Less than 24 hours after the Toronto Maple Leafs and Columbus Blue Jackets consummated their blockbuster Matthew Knies-for-Kirill Marchenko blockbuster, Sportsnet’s Eric Francis has reported that the Calgary Flames were also involved in the trade discussions, just not in a traditional way.

According to Francis on Tuesday, Calgary was involved in the talks around Marchenko as a third party and salary cap facilitator  — another sign that Flames GM Craig Conroy remains interested in weaponizing his team’s bountiful cap space to add to its stockpile of assets.

“The Calgary Flames were involved in the Kirill Marchenko trade talks. Not with an eye on landing the big winger, but as a third party hoping to snag a draft pick in exchange for cap relief,” Francis wrote. “Craig Conroy will continue to search for creative ways to keep adding to his young group.”

According to Sportsnet’s Elliotte Friedman, the Maple Leafs and Blue Jackets had to get creative to make their trade parameters work within the NHL’s salary cap structure. In the end, Columbus traded Marchenko, Elvis Merzlikins, and Miles Wood to Toronto in exchange for Knies, Emil Andrae, Steven Lorentz, and a 2027 second-round pick; as part of the deal, the Maple Leafs signed Marchenko to a six-year contract extension, while the Blue Jackets retained 18 percent of Merzlikins’ remaining cap hit.

Under Conroy, the Flames have shown an increased willingness to retain salary and take on salary cap dumps to improve trade returns. Over the past few years, Conroy has retained salary on Blake Coleman, Nazem Kadri, Rasmus Andersson, Jacob Markstrom, Noah Hanifin, and Chris Tanev; he’s also extracted further value by taking on the likes of Jake Middleton, Maxim Tsyplakov, Zach Whitecloud, and Andrei Kuzmenko in various trades.

In PuckPedia‘s 2026-27 projections, the Flames currently have approximately $13.9 million in salary cap space, a figure that is expected to balloon to $65.8 million by the Mar. 1 trade deadline. The Flames also still have one salary retention slot remaining, having already used two of three on Kadri and Coleman. As Conroy enters his fourth season as the Flames’ GM, he has as much flexibility as ever to make his own deals — and facilitate others. We’ll see what he ends up doing as the season progresses.

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