Last week it was reported by Daily Faceoff NHL insider, Frank Seravalli that the Calgary Flames have been in the market for a young, middle six centre.

That shouldn’t come as a surprise as GM Craig Conroy has publicly stated in the past that he is look for help at centre. And you can understand why. Mikael Backlund and Nazem Kadri are in their mid-thirties. Martin Pospisil and Connor Zary are unproven down the middle. Kevin Rooney and Justin Kirkland are depth players. And in the minors and prospect ranks, the Flames don’t have much coming in term of high upside centres.

When you take all that into consideration, it makes sense as to why Conroy is on the hunt for a young centre.

But now is not the time to be making this type of move.

Rule one of rebuild club. Don’t trade your draft picks and prospects.

The last thing the Flames should be doing is moving out valuable draft picks and prospects to bring in a 22–25-year-old player. This is a rebuilding team. Acquiring that type of player is something you do when you’re on the verge of being a consistent playoff team. The Flames are still years away from being at that stage in their winning cycle.

The Flames should be in asset accumulation mode. Acquire as many draft picks as possible and use them over the next 2-3 years to have a loaded pipeline of talent ready to step into the lineup when you’re ready to win. Or you can trade some of those prospects and picks for win now pieces when your team is ready to win now, which the Flames are not ready to do.

It’s going to cost the Flames a lot to bring in a middle six, right shooting, young center. Those players don’t go on the trade market very often. Teams don’t just give away those players.

Here are a few examples of trades for players who fit the description of what the Flames are looking for.

Do you really want to do that in year one of a rebuild? And what’s the point of having that player on your roster while you’re bad? It just means they are going to be older and likely need a new contract by the time you’re supposed to be good again.

Wait a couple years to make this move and have this centre join your team when they are in their early 20s and on a decent contact. Don’t bring them in now only to have to pay them as a UFA when you’re ready to win.

This is the big one for me. Before you go out and spend first and second round picks on a centre, find out whether or not Connor Zary and Martin Pospisil can play that position for your team long term.

If one or both of them can become effect, middle six centres, then you’ve solved your problem for the most part. For example, say Zary is your second line centre and Pospisil is your third line centre, and you draft one in the first round over the next few years, then where is there going to be room to bring in someone to play that position?

This year and next are great opportunities for the Flames to experiment with these two players. They aren’t in win now mode. Give Zary and Pospisil every chance to prove they can play down the middle and do it effectively.

Conroy had a front row seat to the mistakes made by Brad Treliving and Brian Burke back in the mid 2010’s.

The Flames were a rebuilding team until they had a magical season filled with improbably come from behind victories where they ultimately went to the second round of the playoffs. Once that happened, Burke and Treliving decided the rebuild was over and started moving out draft picks and prospects to help them win now.

Here are some of the trades they made where they shipped out picks for players to help them win now between 2015-2017.

But not the Flames. Between 2015-2017, years they should have stuck to a strict rebuilding process, they shipped out 12 draft picks. 12 DRAFT PICKS. And 11 of those were in the first three rounds. Is that not crazy?

The Flames might not even be in a rebuild right now had they used all those draft picks.

Now is not the time for the Flames to be using futures to bring in players. If they do want to add to the roster, then bring in a salary cap casualty along with a draft pick like the Canadiens did with Patrik Laine. Or sign a free agent on July 1 to a big money, short term contract.

Sending draft picks and prospects out the door over the next 1-3 years doesn’t make sense. Keep rebuilding, and watch this team flourish for a long time when Scotia Place opens up.

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