The National Hockey League’s trade freeze ended on Sunday evening after the conclusion of the Winter Olympics, and trade chatter has started picking up again – and a good deal of it is related to the Calgary Flames.

Over at TSN, they released their latest edition of their Insider Trading panel on Tuesday afternoon.

To nobody’s great surprise, the Flames were mentioned a bit. Chris Johnston, discussing the Colorado Avalanche clearing some cap space in the Brett Kulak/Sam Girard swap on Tuesday, noted that the Avalanche are all-in on trying to win a Stanley Cup, and mentioned Nazem Kadri as a centreman they would potentially be interested in. (After all, Kadri won a Cup with Colorado a few years back.)

Darren Dreger then expanded on the Flames’ current situation:

(Eric Francis, in a recent column over at Sportsnet, termed a Kadri trade “inevitable” but also noted some complexities that could make it something that happens after the Mar. 6 trade deadline.)

The Flames are entering the stretch drive near the bottom of the NHL’s standings, but they have a lot of interesting prospects and ample cap space. They have one salary retention slot available, but Rasmus Andersson and Jacob Markstrom’s salary retentions both come off the books on July 1 so they gain a lot of flexibility.

Kadri, 35, is a left shot centre. He’s under contract through 2028-29 with a $7 million cap hit. He has a 13-team no-trade clause. He joined the Flames as a free agent in 2022.

Coleman, 34, is a left shot winger. He’s under contract through 2026-27 with a $4.9 million cap hit. He has a 10-team approved trade list. He joined the Flames as a free agent in 2021.

Weegar, 32, is a right shot defenceman. He’s under contract through 2030-31 with a no-trade clause. He joined the Flames in the Matthew Tkachuk trade with Florida in 2022.

Whitecloud, 29, is a right shot defenceman. He’s under contract through 2027-28 and has no trade protection. He joined the Flames in the Rasmus Andersson trade with Vegas last month.

Suffice it to say: the Flames are in the midst of a youth movement, and are trying to balance getting some value for some of their older assets while they’re in demand with not completely tearing the team down to the studs and retaining some veterans to insulate their youngsters as they adjust to the NHL level.

The Flames return to action on Thursday in San Jose. The NHL’s trade deadline is next Friday, Mar. 6, at 1 p.m. MT.

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