A week ago, the Calgary Flames and Philadelphia Flyers executed a pretty substantial trade that saw Andrei Kuzmenko, Jakob Pelletier and two draft choices head to the Flyers in exchange for Joel Farabee and Morgan Frost.
Earlier this week, our pal Jeff Marek had Flyers general manager Daniel Briere on The Sheet to talk about the trade! And on Friday, our pal Frank Seravalli had Flames general manager Frank Seravalli on his podcast, Frankly Speaking, to talk about a bunch of topics… including the trade.
Here are a few trade-related tidbits from the Flames’ GM.
On early returns from Farabee and Frost
“…I think they’re just bringing a few things that we needed, especially with Morgan and the face-off circle. He’s been our best face-off guy each night. And I think that’s going to continue. And he’ll get he’ll end up taking more draws as he continues to win them here. So that’s a big thing for us. But real nice additions for us. And they fit our age group. And we’re looking forward to seeing progress here in the future.”
On what drew him to Frost
“Well, I think, you know, you look at his skill set. He’s got very nice hands. You know, he sees the ice well. He transports it really well on the power play where we were having trouble getting the puck in. Again, winning draws on the face-offs, on the power play, something we really focused on. And even when you see him out there, the coaches are very happy. He settles things down. He’s got great vision and the hands. I mean, I think, you know, the one thing you’re wondering, maybe people said his compete’s in and out, but I haven’t seen that at this point, you know. So hopefully, he just continues and we want him to have fun and play and be himself and and bring what he does best. I mean, you know, we don’t want him to run guys. We want him to make plays. And I don’t know if you saw the goal in Seattle, it was impressive. Very nice goal, got us going. And, you know, we’re trying to add some scoring. So for both of them to already score, hopefully that just makes them that much more comfortable.”
On how excited Frost and Farabee are for a new opportunity
“Probably Joel more than Morgan. But I think Joel was really entrenched in Philadelphia. I think he loved living there, loved being a part of, the city, the organization. Both guys were like that. So I think that was the hard part. But they’re looking forward to, I know Travis Konecny has a house out here. Garnet Hathaway played here. So I think those guys have really helped us sell Calgary a little bit. So they felt a little bit more comfortable hearing from those guys. I can tell them how great it is here. But, you know, it’s always nice to hear from players on your own team that they enjoy to hear, too, which is nice for me to hear.”
On how tough the conversation was with Jakob Pelletier when he was traded
“For sure. That was the hardest, because I didn’t know how he was going to react and see the emotion that he had. I’m human, you know, I felt bad. I have kids, you know, when they’re upset and they’re not happy. Those are the things, you know, it makes me think back, Chris Snow was a big, close friend. And with his passing last year, I know how much he loved Jakob Pelletier and his family loved. I mean, there’s a lot more to it. But again, my job is to try to do what’s right for the team and move forward. And we felt like this was something that could help give us a boost. And, you know, we’re trying to make the playoffs. But even with that, we’re trying to build the team for the future. And we really were looking for that centre. And to be able to get Joel in the deal also just made a lot of sense for us.”
Seravalli and Conroy covered a lot of ground in their 23 minute conversation. Be sure to head to the Daily Faceoff YouTube channel to check out the full interview!
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