Since becoming general manager of the Calgary Flames in the spring of 2023, Craig Conroy made it a priority to get younger and restock the prospect cupboards. And he has done exactly that.

Conroy’s ability to stockpile draft picks and prospects has put the Flames in a position where they can do things like acquire a talented 22 year old defenceman who was looking for a change of scenery in Simon Nemec.

The Flames are still in a position to make those kinds of trades thanks to Conroy’s focus on asset management.

Let’s take a look at the Flames trade tiers as of July 22.

It makes no sense to trade your own first round picks when you’re in the beginning stages of a rebuild. Especially when you look at the Flames roster for the next few years. This is going to be a team that is likely to finish in the bottom 5 of the NHL. Those potential top 5 or 6 picks are going to be critical to the future success of the Calgary Flames.

Carson Carels has the potential to be a franchise altering player. A legit number one defenceman who can do it all. You’re not trading that type of player no matter what.

The whole point of going through a rebuild is to accumulate as many young assets with upside as possible. There is no point in trading these types of players and prospects when you’re goal as an organization is to collect them. And the Flames have gone through some lean years to acquire a lot of these players.

Of course, if there is a chance to trade for an elite player like a Jack Eichel in 2021, then yes you’ll put these kinds of players in the deal. But those types of trades rarely happen. Keep your young nucleus of players. That’s how you get out of a rebuild.

Craig Conroy has said publicly that he is interested in acquiring younger NHL players. He backed up his words with action when acquiring Kevin Bahl, Yegor Sharangovich, Morgan Frost, Joel Farabee, and Simon Nemec.

If a situation arises where the Flames have the chance to acquire a potential difference maker who is 19-22 years old, then all the assets listed in tier 3 should be in play.

If it takes 2-3 of these assets to bring in a player that profiles like Shane Wright, then you do that all day.

This group of players likely won’t be part of the long term future of the Flames based off their contracts or who is ahead of them on the depth chart. So why not dangle them in trades over the next two years to either bring in a young player or some draft capital that the Flames can use to find their next Simon Nemec?

Connor Zary, Yegor Sharangovich and Martin Pospisil look to be on the outside looking in when it comes to being part of the Flames long term future.

Zary showed a lot of promise in the first half of his career. But injuries, inconsistency, and his skating taking a step backward have seemingly led Zary to fall out of favour with head coach Ryan Huska.

Yegor Sharangovich shows flashes of brilliance, particularly shooting the puck. But unfortunately he hasn’t been able to find a consistent role on the team and is wildly inconsistent. The thing Sharangovich has going for him is that he still scored 17 and 15 goals in his last two seasons which were considered down years.

Martin Pospisil had a couple strong seasons to kick off his NHL career. But a concussion last season set him back and he didn’t look like the same player. Maybe a fresh start will be best for Pospisil.

All four of these players are on the final years of their contract. Conroy should do his best to trade all four players between now and the trade deadline. Simply put, take what you can get.

These four players fit into their own categories. And it’s under the umbrella that they are not likely to be traded.

Backlund will likely retire as a Flame.

Klapka and Kuznetsov are in the same boat where they are both RFAs at the end of this season. The Flames are likely to give them a shot to show what kind of players they truly are at the NHL level.

And Honzek isn’t quite in tier two where he is is close to untradeable. But he is a player the Flames want to grow with and see what he can become within the next few years.

We don’t need to get into this tier too much. We all know Jonathan Huberdeau’s contract in untradeable. A $10.5 million winger, with five years remaining on his contract, coming off hip resurfacing surgery, is not worth anything on the trade market.