After making just one trade during the entire 2024-25 regular season, Calgary Flames general manager Craig Conroy got down to business in a big way this year.

Conroy made six trades in the weeks leading up to the March 6 deadline, most notably sending three popular and long-tenured veterans out of town. The Selke Trophy candidate-turned-Flames executive transformed the team’s ill-defined retool/reload/rebiggle into a full-fledged, undeniable rebuild, setting the stage for what should be an exciting draft season.

With the benefit of more than a week to reflect on Conroy’s final flurry of deadline deals, here’s a look back at all six of the swaps he pulled off this season, along with a corresponding grade for each one.

Flames receive: D Zach Whitecloud, D Abram Wiebe, VGK 2027 1st, VGK 2028 2nd (conditional)
Golden Knights receive: D Rasmus Andersson (50% retained)

After going nearly a year without making a single player transaction of consequence, Conroy awoke from his slumber on a sunny Sunday in January and swung a major trade midway through Zayne Parekh’s AHL debut with the Calgary Wranglers at the Saddledome.

The initial reaction from most Flames fans: “Vegas? Again!? Really!?!?” But it’s obvious that Conroy learned a few lessons from his first time dealing with the evil empire back in 2024. The third-year GM navigated the market beautifully and ended up with a killer return from the Golden Knights, adding a 2027 first-round pick, a solid prospect in Abram Wiebe, and a quality veteran on an excellent contract in Zach Whitecloud.

Conroy also managed to work in a bit of a failsafe for the 2026 first-rounder he previously got from Vegas in the Noah Hanifin trade, stipulating that the 2028 second-round pick the Flames also received for Andersson will convert into a first-rounder if the Knights win this year’s Stanley Cup (and thereby give the Flames the lowest possible first-rounder this June). But that’s not looking so likely, with Andersson and the Knights struggling to win much of anything since the trade. If anything, Whitecloud has outperformed Andersson in virtually every facet of the game.

Grade: A. Conroy established a very fair market price for rental defencemen with his first move of the 2025-26 season. Beyond adding two high picks and arguably Vegas’s top defence prospect, Conroy managed to swap out one valuable right-handed defender for another, potentially setting the stage for a highly lucrative Whitecloud trade in the future.

Flames receive: D Gavin White
Stars receive: D Jeremie Poirier

After bursting onto the scene with the Wranglers back in 2022-23, Poirier’s game fell off a little bit in each subsequent season, and so did his odds of ever cracking the Flames’ lineup. But it still came as a bit of a surprise when the 2020 third-round pick mustered up just one goal and six points in his first 35 games of the season with the Wranglers in 2025-26.

That, plus the Wranglers’ logjam on the left side, all but spelled the end of Poirier’s tenure with the Flames, either through a trade or the team simply not offering him a new contract. And on Groundhog Day, the first possibility came to fruition, with the Flames sending Poirier to Dallas for fellow 23-year-old rearguard Gavin White, who shoots right and is also on an expiring contract.

Grade: C-plus. Poirier clearly wasn’t long for Calgary, and it’s entirely possible he would’ve left for nothing as a non-tendered RFA in the summer, but White hasn’t exactly moved the needle for the Wranglers. Not a big deal, though.

Flames receive: D Olli Maatta, C Jonathan Castagna, UTA 2026 2nd, NYR 2026 2nd, OTT 2026 2nd
Mammoth receive: D MacKenzie Weegar

Not many people expected the Flames to move Weegar so soon after they traded Andersson, but that’s exactly what happened with just two days to go until the trade deadline. One of multiple trades reported before the players involved had decided whether to waive their no-trade clauses, the Weegar deal ultimately went through after he consented to go to Utah — and, in turn, once Maatta agreed to come to Calgary.

Utah’s prospect cupboards are pretty stocked, which led Flames fans to fantasize about getting Dmitry Simashev, Daniil But, or even Tij Iginla as part of the trade return. In the end, they didn’t even get a first-round pick. But they did get three seconds, as well as top Cornell centre Jonathan Castagna, and they didn’t have to retain any salary on the final five years of Weegar’s contract.

The real wild card is Maatta, who fell out of favour in Utah but has been a very good pro throughout his long NHL career. After watching Weegar struggle to stay afloat and lose morale in real time in Calgary this season, it’s been a nice change of pace to see Maatta fly around out there with seemingly boundless energy. The 6’2″ Finn has three assists in his first four games with the Flames while averaging 23:20 of ice time, a full 11 minutes more than he played with the Mammoth.

Grade: B-plus. It’s easy to say the Flames could’ve pushed to get a first-rounder, but you have to respect the EA NHL GM Mode energy of Conroy clearing out all of Utah’s 2026 seconds, especially considering how valuable that Rangers pick will be.

Flames receive: C Ryan Strome
Ducks receive: CGY 2027 7th

It looked like it was going to be a quiet trade deadline day for the Flames until shortly after 1:00 p.m. MT, when the first reports started to trickle out to indicate that they had something cooking. And while news of the Nazem Kadri trade would come later — much later — the Strome trade certainly seemed to indicate that the Flames might’ve already succeeded in moving a centre.

Strome, like Maatta, had found himself without a regular spot in the Ducks’ lineup for much of the 2025-26 season. But he’s a very capable NHL centre who can play in a variety of roles on basically any team. FlamesNation editor emeritus Kent Wilson observed on a recent After Burner show that Strome could follow in the footsteps of Matt Stajan in Calgary as a versatile and respected veteran who assists in the development of a new, younger core. He’s certainly made a good first impression since the trade, with a goal and four points in four games with the Flames.

With one year left on his contract at a $5 million cap hit, Strome could prove to be a nice little trade asset for the Flames at next year’s deadline. At this rate, they’d likely get more than they gave up for him. But it might also make sense to look into extending Strome for another year or two to help insulate the likes of Cole Reschny and Cullen Potter as they break into the Flames’ pro ranks.

Grade: A-minus. Talk about a shrewd bet. Strome is a seven-time 40-point scorer with 900 games of NHL experience. At a deadline where veteran centres were going for high picks left and right, the Flames managed to buy one as a distressed asset for the lowest possible cost. If they retain, they should get way more than they paid for Strome next year.

Flames receive: LW Brennan Othmann
Rangers receive: RW Jacob Battaglia

While we waited to hear whether the Flames had, in fact, moved Nazem Kadri, it came out that they’d made a relatively minor prospect-for-prospect deal with the Rangers. It’s not the first time that’s happened — remember the Roman Horak/Tim Erixon deal? — but it came as a bit of a surprise, in part because of how infrequently the Flames and Rangers have historically dealt with one another.

Heading to New York? Jacob Battaglia, a second-round pick of the Flames in 2024 who followed up an excellent 2024-25 OHL season with a disappointing step back this year. Coming to Calgary? Brennan Othmann, who is three years older and already has 42 NHL games under his belt. He’s also a former first-rounder who has much of the same goal-scoring ability and aggressiveness as the player he was traded for. Othmann has already played in two games with the Wranglers, picking up an assist, and will likely make his Flames debut relatively soon.

Grade: B. As difficult as it must’ve been to trade Battaglia less than a year after signing him to his ELC, the Flames did well in swapping a prospect in the midst of a down year for a similar (but more proven) young player. The only real risk? If Othmann can’t hack it in the next year or so, he’ll probably be gone just as Battaglia is turning pro.

Flames receive: LW Victor Olofsson, C Max Curran, COL 2028 1st, COL or MIN 2027 2nd
Avalanche receive: C Nazem Kadri (20% retained), CGY 2027 4th

Finally, just about an hour after the deadline passed, Sportsnet’s Elliotte Friedman tweeted out those immortal words: “Nazem Kadri back to the Colorado Avalanche.” Once that happened, all the pieces really started clicking into place. Kadri out, Strome in. Kadri out, retention spots filled. Kadri out, more picks in?

In the end, the Flames got more for the 35-year-old centre than virtually anyone in Calgary anticipated. They managed to recoup the first-round pick they gave up to clear space to sign Kadri in the first place, and on top of that, they got another second-rounder, the rights to prospect Max Curran, and pending UFA winger Victor Olofsson.

The Flames had to retain 20 percent of Kadri’s salary to move him, as was generally expected, but they shouldn’t have any trouble fitting that dead cap hit into their payroll for the next three seasons after this one. If anything, it’s a little surprising they didn’t have to retain more. In the end, the Flames traded one of their oldest players to the team he desperately wanted to return to in exchange for an impressive windfall.

Grade: A-plus. Even beyond the magnitude of the return, the trade sent a crystal-clear message that this rebuild is for real. It’s exactly what Flames fans have been dying to hear. Perfectly done, no notes, long live the rebiggle.

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