think they’re thinking about it. Calgary has a lot of players, a lot of good players, with one more year left on their contracts…”
From there, Friedman tried to recount all the Flames players with deals that expire after the 2023-24 season. (There’s a lot of ’em: Mikael Backlund, Elias Lindholm, Tyler Toffoli, Noah Hanifin, Chris Tanev and Nikita Zadorov all could become unrestricted free agents, while Dillon Dube could be a restricted free agent.)
After discussing some of the players with deals that are coming up for Calgary next summer, Friedman summarized the situation succinctly.
“I think it’s realistic that they at least really go down the road or think about something they wouldn’t have contemplated at the beginning of the season.”
The long and the short of it is (and this is us editorializing here, not Marek and Friedman): good players with a little bit of term left and affordable cap hits are pretty attractive trade commodities, if that’s something a team is willing to entertain.
The 2023 NHL trade deadline is Friday at 1 p.m. MT.
THE DAILY FACEOFF TRADE DEADLINE SHOW
Join us on March 3rd for the Daily Faceoff Live: Trade Deadline edition as Frank Seravalli and the panel break down all of the latest rumours, news, and rumblings from around the NHL. The show will be live on YouTube, Facebook, and Twitter from 10 AM – 2 PM MT to keep you up to date on all things trade deadline no matter where you’re watching from.
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