Don’t expect Brad Treliving to move high picks for rentals at the deadline
By Ryan Pike
1 year agoThe 2023 National Hockey League trade deadline is less than a week away. And unless things change significantly, don’t expect Calgary Flames general manager Brad Treliving to be moving any high draft choices for rental players prior to the deadline.
That’s the distinct impression Treliving has given in a pair of recent interviews.
Speaking to Postmedia’s Wes Gilbertson prior to Wednesday’s trip to Arizona, Treliving was fairly succinct:
“I haven’t given much thought to moving a first-round pick right now.”
Speaking to Sportsnet’s Eric Francis prior to Thursday’s game in Vegas, Treliving expressed a fairly similar philosophy:
“Where we’re at now, you’ve got to be careful putting first and second round picks for UFAs, in my opinion.”
A few things to bear in mind regarding draft selections, folks:
- The 2023 NHL Draft class is generally considered to be one of the deepest in a generation, and teams aren’t exactly enthused about moving high picks in this year’s draft.
- In part because of Treliving’s lack of enthusiasm regarding moving early 2023 picks, the Flames’ first-rounders in 2024, 2025 and 2026 are currently tied up in a complex web of conditional selections connected to Sean Monahan’s trade to Montreal and Matthew Tkachuk’s trade to Florida. The Flames are only allowed to trade these selections conditionally – they can’t outright move them, but they can move them conditionally, in the event that they aren’t moved to Montreal.
- Treliving has only ever moved first-round picks in exchange for players with term.
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