On Thursday night, the Calgary Flames made a sizeable deal with the Philadelphia Flyers.
They sent Jakob Pelletier, Andrei Kuzmenko, their 2025 second-round pick, and their 2028 seventh-round pick for Morgan Frost and Joel Farabee. The latter scored 22 goals and 50 points last season and has eight goals and 19 points through 50 points, while the former scored 19 goals and 46 points in 81 games in 2022-23 and has 11 goals and 25 points this season.
Pelletier was selected 26th by the Flames in the 2019 draft and has found some success with the team this season, scoring four goals and 11 points in 24 games. Kuzmenko though, is fascinating.
The Russian winger signed with the Vancouver Canucks before the 2022-23 season, scoring 39 goals and 74 points in 81 games in his first National Hockey League season. However, he struggled in 2023-24 with the Canucks, scoring eight goals and 21 points in 43 games.
Kuzmenko’s second NHL trade came one day shy of exactly one year after his first NHL trade, as the Canucks traded him, defence prospects Hunter Brzustewicz and Joni Jurmo and two picks for right-handed centre Elias Lindholm on Jan. 31, 2024.
With the first-round pick the Flames received, they drafted Matvei Gridin. The conditional fourth-round pick was used to trade down, with the Flames selecting Luke Misa and Eric Jamieson.
Lindholm had success with the Flames, scoring 148 goals and 357 points in 418 games before the trade. Unfortunately, he didn’t find the same success with the Canucks, scoring six goals and 12 points in 26 regular season games, along with three goals and 10 points in 13 postseason games. In the off-season, he signed with the Boston Bruins.
Kuzmenko was the polar opposite, as he immediately found his 2022-23 form for the rest of the 2023-24 season. In total, he scored 14 goals and 25 points in 29 games. Simply put, the winger struggled in 2024-25, scoring four goals and 15 points in 37 games, albeit he had been playing better leading up to the trade.
The prospects are the players that are the most intriguing. Brzustewicz scored 13 goals and 92 points in 67 Ontario Hockey League games in 2023-24. Second only to fellow Flames prospect Zayne Parekh. So far in 42 American Hockey League games, the right-shot defenceman has three goals and 15 points.
Jurmo has only played 18 games all season. Half were played in the ECHL with the Rapid City Rush where he had two goals and seven points, while the other half have been played in the AHL, being held pointless in those nine games.
Gridin transferred from the Muskegon Lumberjacks of the United States Hockey League to the Shawinigan Cataractes of the Québec Maritimes Junior Hockey League, where he has 25 goals and 55 points and will more than likely be playoff-bound. So will Jamieson’s Everett Silvertips, with the left-shot defenceman scoring eight goals and 27 points in 47 games this season.
Lastly from this trade, Luke Misa has 25 goals and 59 points in 45 games with the Brampton Steelheads. Not too shabby for a fifth-round pick.
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