Nine trades down, six more to go!

In part three we looked back on some great trades made by Craig Conroy including the grand slam Jacob Markstrom deal.

And now it’s time to break down some of his work from around the 2026 trade deadline.

As always, I am going to hand out letter grades (A, B, C, or D) for each trade.

For the sake of efficiency, I am only going to grade the 15 NHL trades Conroy has made. Pick swaps at the draft and minor league trades will not be evaluated.

I’ll be breaking these deals down with a mix of analysis from the time the deal was made and then with some hindsight now that we’ve had some time to see how they’ve worked out for the Flames.

To Vegas: Rasmus Andersson

To Calgary: 2027 1st Round Pick, 2028 2nd Round Pick, Zach Whitecloud, Abram Wiebe

Rasmus Andersson entered last season as a pending UFA. Craig Conroy tried to get the Swedish defenceman signed to a long term deal but the two sides couldn’t come to an agreement. Therefore a trade was inevitable.

Thankfully for the Flames, Andersson had a bounce back season after a rough 2024-25 campaign. He re-established himself as a legit top four defenceman who can impact the game at both ends of the ice.

Andersson wasn’t willing to sign an extension right away with the team who traded for him, which made him a rental. The fact that Conroy was able to acquire two draft picks, a top four NHL defenceman on an incredible contract, and a prospect was masterful work.

The Flames used the 2027 1st round pick in the Simon Nemec trade. Whitecloud has become an important member of the team on and off the ice. If the Flames decide to trade Whitecloud, they could most likely get a pretty significant return for the inexpensive right shot defenceman. And Abram Wiebe played four games for the Flames at the end of last season and showed some promise. The Flames got all that for a pending UFA defenceman. Impressive work by the Flames GM.

To Utah: MacKenzie Weegar

To Calgary: 2026 2nd Round Pick, 2026 2nd Round Pick, 2026 2nd Round Pick, Olli Maatta, Jonathan Castagna

This is the trade that officially signalled the Calgary Flames were in a full on rebuild. Prior to the Weegar deal, Conroy traded numerous pending UFAs because he had to. But this was the first trade he made where he moved out a veteran player, and one of the most important leaders on the team, with at least three years remaining on their contract.

You have to give Conroy a ton of credit for getting out in front of this situation. Weegar was a 32 year old defenceman having his worst season as a Calgary Flame. On top of that, he had five years remaining on his contract that pays him $6.25 million per year.

It made sense to move Weegar because this is a team going in a younger direction. By the time they start to get out of their rebuild, Weegar would be in his late thirties. Plus the Flames have Zayne Parekh, Hunter Brzustewicz, Henry Mews and now Simon Nemec. There wasn’t much room on the right side of the defence moving forward.

It sucked to see Weegar leave Calgary. He embraced being a Flame on the ice giving his all during his three and a half years. And off the ice as a leader and an important of the Calgary community. It was a difficult decision to make for Conroy, but it was the right one that needed to happen.

The Flames used one second round pick in the Nemec trade. One to move up in the draft to select Tobias Trejbal. And one on Alan Shaikhlislamov. Olli Maatta was moved to Minnesota along with Blake Coleman for a series of draft picks and Jake Middleton. Jonathan Castagna will play an important role with the AHL Wranglers and will likely get an opportunity to play in some NHL games this season.

To Calgary: Ryan Strome

To Anaheim: 2027 7th Round Pick

At the end of the 2026 trade deadline, Flames fans were led to believe that their team was on the verge of making a big trade. We all thought it was going to be Nazem Kadri. But the first deal that trickled out was something we didn’t see coming.

The Flames acquired Ryan Strome from the Anaheim Ducks for a 2027 seventh round pick. It was a head scratching move until we found out about the Kadri trade which was reported on approximately one hour after the Strome deal.

Strome was acquired by the Flames to help fill the void down the middle of the ice and provide important leadership and guidance to young players that was left behind by the likes of Andersson, Weegar, and Kadri.

He’s done exactly that. On the ice he put up 12 points in 19 games, that’s a 52 point pace over 84 games.

Off the ice he became a mentor to the likes of Zayne Parekh and Matvei Gridin.

And sometime between now and the trade deadline, Strome will likely be moved for more than he was originally acquired for. Overall it was a low risk, high reward trade by Conroy to fill a hole in the Flames lineup.