Five takeaways from Brad Treliving’s chat with the media
By Ryan Pike
5 years agoCalgary Flames general manager Brad Treliving held court with the local media following Wednesday’s morning skate to discuss the upcoming trade deadline. After the dust settled, we dug through the audio and found the five biggest takeaways from the session.
They’re expecting to get James Neal and Michael Stone back
The Flames aren’t expecting Neal to be out for too long – they’ll have a better idea of precise timelines next week, suspiciously after the trade deadline – but Treliving’s phrasings didn’t make it seem like he’ll be out for too long.
We’re expecting him back. So in that regard it doesn’t really change things. We’re still looking to see if there’s ways to help ourselves. It’s not a season-ending thing where we feel that we won’t have use of the player at some point.
Similarly, Stone has progressed in his recovery from a blood clot and will play again – it’s more a matter of when than if.
The fact that he’s now skating with us, he’s going to be back playing. It’s just a matter of when now… At this point he’s moved past it, now it’s a matter of getting him up to speed. He’s missed a lot of time. One way of looking at it is it gives us more depth, it gives us another option at some point. It may be a matter of time before he’s up to play in games, but certainly he’s an NHL defenseman, right shot, who’s got experience, and at this time of the year you can never have too many guys on the blueline.
Given the amount of time that Stone missed, it seems likely that he’ll head to Stockton for an AHL conditioning stint. He’ll count against the salary cap during any hypothetical stint – he’s counted against the cap during his injury – but since there’s no roster limit after the trade deadline it won’t really restrict the team much.
He praised the group for getting into this position
The Flames are near the top of the West. That fact isn’t lost on the general manager as he considers changing up the group.
One thing that shouldn’t be lost here is we’ve got a lot of work ahead of us, but we’re in a good spot based upon the group that’s been here to date. So let’s not lose sight of that. If there’s a way to add to it in a manner that makes sense, we’ll certainly look at that.
Balancing right now against future needs
One of Treliving’s better lines was regarding his approach to this year’s trade deadline and weighing the needs of the present against keeping things rolling along in the future.
This isn’t the last year for the franchise, We plan on playing next year, too. So we’re not going to give everything away and just close up the shop when it’s all done. So you manage all those things. The other thing that I caution everybody with is the idea that we’re starting “the window”. Our key guys are young guys, but you never know when your time is.
So for those keeping track, they’re pleased with how the group has done but don’t necessarily agree with the concept that they can just wait and see because they’re entering a window of contention.
The young blueline
After some jokes about Mark Giordano’s advanced age – he’s 35 – Treliving did discuss the team’s young blueline and the value of having experienced bodies at this time of year. As he did with many other topics, he noted they have to weigh things out.
Experience matters. But having said that, just because a guy’s got a bunch of years in the league doesn’t necessarily mean he’s better than what you’ve got here. So you weigh all the options. But certainly, moving forward it speaks well to the depth of our defense and how young they are, but we’re cognizant that these are young guys that haven’t played a playoff game. And those are all things that we’ve got to weigh.
His annual trade deadline catchphrase
All in all, Treliving spoke quite a bit but basically found creative ways to phrase his usual pre-trade deadline phrasing. To paraphrase: If there’s a way for them to improve the team that makes sense, they’re going to look at it, but they’re not going to move out young core pieces for one run.
The NHL’s trade deadline is this coming Monday, Feb. 25, at 1 p.m. MT.
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