FlamesNation Mailbag: Thinking ahead to trade deadline

Hockey’s biggest holiday is fast approaching, and with rumours swirling, it’s time to start wondering what the team is going to do. Who are they looking at? What will they trade? Should they? Is it worth it?

It is almost certainly too early to accurately judge what the team is going to do, if they do anything, but it wouldn’t be the trade deadline without rampant speculation.

A big thanks to Tomas for making my job easier by limiting it to four options.

Evander Kane is a good player, but certainly someone to steer clear of given his abusive behaviour off of the ice. I do not want him on the Flames.

Mike Hoffman is probably the clear cut choice for trade targets. Although the Flames are pretty deep at left wing, adding him is adding a bonafide top six winger, and allows you to move other players around (e.g. moving Micheal Ferland to the struggling third line, perhaps moving one of Sam Bennett or Matthew Tkachuk to the right side [although a trade for Hoffman, in my mind, involves Bennett]) to spread scoring around the lineup. Perhaps he can even play the right wing, which would be an additional plus.

I wouldn’t count out Rick Nash either. He may not be the player that routinely battled Jarome Iginla for scoring titles, but Nash is still a very useful player. He’s been one of the Rangers’ lone shining stars this year. We also know he can play RW, which gives him a minor leg up on Hoffman.

Nash seems like a high-value rental, but that comes at the cost of his low-value contract. He will come with a $7.8M cap hit, bad news for a team with about $2.2M in cap room. However, this apparent deterrent could be an opportunity for the Flames. Perhaps the Rangers eat a bit of salary, perhaps the Flames send back their own high-paid RW to balance the books. It’s unlikely, but certainly plausible.

On Zack Smith…

I’m going to answer this in a roundabout way, but the straight up answer is: I have no idea why.

Comparing him to Matt Stajan would be apt, as Zack Smith is pretty much younger Stajan.

Some important things to note: this is Stajan’s age 33 year, and he signed his four-year extension at age 29, the same age Smith is right now. Smith’s contract will be up after his age 32 season, which is huge. Smith is likely to start heading into that negative territory by next year, and will remain down low for the remaining term on his contract.

Which is why any trade involving Smith is perplexing. The Flames have depth at centre and on the left wing, and Smith supplants pretty much no one besides Stajan moving forward. Given the performance of Dillon Dube this past year, you feel that he’s more in line for that 4C spot more than anyone else. If that fails, perhaps Curtis Lazar gets a spin there to start the year if Dube can’t.

Regardless, the Flames have some non-Smith options there next year when Stajan leaves. The only other reason I can think of would be disappointment in Mark Jankowski, which, despite him being scratched last game, is certainly not a major concern in the org.

Smith and Dube are like Michael Stone and Rasmus Andersson. Perhaps it is wise to give that depth spot to an established NHLer if you’re uncertain of a prospect immediately stepping in, but if you marry yourself to term, you’re creating a logjam instead of a safety net. Acquiring Smith’s contract is going to clog up a space which can likely be filled by someone more competent, and certainly someone cheaper.

Even if you ignore the contract, there’s also the question of whether or not Smith would adequately replace Stajan in the immediate. His CA/60 and CF/60 are both worse than Stajan’s, and his CA/60 is the career worst for Smith. Playing on an awful Ottawa team probably impacts these numbers, but it’s hard not to be concerned.

Smith is an alright player on his own, and if the Flames acquire him, he could (not guaranteed) provide some solid depth down the stretch. But given that the Flames most need improvement in non-depth areas along with his contract, the interest makes no sense and I would be against any trade involving Smith.

I would go bold and say that all futures are untouchables. The Flames have already invested a first, two seconds, Brandon Hickey, either a 2018 third or 2019 second, and a fifth into this season. That’s six future assets, with at least three of them having a high chance at NHL success, for a season which is still below expectations. Given that the team owes a bit of its success to homegrown talent, I can’t see them trading away more to solve the issue.

Brad Treliving has rarely traded away prospects before, having only sent Hickey, Keegan Kanzig, Corban Knight, and Pat Sieloff packing. Of that list, we can see that he will likely refuse to trade any high-grade prospects. Picks are his currency, and he has none of them.

Besides, with a jam-packed NHL roster, the bait is certainly an NHLer.

He has nine NHL games to his name. That’s pretty much the beginning and end of it. AHL success is great, but his performance in the NHL is still lacking and sporadic, which is completely understandable. Even AHL standouts like Garnet Hathaway and Jankowski have had shaky performances in the NHL. It may be a shocker, but success in the AHL is largely the result of playing AHL competition. Being too good in one league does not necessarily mean you will immediately have success in the other. The gap between the two leagues is much larger than most are willing to recognize.

Not to say that Mangiapane is doomed to be some 20-point bit player for his career. He’s 21 and inexperienced. Success will come with time, but expecting him to be an offensive dynamo right from the get-go means you need to adjust your expectations. Perhaps playing him eight minutes a night is not the most optimal development plan, but it’s not actively harmful. He hasn’t been a major contributor offensively in his few games, and his defence is still a bit passive, so it’s understandable why he has a short leash in the NHL. Give it time.

I think he sticks around. They’ve already given him the “find a place” speech, albeit prematurely, so I think that’s a good sign for him. Playing him for 11 more games also means that the Flames keep his RFA rights rather than him becoming a group six UFA (25 or over, fewer than 80 NHL games played). That gives them a bit more incentive to keep him playing in case he happens to find that gear again.

Expanding on this, but I’m not sure what they’ll do with Hathaway at the end of the year. He’s regressed back to fourth line energy guy, and there’s some younger competition bubbling up from Stockton. He doesn’t seem to have major trade value, so I can’t see why they really feel the need to keep him around.

We are going to open this up to prospects too, mostly to make life easier for me. American football positions, as it is the Super Bowl.

QB: Mike Smith. Many would say a first line centre or a top defenceman would be a more workable translation for QB, but given the position’s importance to the rest of the team, I would say the goalie is the better option. Much like a QB, it’s much harder to win with a bad goalie than it is to lose with a good one. Also, it’s a given that every team needs a good one, but neither the NHL nor the NFL can find 31/32 good goalies/quarterbacks to play the sport at its highest level.

FB: Micheal Ferland. Just missed the cut for size for offensive lineman, so we’ll use him as fullback. His strength in the dirty areas will come in handy.

HB: Johnny Gaudreau. Many would prefer a bruiser like Ferland, but Gaudreau has the speed, creativity, and elusiveness to be a big value runner.

TE: Matthew Tkachuk. He earned comparisons to Rob Gronkowski on draft day, both in physicality and attitude, so it only makes sense.

WR: Mark Jankowski. Tall, lanky, and soft hands.

WR: Sean Monahan. Not as tall or lanky, but definitely has soft hands.

RT: Troy Brouwer. 6’3″, 215 lbs

RG: Hunter Smith. 6’7″, 231 lbs

C: Adam Ruzicka. 6’4″, 203 lbs

LG: Eetu Tuulola. 6’2″, 225 lbs

LT: Adam Ollas Mattson. 6’5″, 216 lbs.

This is quite possibly one of the worst offensive lines ever assembled. Not a lot of mobility and most of them struggle with defence and protecting things. RIP Mike Smith.

I’m going with a 4-3 defence.

LE: Mitchell Mattson. He’s tall and has a long reach.

DT: Rasmus Andersson. I used up a lot of the big boys on the offensive line, so Rasmus gets to play on the other line.

DT: Austin Carroll. Also pretty big and feisty.

RE: D’artagnan Joly. Read what I wrote for Mattson.

LOLB: Juuso Valimaki. Big, strong, fast, and a shutdown guy. I’m also running out of ideas, so.

MLB: Mark Giordano. Not the biggest, but great defensive mind and definitely loves crushing fools

ROLB: Garnet Hathaway. Energy guy, likes hitting, probably fast enough to set the edge for the run game.

CB: Sam Bennett. Cornerbacks are often physically built like wide receivers, but just don’t have hands as good enough to play the position.

FS: Mikael Backlund. Who else could you trust at the football position which requires the greatest defensive IQ?

SS: Michael Frolik. Naturally.

CB: Curtis Lazar. Maybe the defensive sense is lacking, but he certainly has the physical tools and speed to match.

P: Matthew Phillips. Small, scrawny, nice guy, so a natural punter. Shame they waived Freddie Hamilton, as he would naturally be a punter.

K: Dougie Hamilton. Dougie has physical tools that could make him useful at many different positions, but he is definitely a kicker just because kickers are the weird guys on every team. He’d be the slotback if we were playing Canadian, but maybe someone should’ve asked this question back in November.