Flames Trade Deadline 2015: A Treliving History
By Ryan Pike
9 years agoYesterday, we brushed up on some Calgary Flames trade deadline history. Now, a history lesson is all well and good, except for the fact that Calgary’s current general manager, Brad Treliving, is a first time GM, and this is his first trade deadline at the helm.
So how can we figure out his potential tendencies and habits? Simple. See how things operated when he was in his previous post, as assistant general manager of the Phoenix Coyotes working alongside Don Maloney!
The key thing to keep in mind regarding the Coyotes is that they weren’t super-rich, so they handled asset management incredibly stringently. They couldn’t afford to waste picks in trades, or to let UFAs walk too often, so you often saw the club work diligently to ensure they turned assets into assets, rather than missed chances.
Seriously, their ability to flip assets for assets has been consistently impressive:
- 2009: Derek Morris sent to the Rangers for three bodies (Dmitri Kalinin, Nigel Dawes and Petr Prucha); Daniel Carillo flipped to the Flyers for Scott Upshall and a second round pick; Olli Jokinen (and a pick) flipped to Calgary for Matthew Lombardi, Brandon Prust and a first round pick; Mikael Tellqvist send to Buffalo for a fourth round pick.
- 2010: This year, the Coyotes attempted to load up. Sixth round pick to Anaheim for Petteri Nokelainen (low cost acquisition); Chad Kolarik to Columbus for Alexandre Picard; Anders Eriksson flipped to the Rangers for Miika Wiikman and a seventh round pick; Matt Jones, a fourth round pick and a seventh round pick to Toronto for Lee Stempniak; Sean Zimmerman and a conditional draft pick to Vancouver for Mathieu Schneider; Peter Mueller and Kevin Porter to Colorado for Wojtek Wolski; a fourth round pick to Boston for Derek Morris.
- 2011: Scottie Upshall and Sami Lepisto to Columbus for Rostislav Klesla and Dane Byers.
- 2012: No deadline day deals.
- 2013: Steve Sullivan to the Devils for a seventh round pick; Matthew Lombardi to Anaheim for Brandon McMillan; Raffi Torres to San Jose for a third round pick;
- 2014: No deadline day deals, but the day before the deadline the Coyotes sent Rostislav Klesla, Chris Brown and a fourth round pick to Washington for Martin Erat and John Mitchell.
Outside of 2010, when they made trades to upgrade assets rather than to accumulate them, and 2012, when they did nothing, the Phoenix Coyotes frequently moved assets in order to perpetuate an asset line rather than have to go out and sign free agents out of the blue.
Again, a lot of this was budget-based, but I guarantee you, developing as a hockey executive in that environment must have imbued Brad Treliving with a mindset in regards to asset management and development. His mentor, Don Maloney, is basically the exemplar of prudence in running a hockey ops department. (And while his current boss, Brian Burke, may be a bit brasher and bolder, you gotta think he brought in Treliving based on what he was able to accomplish in the desert on a shoe-string budget.)
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