Flashbag Friday: Should the Flames sign Brad Treliving to a contract extension?

Since there was no episode of FlamesNation Radio this week i took to Twitter to see what content people would like this week. I got almost as many questions (8) as I did votes (11) but that’s more than enough engagement to at least answer everyone’s questions.

These are personal thoughts on the matter from myself (@Flash_33) – If you ever want to have a question featured/answered go sauce a follow. Pike and Gould have their own mailbags which is why I went with Flashbag, regretting nothing along the way.

Alright, enough chit chat – let’s see what’s got people curious.

I should start by prefacing that the Flames are on the outside looking in right now – if they don’t come out of the all-star break and gain some ground then they’ll be in a rough position to buy at all. Let’s say they somehow crawl comfortably into the playoff picture by the deadline – then who would I target.

They need the depth. No disrespect to Dennis Gilbert who has done a fine job filling in but the Flames are a single defence injury away from trouble. Kylington being gone doesn’t help, but you have to push past that to make a decision.

Luke Schenn is who everyone links and talks about – he’s part of a terrible Vancouver defence so it doesn’t take much to stand out as decent defensively. He’s a Stanley Cup champion which Calgary likes, but he’s also rumoured to be targeted by Tampa. The Lightning have already mortgaged their future when they got Hagel last year – they’ll continue to spend what they need to to get the guys they want. I do not think that will come to light unless the Flames end up overpaying, but I do have faith Treliving won’t give up too much for a rental – he’s pretty good at understanding trade markets.

One guy I really like is Dmitry Kulikov from Anaheim – his numbers from his time in New Jersey, Edmonton, Minnesota, and Winnipeg were excellent and I’m not going to read too much into the defensive numbers on a Ducks team that’s trying to finish as close to the bottom as possible. He can play either side – is a left shot – and is only owed 850K the rest of this year.

If Philly is changing veteran Justin Braun is probably the best pick. A defence first 3rd RD who can protect the net well. Similar to what I said about JVR he’ll come in understanding the team’s emphasis on defence.

A third wildcard that I have liked for a while – and his numbers are fairly diminished recently from playing on bad teams, but Troy Stecher as a 3rd pair RD just adds good depth. He’s currently in Arizona and you know they are in the market for young players and draft picks – the things Calgary would move if they are going to do anything. He’s not as a priority for me as Braun or Kulikov, but any of those three would just insulate the defence on a huge level.

First off I have been an avid Brad Treliving supporter and will always raise my voice when recommending he gets a contract extension. I’ve seen way too many general managers destroy teams and Brad has done anything but that. I’ve never heard of a player saying anything negative about him – in fact I’ve never heard anybody say a bad word about him. Those are the kind of people you should keep in your organization.

The Flames’ drafting has improved dramatically under him, the whole organization as a whole has experienced some success. The Johnny Ohio situation hurt everybody – including him. He’s made some mistakes and learnt from them – I don’t want another franchise benefitting from what he’s learnt. Extend him to a four-year contract and let him work through this supposed cup window – he built the team he deserves to see it through.

I don’t want to replace him – but If I did have a say I doubt my preferences for a Judd Bracket/Eric Tulsky-style GM are shared with ownership. First priority is to keep Treliving in my mind.

You can save your money – the Flames shouldn’t (and in my opinion will not) pay the price for Josh Anderson while Brad is the GM. Besides making the money work for next season would be massively difficult and more of a headache than necessary.

I do think Calgary still gets into the playoffs. I don’t think they can add should they make some ground in 3 weeks and in those weeks Pelletier should get every chance to show whether he can be a difference maker constantly. He didn’t show any sort of major flaw that hurt the team in his first 4 games and if he can fill your forward role you can spend more on depth defence.

Even if Calgary remains stagnant and goes injury-free I still think they’ll make the playoffs. The metrics on them have them as a top-five chance-creation team since December 1st and eventually that will translate to a long run of wins… at least it should.

I wasn’t a real fan of someone from out of this market writing a semi-hit piece criticizing Huberdeau’s offence when his defensive impact has improved so much, It was unnecessary in my mind.

If Huberdeau can constantly play with someone that can learn his preferences he will thrive. He’s not a play driver though and he’s going to rely on Kadri a lot for that to happen. Having another forechecking crease crashing winger with them is the piece I think they’re missing. It was semi-effective for a while with Lucic it could be really effective if someone with a better scoring sense in Van Riemsdyk comes here. Of course that comes at the cost of Pelletier getting an opportunity – if they give him a few more weeks of games before a trade they could reassign him to the minors with eyes focused on next season or as a top end injury call-up.

Lots is still left to play out.

As for Eichel… Elite talents figure it out. He is indeed an elite talent and nobody should be worried about him coming around. He’s not going to have Stone the rest of the season so establishing some new chemistry will be key, but someone also has to pick up the heavy defensive responsibilities of that line.

Brad should be re-signed! I want depth defence and an improvement on the 6th D so they can insulate themselves from injury possibilities. The minors aren’t deep enough and the kids they have down in Stockton (oops – Calgary) only just got there.

If they want to spend the amount it takes to get a top 9 forward fans may not like the acquisition cost, but that wouldn’t be a terrible idea too. Again, this comes at the cost of Ruzicka, Pelletier, or even Duehr playing regularly.

When it comes to the man I call the Beekeeper I will always take the over. 32 games he has the skill for 12-15 goals easily. Just leave him with Backlund and Coleman and let them cook. (Legitimately though, not like Russell Wilson on the Broncos)

9 forwards (Huberdeau, Kadri, Mangiapane, Dube, Backlund, Coleman, Ruzicka, Lindholm, Toffoli) – 45.71M

6 defencemen (Hanifin, Andersson, Weegar, Tanev, Zadorov, Kylington) – 26.5M

2 goalers – 8.2M

Upper limit projected 83.5M

so 45.71 + 26.5 + 8.2 = 80.41 then subtract that from 83.5 and we have 3.09M in cap space.

They need another 4 forwards and 1 defenceman to have a standard 13 F – 7 D – 2 G roster which is still one short of 23.

Adding 5 guys at league minimum of 750K means adding 3.75M in cap hits. This leaves them needing to find 660K in cap space over the proposed limit – and that’s also counting Rooney’s contract as non-roster.

So yes there is a cap crunch and it will probably cost the Flames a legitimate player. Who they move I have no idea, but they could keep everyone and run a roster with just one forward to start the year while accruing space.

It’s going to be tight. I have no idea about the Kylington situation – and I’m not going to ask choosing to respect his privacy – but because of that it makes it really hard to pick.

They kind of have to keep their defence and their goaltender has a NMC – that means one of those 8 forwards making more than 1M listed has to go… yikes. Not really a good choice because i wouldn’t want to lose any of those.

If the Lucic to the NYR rumours are true and Calgary is out of the playoffs I would be okay with that. I’m fine with Lucic playing here on Calgary’s 4th line but if they fall out of the playoffs why not ask him if he wants to go chase another cup?

Michael Stone similarly could be shopped in that scenario as well as Trevor Lewis – If you aren’t going to make the postseason then in my eyes it is time to get a good look at who in the organization can help you next year. Calgary doesn’t have anything that would net a top-notch asset, but they can stockpile lower picks to maybe trade up in this deeper-than-normal draft.

The preference for everybody is obviously the playoffs and trying for a Stanley Cup – the answer is just for the “what if” in the question.