Could the player widely thought to be the Calgary Flames’ top trade chip be sticking around awhile longer?

On Thursday morning, TSN insider Darren Dreger posted an update on a few Flames-related trade chips on social media. Among the revelations from Dreger:

With the departure of MacKenzie Weegar, the Flames holding onto Whitecloud makes a ton of sense. Originally acquired from Vegas in the Rasmus Andersson trade in mid-January, the scuttlebutt in the hockey world was “Oh yeah, everyone loved him in Vegas, good player, great dude.” And guess what? Early reviews in Calgary have been very similar. Whitecloud has provided strong, reliable minutes for the club’s top two pairings, playing either with Kevin Bahl or Yan Kuznetsov, and he’s been seen at a long list of community events.

Whitecloud is 29. He’s a right shot defender. He has a Stanley Cup ring. He carries a super manageable $2.75 million cap hit and is under contract for two more seasons. He’s valuable, especially with Weegar gone, and he can provide insulation and mentorship to the organization’s young players. There is no urgency to move him.

However, Coleman is a different kettle of fish, isn’t he? A 34-year-old left shot winger that can play either side, and anywhere up and down a team’s lineup, he’s a two-time Stanley Cup winner and has given the Flames tremendous value on a $4.9 million cap hit as a “tough minutes” winger, usually alongside Mikael Backlund. Coleman’s the type of player that playoff teams usually trip over themselves to get, and he’s under contract through next season, so an acquiring team would get two playoff runs out of their acquisition cost.

It’s been stated in several places, notably Pat Steinberg’s Flames Talk on Sportsnet 960 The Fan, that the Flames are seeking a first-round pick (“or equivalent”) in a Coleman swap. And, yeah, that sounds reasonable, especially considering some of the other prices we’ve seen in recent trades.

We’ll see if other NHL clubs get off their wallets, or if the Flames either hold onto Coleman or have to settle for less than their intended price point.

The 2026 NHL trade deadline is 1 p.m. MT on Friday.

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