Since moving to Calgary, the Flames have made 13 trades with the New York Rangers.
On Tuesday, the Flames head to the Big Apple to take on the Rangers for the second time this season. If they wish to make the post-season, they have to start winning some games.
However, in this edition of Throwback Tuesday, we’ll look at the 13 trades between the two teams even though most are rather inconsequential.
Let’s dig in!
Flames trade Dale Lewis for Frank Beaton
The first trade between the two teams came on Nov. 18, 1980, as the Flames sent Dale Lewis to the Rangers for Frank Beaton. Lewis’ last professional season was the 1980-81 season and he had only played eight National Hockey League games.
Beaton never played for the Flames and his career ended after the 1982-93 season, but he played 25 NHL games and 153 World Hockey Association games, including 68 with the Edmonton Oilers in 1976-77.
Flames acquire for Nick Fotiu
Over five years later on Mar. 11, 1986, the Flames traded future considerations to the Rangers for Nick Fotiu. Unlike Lewis and Beaton, Fotiu had significant NHL experience, playing 646 games with 60 goals and 137 points, along with 110 WHA games.
He only played parts of two seasons with the Flames, including five goals and eight points in 42 games in 1986-87. However, he played 11 post-season games with them in the 1986 playoffs, helping them reach the Stanley Cup Finals. Funnily enough, I mentioned Fotiu in last week’s Throwback Tuesday.
As for the future considerations the Flames sent to the Rangers, I have no idea. NHL Trade Tracker (the best tool ever) notes that the Flames sent a 1987 sixth-round pick to the Rangers, but I couldn’t find who they used it on or if they even received it.
Flames trade Don Mercier for Jim Leavins
On Nov. 6, 1987, the Flames sent Don Mercier to the Rangers in exchange for Jim Leavins. Mercier never played an NHL game and only played three professional seasons with his career ending after the 1988-89 season. Leavins, who played college hockey with Mercier at the University of Denver, played 41 NHL games and had an extensive career outside the NHL, playing in the AHL, Finland, Sweden, and Italy.
Flames trade Chris O’Sullivan for Lee Sorochan
It took nearly 12 more years for the two teams to make a trade again. On Mar. 23, 1999, the Flames trade Chris O’Sullivan to the Rangers for Lee Sorochan. O’Sullivan played 62 NHL games with two goals and 19 points, including 49 games with the Flames. His career ended in 2002-03.
Like many players we’ve looked at so far, Sorochan had limited NHL experience, playing just three NHL games in two seasons after spending the majority of his career in the minors. Post-trade, he played in England, Finland, and Germany.
Flames swap firsts, acquire Marc Savard
The trades we’ve looked at thus far have barely had an impact on either team. However, the same cannot be said for the trade on Jun. 26, 1999.
That day, the Flames sent their 1999 first, a 1993 third, and Jan Hlaváč to the Rangers for Marc Savard and the Rangers’ 1999 first. With the 1999 first, the Rangers selected Jamie Lundmark and with the third, they selected Patrick Aufiero. If you want to read how Lundmark’s career went, read about him in his “A Flame from the Past”, yes, he played for the Flames. Aufiero never played an NHL game.
Hlaváč on the other hand, played seven NHL seasons with the Rangers, Philadelphia Flyers, Vancouver Cancuks, Carolina Hurricanes, Tampa Bay Lightning, and Nashville Predators, scoring 90 goals and 224 points in 436 games. He also played in Czechia, Switzerland, and Sweden.
Marc Savard was the main piece of this trade and he had a solid career. He broke out with the Flames after the trade, scoring 22 goals and 53 points in 78 games. He followed that up with 23 goals and 65 points in 77 games in 2000-01 and scored 14 goals and 33 points in 56 games in 2001-02. However, he was traded to the Atlanta Thrashers after 10 games in 2002-03 for Ruslan Zainullin. Oof.
Savard had a successful career after the trade until Matt Cooke decided to blindside Savard in 2010. He played the rest of the season and a part of 2010-11, but the hit essentially ended his career.
The Flames drafted Oleg Saprykin with the 11th overall pick. He went on to play 325 NHL games scoring 55 goals and 137 points. His best season came in 2003-04 with the Flames, scoring 12 goals and 29 points, including three goals and six points in 26 games during their run to the Stanley Cup Finals.
Flames trade Chris St. Croix for Burke Henry
On Jun. 23, 2001, the Flames traded Chris St. Croix to the Rangers for Burke Henry. The former never played in the NHL, the latter only played 39 games with the Chicago Blackhawks in 2002-03 and 2003-04, heading overseas to play in Austria, Finland, Sweden, and Denmark after his North American career came to an end.
Flames exchange seventh-round picks
The day after the Chris St. Croix for Burke Henry trade, the Flames traded their 2007 seventh-round pick to the Rangers for the Rangers’ 2007 seventh-round pick. Pontus Petterström was picked by the Rangers and the Swede never left his home country. The Flames also selected a Swede, Pierre Johnsson, with their pick. He also didn’t leave Sweden.
Flames acquire Mike Mottau
On Jan. 22, 2003, the Flames traded a 2003 sixth-round pick to the Rangers for Mike Mottau. The defenceman played four games with the Flames in 2002-03 and returned to the American Hockey League for the next four seasons before carving out an NHL role with the New Jersey Devils from 2007-08 until 2009-10. Mottau’s playing career ended after the 2013-14 season.
As for the pick, the Rangers selected Slovakian winger Ivan Dornic. He played most of his career in Slovakia but did have a two-season stint in Denmark.
Flames trade for Chris Simon
Before the 2004 trade deadline, the Flames sent Blair Betts, netminder Jamie McLennan, and Greg Moore to the Rangers for Chris Simon and a 2004 seventh-round pick.
Betts only played 35 games with the Flames but became a regular NHL’er after the trade, spending six seasons as a bottom-six forward for the Rangers and the Philadelphia Flyers. McLennan had a lengthy NHL career before the trade and played another three seasons, including a second stint with the Flames in 2006-07. Greg Moore played 10 NHL games, six with the Rangers and four with the Columbus Blue Jackets in 2009-10.
The pick was used to select Matt Schneider, who played for the Western Hockey League’s Tri-City Americans at the time. After five seasons at the University of British Columbia, he called it a career.
Simon, an enforcer with a scoring touch, scored three goals and five points in 13 games after the trade. In the Flames run to the Stanley Cup Finals, Simon scored five goals and seven points in 16 games, along with an incredible 74 penalty minutes. The 2005-06 season was his final season with the Flames as he scored eight goals and 22 points in 72 games.
A year ago to the date of the release of this article, Chris Simon tragically passed away. Gone, but never forgotten.
Flames and Rangers swap picks
Nearly four months later, the Flames traded a 2004 first-round pick (19th overall) and their 2004 eight-round pick to the Rangers for their 2004 first-round (24th overall) and a 2004 second-round pick.
The Rangers used their first to select Lauri Korpikoski, who scored eight goals and 201 points in 609 NHL games. A solid career for a middle-six forward at times. The eighth-round pick was used to select Jonathan Paiement, who never played in the NHL.
With the 24th overall pick, the Flames selected Kris Chucko who played just two NHL games. They traded the second-round (Adam Pineault) to the Columbus Blue Jackets the next day for two 2004 third-round picks – Brandon Prust and Dustin Boyd.
Flames trade Brandon Prust and Olli Jokinen to the Rangers
Nearly six years after drafting Brandon Prust, the Flames traded him and Olli Jokinen to the Rangers for Chris Higgins and Aleš Kotalík on Feb. 1, 2010.
Prust was a modern-day enforcer who could also score, but only played 78 games in three seasons with the Flames in two separate stints. In his first full season with the Rangers, he scored 13 goals and 29 points in 82 games. After the 2017-17 season, the forward retired and finished with 40 goals and 115 points in 486 NHL games.
Olli Jokinen had a lengthy NHL career and had been acquired by the Flames before the 2009 trade deadline from the Phoenix Coyotes. Ironically, the trade also saw Prust go the other way before the Flames re-acquired him. Anyway, Jokinen had 11 goals and 356 points in 56 games before the trade and spent 26 games with the Rangers. He returned to the Flames for the 2010-11 season and the 2011-12 season.
Kotalík had scored three 20+ goal seasons under his belt before joining the Flames but never found that success in Calgary. In total, he played 52 games with seven goals and 11 points and was included in a cap dump in the Robyn Regehr trade with the Buffalo Sabres.
In return, the Flames acquired Higgins who played just 12 games with the Flames, scoring two goals and three points in 12 games. He went to the Stanley Cup Finals with the Vancouver Canucks in 2011.
Flames trade Tim Erixon to the Rangers
On Jun. 1, 2011, the Flames traded left-shot defenceman Tim Erixon and a 2011 fifth-round pick to the Rangers for Roman Horák, and two 2011 second-round picks.
Erixson, who was the Flames 23rd-overall pick in the 2009 draft, never played for the Flames. In 93 NHL games, he scored two goals and 14 points in 93 games playing for the Rangers, Columbus Blue Jackets, Chicago Blackhawks, and the Toronto Maple Leafs. Shane McColgan never played in the NHL.
Horák had limited experience in the NHL, scoring six goals and 19 points in 84 games before ending his career in Europe. However, the Flames traded him (and netminder Laurent Brossoit) to the Edmonton Oilers in exchange for Ladislav Šmíd and Olivier Roy. Šmíd played three seasons with the Flames, scoring one goal and seven points in 109 games.
The picks are interesting. With the 45th overall pick, the Flames selected Markus Granlund. He’s still active in Switzerland but he had a nice NHL career, scoring 58 goals and 101 points in 335 games. Like Šmíd, he also played for both the Flames and the Oilers, but also the Canucks where he scored a career-high 19 goals and 32 points in 69 games in 2016-17.
With the 57th overall pick, the Flames selected Olympian Tyler Wotherspoon. He’s only played 30 NHL games and has spent the past eight seasons in the American Hockey League with a litany of teams. However, he represented Team Canada at the 2013 World Juniors and at the 2022 Olympics.
Flames and Rangers swap picks, part 2
The latest trade between the two teams came on Oct. 6, 2020, before the 2020 draft. Originally owning the 19th overall pick, the Flames traded the 19th overall pick to the Rangers for the 22nd overall pick and the 72nd overall pick, selecting defenceman Jérémie Poirier with the latter pick.
Shortly after, they traded the 22nd overall pick to the Washington Capitals for the 24th overall pick and the 80th overall pick. With the 80th overall pick, they selected Jake Boltmann. With the 24th overall pick, the Flames selected Connor Zary.
So essentially, they turned the 19th overall pick into Connor Zary, Jérémie Poirier, and Jake Boltmann. Two of those players may make an impact at the NHL level, Zary already has. The Rangers selected Braden Schneider with the 19th overall pick, the Capitals selected Hendrix Lapierre with the 22nd overall pick.
Ryley Delaney is a Nation Network writer for FlamesNation, Oilersnation, and Blue Jays Nation. They can be followed on Twitter @Ryley__Delaney.
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