The Calgary Flames love their big trades on February 28.
This season’s trade deadline is just 10 days away on Mar. 7 and the Flames may not be all that active at this season’s deadline. Still, it’s that time of the year when teams make moves.
Interestingly, Friday will mark the anniversary of five trades, three of them being meaningful to the Flames. Let’s take a look at those five trades in the latest edition of Throwback Tuesday!
Theoren Fleury trade
On Feb. 28, 1999, the Flames traded Theo Fleury and Chris Dingman to the Colorado Avalanche. In return, they received Wade Belak, René Corbet, a 2000 second-round pick, and Robyn Regehr.
Fleury had a successful career with the Flames, playing 791 games with 364 goals and 830 points, helping the team win the Stanley Cup in his rookie season of 1988-89 and being named to the All-Star game six times. Dingman, the Flames 19th overall pick in 1994, only had 72 games under his belt at the time of the trade, but he went on to win two Stanley Cups.
Belak only played parts of three seasons with the Flames before the Toronto Maple Leafs claimed him off waivers in 2000-01. It was with the Maple Leafs where he spent the majority of his career. Rest in peace, Wade.
Corbet played two seasons with the Flames, scoring nine goals and 23 points in 68 games before ending his career in the NHL with the Penguins in 2000-01. He spent the rest of his career in Germany.
With the second-round pick the Flames received in the trade, they selected Jarret Stoll 46th overall. Unfortunately, the two parties were unable to agree to a contract and the Flames were unable to trade him on time. Stoll was picked again in the second round by an Albertan team in 2002, the Oilers. He had a lengthy career, winning two Stanley Cups in 2011-12 and 2013-14 with the Los Angeles Kings.
The most impactful player received by the Flames in this trade was Regehr. We’ve looked at his trade with the Buffalo Sabres in 2011 in a Throwback Tuesday, but never his trade to the Flames. Regehr spent 11 seasons with the Flames, scoring 29 goals and 163 points in 826 games. However, his defensive value went far beyond the box score as he was one of the best defensive defencemen in Flames’ history.
Cale Hulse returns
On Feb. 28, 2006, the Flames traded Cam Severson to the Columbus Blue Jackets for Cale Hulse, his second stint with the team. Severson never played for the Flames and played in just four games with the Blue Jackets before heading to Europe.
In his second stint with the Flames, Hulse played just 12 games with an assist. He never played another game after that. However, his first stint was far more impactful.
Ironically, the first trade Hulse was involved with also came at the end of February. In 1996, he was traded from the New Jersey Devils to the Flames on Feb. 26 and involved in the Al MacInnis trade tree.
His first stint saw him score 10 goals and 52 points in 265 games, including the 1997-98 season when he scored a career-best five goals and 27 points.
Fredrik Modin trade
Not all Feb. 28 trades had a big impact. At one point in his career, Fredrik Modin had 32 goals and 56 points in 76 games and even helped the Tampa Bay Lightning win their first Stanley Cup. However, his play declined starting in 2007-08 and by the 2010-11 season, his career was all but down.
On Feb. 28, 2011, Modin was traded to the Flames for a seventh-round pick in the coming draft. Modin played just four games with the team before calling it a career in May 2011. The seventh was used by the San Jose Sharks to select Colin Blackwell.
Seventh-round picks more often than not don’t turn out to do much at the NHL level, but Blackwell has carved out a good career for himself. He debuted in the NHL in 2018-19 and scored a career-high 12 goals and 22 points in 47 games. Blackwell currently plays for the Dallas Stars where he has five goals and 13 points in 48 games.
Brian McGrattan trade
On Feb. 28, 2013, the Flames traded undrafted defenceman Joe Piskula to the Nashville Predators in exchange for Brian McGrattan. Yes, there’s a Throwback Tuesday on this one as well.
Piskula only played five games with the Calgary Flames in 2011-12 and 13 games in his career, but was TJ Brodie’s defence partner with the Abbotsford Heat. McGrattan on the other hand, joined the Flames for his second stint and scored three goals in 19 games immediately following the trade. His most memorable fight shortly after the trade was in his first game back with Vancouver Canucks’ Tom Sestito.
McGrattan was also part of the famous line brawl the following season against the Canucks. The 2013-14 season was also the enforcer’s best season in the league, scoring four goals and eight points in 76 games.
What a fun player.
Chris Tanev trade
The most recent trade will celebrate its first anniversary on Feb. 28. That day saw them trade Chris Tanev to the Dallas Stars for defence prospect Artem Grushnikov and a 2024 second-round pick that was used to select Jacob Battaglia. There was also a conditional 2026 third-round pick attached, but the conditional wasn’t met.
Tanev spent four seasons with the Flames with his defensive presence far outweighing the offence he brought. However, he was set to become an unrestricted free agent after the 2023-24 season, so the Flames decided to trade him.
Grushnikov is a defence-first prospect like Tanev who can be used in shutdown situations. So far with the American Hockey League’s Calgary Wranglers, he has a goal and four points in 42 games but is just 21 years old, so maybe some offence can develop.
Battaglia, on the other hand, has quickly become one of the Flames’ best forward prospects. The 18-year-old plays with the Ontario Hockey League’s Kingston Frontenacs where he has 33 goals and 77 points in 57 games, surpassing the 31 goals and 65 points last season. It will be fun to see him grow over the coming seasons.
Thanks for reading! You can follow me on Twitter @Ryley__Delaney.
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