Report: ‘A lot of speculation’ surrounding the Calgary Flames
By Ryan Pike
1 year agoWe are less than three weeks away from the 2023 National Hockey League trade deadline, friends, and rumours are swirling around regarding most of the NHL’s clubs. One team that’s drawing some attention from media insiders is the Calgary Flames.
In their Sunday Best post, The Fourth Period’s David Pagnotta noted that “There is A LOT of speculation surrounding the Flames.”
Among the chatter Pagnotta mentions – we’re paraphrasing:
- The Flames “poked around” on Arizona’s Jacob Chychrun. (As of this writing, Nick Kypreos was reporting that it was “sounding like” Chychrun was heading to Los Angeles.)
- Brad Treliving is checking in on everybody and isn’t happy where the team sits in the standings (currently not in a playoff spot).
- He speculated a bit about the possibility of a coaching change.
- “If there’s a move or two, or three, out there that he feels will improve his club’s chances at making the playoffs, he’s interested in exploring it.”
Disclaimer: Pagnotta isn’t quite as established as the other insiders like Sportsnet’s Elliotte Friedman, TSN’s Pierre LeBrun or Daily Faceoff’s Frank Seravalli. But he’s fairly connected and has gotten some good scoops in recent years, so let’s dive into these notions.
- I don’t doubt that Treliving has been checking on the prices for everybody, which would including poking around on Chychrun. Treliving’s reputation as a GM has been as the guy constantly calling every other GM to see what’s up.
- We guarantee that Treliving isn’t pleased that his team isn’t in a playoff spot right now.
- Treliving signed Darryl Sutter to a two-year contract extension prior to the start of the regular season that runs through 2023-24 and 2024-25. There’s likely been some friction between the two this season in regards to player usage, as Seravalli’s mentioned on Barn Burner from time to time. Despite this, while not wholly impossible, it seems really unlikely that Treliving would sever ties with Sutter so soon after giving him an extension.
- Again, it would be very much in keeping with how Treliving operates for him to explore multiple moves to improve the team prior to the push to the playoffs.
The notion of a coaching change seems unlikely right now, but it really wouldn’t be surprising if the Flames were attempting to make several moves between now and trade deadline (at 1 p.m. MT on Mar. 3).
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