Flames trade Tom McCollum for conditional draft pick

It’s the big news you’ve all been waiting for!

This marginally helps the Flames out, as they have roughly eight billion goalies (read: seven) to find spots for.

Tom McCollum was signed by the Flames because he met expansion requirements – he had enough professional experience to count as their exposed goalie for Vegas to perhaps select – and… that was about it. He played one game for the Stockton Heat, posting a .950 save percentage; he played five games for the then-ECHL affiliate Adirondack Thunder, posting a .894 save percentage, and then he was loaned out to the Charlotte Checkers.

With Mike Smith and Eddie Lack presumably in the NHL, the Flames need to figure out where Jon Gillies, David Rittich, Tyler Parsons, and Mason McDonald will go, while presuming Nick Schneider stays in the WHL to play his overage year. It’s already a very crowded crease – we can probably expect some inter-league movement between Gillies, Rittich, and Parsons to ensure all get enough playing time at a high enough level – so moving McCollum at this point was just a necessary formality.

The pick is a conditional 2018 seventh rounder, with no word at present time on what the conditions are. Remember how the Flames picked up Kevin Poulin basically for free in 2015, though, when they were out of minor league goalies? It wouldn’t surprise me for the Flames to not get anything back from this – but an extra seventh rounder wouldn’t hurt anything should conditions be met.