FlamesNation Mailbag: Less than three weeks to the trade deadline

Pals, the Calgary Flames won big in Buffalo on Saturday afternoon. They’re playoff adjacent – not in a spot, but not far off – with less than three weeks ’til the deadline.

Let’s dive into the mailbag!

Our friends at Betway have the total goals line pointed at around six goals between the two teams. I don’t think the Flames necessarily light up the Senators on Monday night, but Ottawa’s running out of goalies. Cam Talbot’s on injury reserve. Anton Forsberg blew out both of his MCLs. So now it seems like the Flames will be facing Mads Sogaard or Kevin Mandolese. If there was a game where a confident Flames team was going to blow out an opponent, it would look kinda like this one does from afar.

First and foremost, the specifics of Oliver Kylington’s personal leave are really nobody’s business but his, and we hope he’s doing well.

That said, all that’s really relevant from a hockey perspective is if he’s going to be back this season. If so, great. If not, then the Flames can start wrapping their heads around any Long-Term Injury Reserve cap relief scenarios they might cook up.

Based on how respectful the Flames have been regarding Kylington’s leave, it feels really unlikely that he’s used as a trade chip anytime soon.

Based on the cap space the Flames have, the assets they have that they likely are willing to move, and the holes in their Flames’ roster, I would suspect we see two moves: the Flames adding a middle-six rental forward, and the Flames adding a third-pairing rental defenceman.

Based on Brad Treliving’s tendency to kick tires on everything so he knows what’s going on and what prices are, I imagine he kicked tires on Jacob Chychrun to see what the prices looked like. But I would doubt that they’re seriously considering such a move based on the likely steep price tag for the player.

Kevin LaBanc has one more season left with a $4.75 million cap hit, so I’m not sure he fits in cap-wise given how tight the Flames’ cap situation looks for next season. But he’s a versatile winger who can play on both sides. He’s sort of a right shot version of Andrew Mangiapane, except perhaps with a bit less offensive pep or speed. If the Flames got him, he could easily be a fit on either side of almost any line.

But again, don’t think his cap hit makes him a fit from that perspective.

Considering Matthew Phillips has three NHL games to his name and is going to be a Group 6 free agent on July 1, I don’t think any team will offer the Flames much of anything for him. Why give the Flames an asset for a player you can potentially get as a free agent in the summer?

I don’t like speculating about peoples’ employment status, because it feels tacky. I have a high opinion of Brad Treliving’s work as general manager. The team’s traded well, mostly. They’ve signed free agents well, mostly. They’ve drafted well, mostly. The only big sticking points right now are the team’s cap management – they don’t have much space – and their playoff success – they haven’t had much.

I think Treliving’s done enough for the franchise that it should be up to him whether he’s in the big chair past this spring. I don’t have a good enough read on how Treliving’s bosses would evaluate his performance, though.