WWYDW: What should the Flames do at the trade deadline?

It’s February, and that means one thing: the Olympics the NHL trade deadline. The buildup to Feb. 26 should see movement across the league, as contending teams load up for playoff runs and struggling teams try to gain assets that will help them in the future.

Clustered with a handful of other teams on the verge of a playoff spot, the Flames likely won’t be candidates to sell. Will they be buyers, though? Or, rather, should they be?

The Flames probably aren’t in the spot, standings-wise, they would have liked to be in at this point. And while there is still a couple of weeks to go until the trade deadline, and things can so easily change – especially with the standings so close together – chances are the Flames want to make the playoffs, and may want to pursue extra help to make that a reality. If they do that, then they may not wait until the deadline itself to make a move.

The area of need is pretty obvious: the Flames could use an upgrade on forward. While most positions in the lineup have stabilized, the third line right wing slot has been mostly occupied by Jaromir Jagr (who eventually got too injured to keep up what was a good starting point), Garnet Hathaway (probably better served bringing energy to the fourth line), and now, Troy Brouwer (who is Troy Brouwer). The top two lines are clicking – Micheal Ferland is scoring goals at an unprecedented rate and the 3M line needs no introduction – but Sam Bennett and Mark Jankowski have stalled this season, and someone with a little more firepower could potentially really get that line going.

The problem: it’s going to cost assets to trade for any player worthwhile, and the Flames are lacking in those. They’re without first and second round picks this year, spent upgrading the defence, and should they fail to make the playoffs, their third rounder is gone, as well. (If they make it, then that’s no second round picks in 2019 and 2020.)

That’s a fair bit of currency the Flames are already without, meaning if they want to spend, they’ll likely have to dig into other areas, whether it be their handful of potentially high value defence prospects, or already established NHLers.

Would you trade, say, Oliver Kylington or Adam Fox for an immediate forward upgrade? What about players such as Michael Stone or Sam Bennett: could they be on the trading block? The Flames’ defence is probably fine (and if any NHLers are part of the package, Rasmus Andersson could very well be ready to step in on a regular shift any time now), but the forward group could probably use an upgrade.

If the Flames are to trade for someone, then that leaves one final question: should they go for a rental, such as Rick Nash, or a player who could contribute to the team beyond this season, such as Mike Hoffman or Max Pacioretty?

What would you do?

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