It has been a wild week in the NHL with multiple blockbuster trades going down as we approach the NHL draft. Craig Conroy got the Flames involved in the action when he acquired 22 year old defenceman Simon Nemec and Maxim Tsyplakov from the New Jersey Devils.

Could Conroy make another major splash over the next 48 hours? I think he could. And the perfect trade partner is the Winnipeg Jets.

The Flames have what the Jets are looking for, which is depth.

And the Jets have what the Flames are looking for, which is the 8th overall pick in Friday’s draft.

The Winnipeg Jets are a franchise who feels the need to put a competitive product on the ice every night to appease their fan base. Jets upper management believes in a market as small as Winnipeg, they need to be in the mix for the playoffs every single year. And as currently constructed, the Jets aren’t good enough to be a lock to make the playoffs.

Elite talent is not the issue in Winnipeg as their core group of veteran players is pretty solid. Mark Scheifele, Kyle Connor, Gabe Vilardi, Josh Morrissey, Neal Pionk and Connor Hellebuyck (that’s if he’s not traded) is a solid group to build your team around.

The Jets biggest issue is depth. Their role players simply did not get the job done last season.

Scheifele, Connor, Vilardi, and Morrissey combined to score 119 goals last season. The rest of the team scored 110. The core of Scheifele, Connor, Vilardi, and Morrissey accounted for 52% of Winnipeg goals.

They need way more scoring from the second, third and fourth lines if they want to get back to being a contender in the central division.

Where are they going to find players to fill out their forward group? It’s not going to be in free agency because the class is seriously lacking in skill and scoring ability. And on top of that the overwhelming majority of players are not going to sign in Winnipeg.

Jets general manager Kevin Cheveldayoff is going to have to find those players via trade, and Calgary could be the perfect partner.

The Flames have too many players signed on one-way deals for the 2026-27 season.

Could Conroy package up a bunch of his NHL players in a trade to Winnipeg for the 8th overall pick?

Morgan Frost, Joel Farabee, Blake Coleman, Connor Zary, Martin Pospisil, Yegor Sharangovich, Maxim Tsyplakov, Adam Klapka, Olli Maatta, Zach Whitecloud, Joel Hanley and Brayden Pachal are all players the Flames could offer to the Jets. You could even throw Devin Cooley in the mix if the Jets end up trading Connor Hellebuyck.

All those players should be available if it means they can help the Flames get a second pick in the top ten of the 2026 draft.

Let’s have some fun and put together a hypothetical trade package.

To Calgary
– 8th Overall Pick
– Brad Lambert
– Vladislav Namestnikov

To Winnipeg
– Morgan Frost
– Joel Farabee
– Connor Zary
– Maxim Tsyplakov
– Brayden Pachal
– 2026 2nd Round Pick (55)

Moving out Frost and Farabee would be a blow to the current roster. But we have to keep in mind that Frost is a pending UFA and Farabee is a UFA in two years. Are those two willing to sign in Calgary long term? And turning Andrei Kuzmenko, Jakob Pelletier, a 2nd round pick and a 7th round pick into the 8th overall pick this year would be some terrific asset management by Conroy.

The Flames are looking to move on from Connor Zary. Maxim Tsyplakov was a cap dump by the Devils. Brayden Pachal is fifth on the depth chart when it comes to right side defencemen with the Flames. And Calgary has a ton of draft picks.

It may sound like a lot for the 8th overall pick and a couple players, but when you really break it down it’s not that much to give up.

Walking away from the draft with Viggo Bjorck and Keaton Verhoeff, as an example, would be a home run for the Flames.

From Winnipeg’s perspective, they acquire five NHL players on good contracts. They don’t have to go out in free agency and overpay to bring these types of players to their organization. And it instantly makes them a much deeper team up front. They would also have over $7 million in cap space left over to add another player or two to their team.

It’s time for the Flames to get creative when it comes to asset management. They have a ton of NHL players on their roster and draft picks at their disposal. How can they move some of those assets for something like an 8th overall pick that could be a part of your new core moving forward?

Something like this is unlikely to happen. But this is the type of transaction that could benefit both the Flames and Jets.

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