The Calgary Flames and Philadelphia Flyers share plenty of similarities on and off the ice.
Both teams won their last championship many decades ago, back when the National Hockey League had far fewer teams than it does now. They’ve also long been overshadowed by their closest geographical rivals. The Flames and Flyers can only dream of being as blessed with generational talents as the Edmonton Oilers and Pittsburgh Penguins have been over the last 40-odd years. Calgary and Philly are the better cities, but Edmonton and Pittsburgh have always had better luck.
To remain competitive in the Battles of Alberta and Pennsylvania, the Flames and Flyers have had to make do with workmanlike groups that play as a unit and do all they can to shut down the elite skill on the other side. They’ve both been able to parlay that approach into surprise playoff runs: Philly reached the Stanley Cup Final in 1997 and 2010, while Calgary made it within one game of a second title in 2004.
Despite all these connections, the Flames and Flyers have seldom been significant trade partners during their respective histories. Prior to last month’s shake-up, the two teams hadn’t consummated a player swap since 2013 — and you’d have to go all the way back to 1987 to find anything that surpasses the magnitude of what we saw in January.
Here’s a look at all 13 trades the Flames have made with the Flyers since relocating from Atlanta in 1980.
Jan. 30, 2025: Flames acquire Morgan Frost and Joel Farabee
By now, you know all about it. The Flames swung a major deal with the Flyers in January that was finalized as both teams were on the ice at opposite ends of the continent. It was a bit of a mess!
In a shocking turn of events that harkened back to the memorable Mike Cammalleri-for-Rene Bourque swap, the Flames and Flyers both pulled players out of their lineups in the middle of their respective games as the trade neared its completion. In the end, the deal saw Calgary acquire Morgan Frost and Joel Farabee from Philadelphia in exchange for Jakob Pelletier, Andrei Kuzmenko, a 2025 second-round pick, and a 2028 seventh-round pick.
Right now, we don’t know much of anything about how this deal will affect the two teams and the players involved. Frost and Farabee both look to be upgrades on the two players the Flames gave up, but fans in Calgary will miss the energy and enthusiasm Pelletier and Kuzmenko brought to the rink on a nightly basis. It’s also fair to question whether the Flames should be giving up second-round picks at this point in their retool, even for players in their early-to-mid-20s.
Make no mistake: Calgary and Philly haven’t made a deal this consequential in a long, long time. Right now, the Flames look like the winners, but it could go either way. We’ll just have to wait and see.
June 29, 2024: Flames and Flyers swap picks
See, this is more the norm. The Flames and Flyers hooked up for a minor deal on Day 2 of the 2024 NHL Draft, with Philly trading up from picks 150 and 177 to acquire pick 107 from Calgary.
The Flyers apparently coveted Finnish forward Heikki Ruohonen, who they took at 107. The Helsinki product has 24 points in 34 games with the USHL’s Dubuque Fighting Saints this season. Calgary had already selected forward Trevor Hoskin with pick 106 and felt they could afford to trade down instead of making a second consecutive choice.
The early returns have certainly favoured the Flames. Luke Misa, who they picked up at 150, has had a strong D+1 season with the OHL’s Brampton Steelheads, collecting 77 points in 56 games. Eric Jamieson, their selection at 177, has spent the year as Landon DuPont’s defence partner with the WHL’s Everett Silvertips and has 32 points and a +36 rating through 57 contests. Don’t be surprised if the Flames sign both players to entry-level contracts within the next 12 months.
Mar. 6, 2024: Flyers help swing the Noah Hanifin deal
It’s one of the more minor transactions on this list, but it still counts. The Vegas Golden Knights needed a little extra help to acquire Noah Hanifin from the Flames at last year’s trade deadline, so the teams enlisted the Flyers to help streamline the process.
The other major pieces in the deal all headed to Calgary, but the Flyers did receive a 2024 fifth-round pick from Vegas in exchange for retaining 25 percent of Hanifin’s remaining cap hit for the 2023-24 season. Before that, the Flames started off the transaction by trading Hanifin to the Flyers (retaining half his salary) in exchange for the signing rights to Mikhail Vorobyov, whom they proceeded to flip to Vegas in exchange for Daniil Miromanov, a 2026 first-round pick, and a 2024 third-round pick (used to select goaltender Kirill Zarubin).
Of course, this was primarily a deal between Calgary and Vegas, with the Flyers only taking part as a third-party broker. You’d be forgiven if you forgot (or didn’t even know) they took part at all.
Feb. 25, 2013: Flames trade Mitch Wahl for Mike Testwuide
Who? Who!? Yes, these are real people. In fact, one of them is still playing professionally in Germany. But neither of these players ever made it to the NHL and both were barely hanging on in North America at the time of this particular swap.
Jay Feaster’s Flames and Paul Holmgren’s Flyers were both destined to miss the playoffs in the lockout-shortened 2012-13 season when they pulled the trigger on this minor-league deal. Mitch Wahl, a 2008 second-round pick of the Flames and a junior standout with the Spokane Chiefs, had struggled to carve out a role with the Abbotsford Heat over his first four pro seasons and ended up being loaned out to the Hamilton Bulldogs in 2011-12. He’d put up big numbers in the ECHL, but that was about it. After the trade, Wahl ended up two more seasons in North America before embarking on a solid European career that included stops in Sweden, Finland, Austria, Slovakia, and Germany, where he plays to this day.
Mike Testwuide, who the Flames acquired from Philly, had been a better AHLer over the previous few seasons, but he was also undrafted and three years older. The former Colorado College captain put up two goals and an assist over nine games with the Heat to close out the season before leaving for the hockey hotbed of South Korea, eventually becoming a citizen and serving as captain of their men’s national team at the 2018 Winter Olympics in Pyeongchang.
June 30, 2008: The Kyle Greentree/Tim Ramholt blockbuster
This time, it was Darryl Sutter who swung a deal with Holmgren — and the Flames even got two NHL games out of the guy they brought in. How about that?
Kyle Greentree was the dictionary definition of a quadruple-A player during his time in North America. He was big, reasonably talented, and had a good shot, but he peaked a little later on and didn’t quite have the skillset teams were looking for in their bottom-six players back in the 2000s. As a result, the former Victoria Salsa star only ever skated in four NHL games — two with Philly, two with Calgary — before heading overseas.
Tim Ramholt went the other way in this particular deal and is most notable for having one of the shortest careers in NHL history. One of Sutter’s first-ever draft picks with the Flames, Ramholt made his debut with the club early in the 2007-08 season and took one 45-second shift, which was enough for head coach Jim Playfair to decide he’d seen enough. He sat on the bench the rest of that game and never played in the NHL again, finishing with a career minus-one rating in less than a minute of ice time.
Feb. 20, 2008: Flames bring in Jim Vandermeer
Jim Vandermeer made a name for himself in the early 2000s as a reliable bottom-pairing defenceman who never stuck around all that long with his teams despite blocking a lot of shots and throwing plenty of hits — two things GMs in the 2000s loved more than anything.
Vandermeer split the 2007-08 season between three teams, starting in Chicago and ending in Calgary with a stint in Philly sandwiched between. The Caroline, Alberta product had started his NHL career with the Flyers as an undrafted free agent and appeared in 28 more games with the team during his second stint before being flipped to the Flames for a 2009 third-round pick, which Philadelphia used on goaltender Adam Morrison.
After finishing out the season in Calgary, Vandermeer signed a three-year extension with the Flames on July 1. But after spending much of the 2008-09 campaign as a reserve, Vandermeer ended up on the move again, being flipped to the Phoenix Coyotes in exchange for Brandon Prust.
Jan. 22, 2003: Flyers take a flier on Jamie Wright
Always more of a top AHL scorer than a true difference-maker at the top level, Jamie Wright spent just over half his NHL career with the Flames. Although he scored a career-high 16 points in 44 games with the Flames in the 2001-02 season, Wright never quite found a niche for himself in Calgary and ended up being traded to the Flyers the following year in exchange for future considerations.
The Flames were the team that gave Wright his first real chance to be a regular after he bounced back and forth between the NHL and AHL in the Dallas Stars organization for many years previously, but, not unlike how Austin Czarnik would fare in his own Flames stint just over 15 years later, Wright just couldn’t quite hack it when he was finally given a look. He skated in just 19 games with Calgary in 2002-03 before being sent to Philadelphia, where he’d dress for four more games before spending the rest of his career in lower-level pro leagues.
June 24, 2001: Flames acquire Dean McAmmond
Now we’re talking. One of the NHL’s great journeymen in his day, Dean McAmmond and the Flames were involved in three separate trades over the span of less than two years in the early 2000s. The first one saw the Flames acquire the Grande Cache, Alberta product from the Flyers in exchange for a 2002 fourth-round pick, which Philly ended up using on defenceman Rosario Ruggeri.
McAmmond spent the majority of the 2001-02 season on Calgary’s top line with Jarome Iginla and Craig Conroy and reaped the rewards in a big way, setting career highs with 21 goals and 51 points in 73 games. But it wouldn’t last, with the Flames electing to flip McAmmond to the Colorado Avalanche on the eve of the 2002-03 season as part of a deal that also saw Derek Morris and Jeff Shantz head to the Avs for Chris Drury and Stéphane Yelle, the latter of whom spent the next five seasons in Calgary.
It took less than six months for Colorado to send McAmmond back to Calgary. In March 2003, the Flames gave up a 2003 fifth-round pick (used on Marc McCutcheon) to reacquire the veteran forward, but because of an obscure rule related to the now-defunct waiver draft, McAmmond was deemed ineligible to play for the Flames for the remainder of the 2002-03 season. He ultimately rejoined the team in 2003-04 and scored 17 goals in 64 games, but a back injury kept him out of the entirety of the team’s run to the 2004 Stanley Cup Final.
Mar. 6, 2000: Flames bring back Marc Bureau
Marc Bureau enjoyed a long and somewhat productive career as a checking centre throughout the 1990s, most notably with the Minnesota North Stars, Tampa Bay Lightning, and Montreal Canadiens. But he bookended that career with two separate stints as a member of the Calgary Flames, and calling them both “brief” would be an understatement.
An undrafted player, Bureau worked his way onto the Flames’ radar after winning a QMJHL championship in 1987 with the final iteration of the Longueuil Chevaliers. He turned pro with the IHL’s Salt Lake Golden Eagles the following year and immediately won another championship with them in 1988. But after appearing in just 10 games with the Flames over parts of two seasons, Bureau was traded to the North Stars in exchange for the draft pick that turned into Sandy McCarthy.
548 NHL games later, Bureau — then 33 and a member of the Flyers — was nearing the end of his run. With the Flames looking to shore up their depth ahead of the trade deadline, they traded AHL tweener Travis Brigley and a 2002 sixth-round pick (used on Andrei Razin) to Philly in exchange for Bureau, who skated in nine more games with Calgary to finish his NHL career.
Oct. 13, 1998: Flames sell high on Ryan Bast
You probably don’t know who Ryan Bast is, but you probably do know a few of the players who the Flames ended up getting down the line as part of his surprisingly expansive trade tree. Let’s dig in!
Let’s wind the clocks back to 1997. The Saint John Flames are one of the best teams in the AHL — they’d go on to win the Calder Cup a few years later — and one of their most intriguing young players is a 22-year-old Ryan Bast, who was named an AHL second team All-Star that year after racking up 11 points and 187 penalty minutes in 77 games with the Baby Flames. (Also on that team: Martin St. Louis).
Back in the late ’90s, the 6’2″, 190-pound Bast was a little bit on the smaller side for a shutdown defender, but that didn’t deter the Flyers in their search for the next Chris Therien. Early in the 1998-99 season, the Flyers acquired Bast and a 1999 eighth-round pick from the Flames in exchange for a 1999 third-round pick.
Bast only ever appeared in two NHL games during his career. The players selected with the two picks involved in the deal never made it to the NHL. But it’s what the Flames ended up doing what that 1999 third-rounder that really made waves. See, they ended up trading that pick to the New York Rangers as part of a deal that brought them Marc Savard and the pick they used on Oleg Saprykin. They ended up trading Saprykin for Daymond Langkow, who they ended up trading for Lee Stempniak, who ended up being flipped for a pick they used to acquire Brandon Bollig.
In a way, Ryan Bast was partially responsible for all of that. Aren’t trades fun?
Mar. 18, 1993: Flyers flip Greg Paslawski to Calgary
If you played for the St. Louis Blues at any point in the 1980s, you were almost guaranteed to end up in Calgary by the end of your career — even for just 34 games. Greg Paslawski was no exception.
No, he wasn’t quite on the level of Doug Gilmour, Joey Mullen, Rob Ramage, or even Mark Hunter or Rick Wamsley, but Paslawski was a decent player in his own right who scored 20 goals four times in his Blues tenure. By the time he ended up in Calgary, however, Paslawski was on his last legs as an NHLer. As such, the Flames only had to part with a 1993 ninth-round pick (used on E.J. Bradley) to add Paslawski at the 1992-93 trade deadline.
Paslawski was reasonably productive with the Flames to close out the season, collecting four goals and nine points in 13 games and adding three more goals in six playoff contests, but he managed just two points in 15 games the following year before being demoted to the IHL’s Peoria Rivermen. He never played in the NHL again.
Aug. 26, 1987: Flames bring in Brad McCrimmon
We’ve finally reached the biggest deal on this list (and it’s not close). By the time Brad McCrimmon joined the Flames in 1987, he had already established himself as one of the top defensive defencemen in the entire National Hockey League. He’d also played an instrumental role in the Flyers reaching the 1987 Stanley Cup Final against the Edmonton Oilers, scoring the winning goal in Game 3. But after a year marred by contract disputes between McCrimmon and the team, the Flyers — led by longtime GM Bobby Clarke — elected to move on from the 28-year-old rearguard.
Even with Al MacInnis, Gary Suter, and Jamie Macoun already in the fold, the Flames were more than happy to add McCrimmon to their lineup. The price they paid — a 1989 first-round pick (Steve Bancroft) and a 1988 third-round pick (Dominic Roussel) — ended up being more than worth it. McCrimmon led the entire NHL with a +48 rating in his first season in Calgary and skated in all 22 playoff games the following year as the Flames won their first and only Stanley Cup — meaning the first they gave up for him ended up being the final pick in the round. Not bad at all.
McCrimmon only spent three seasons in Calgary, but they were three of his very best. After being traded to the Detroit Red Wings in 1990, McCrimmon helped usher a young Nicklas Lidstrom into the NHL; the Flames sorely missed his presence (and others) in the following years and ended up missing the playoffs altogether in 1991-92.
McCrimmon finished his NHL career with stints in Hartford and Phoenix before turning to coaching. After a successful tenure with the WHL’s Saskatoon Blades, McCrimmon returned to the Flames for parts of three seasons as an assistant coach under Don Hay and Greg Gilbert in the early 2000s. He also worked with the Red Wings, New York Islanders, and Atlanta Thrashers before leaving North America ahead of the 2010-11 season to join KHL club Lokomotiv Yaroslav as head coach. But before he had the chance to coach a single game with Lokomotiv, McCrimmon — along with most of the team — tragically died in a plane crash on Sept. 7, 2011.
Nov. 11, 1981: Flames send Brad Marsh to Philly for Mel Bridgman
Looking back, most of the trades between the Flames and Flyers over the last 45 years took place either at the trade deadline or in the summer. Most of them were relatively standard pick-for-player deals. Only a few featured players on both sides, and not very many of those players spent all that long in the NHL. But two of these trades stand out as being particularly similar to each other, and it just so happens that they’re the first and last on the list.
This past January, the Flames and Flyers pulled off the elusive “hockey trade” — one wherein both teams simultaneously added to and subtracted from their roster. The Flames added a couple draft picks to make the deal work, but in essence, it was Pelletier and Kuzmenko for Farabee and Frost. It wasn’t just as simple as one team buying and the other selling; it’ll take months, if not years, to determine which team won the deal. There aren’t many other trades on this list that fit into that category.
… Except for this one. Back in 1981, the Flames and Flyers pulled off another mid-season swap, and this one was even simpler — in fact, it was a classic one-for-one deal. Coming to Calgary: Mel Bridgman, one of the younger Broad Street Bullies. Heading to Philly: Brad Marsh, the Calgary Flames’ first-ever captain.
While, at first, the Flames appeared to get the better end of the deal, Bridgman lasted only two years in Calgary while Marsh cemented himself as a defensive cornerstone in Philadelphia over parts of seven seasons. Marsh helped the Flyers reach the Stanley Cup Final twice during his tenure; Bridgman was reasonably productive in Calgary but ended up being flipped to New Jersey alongside Phil Russell in exchange for Steve Tambellini and Joel Quenneville, neither of whom amounted to much of anything for the Flames.
Perhaps the moral of this particular story is that fans should avoid rushing to declare which teams won or lost a trade. Maybe … but where’s the fun in that?
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