You could make an incredible team out of players who have played for both the Calgary Flames and Florida Panthers — and today, we’ll be doing just that.

Everybody remembers when the Flames and Panthers pulled off one of the biggest NHL blockbusters in recent memory, with Matthew Tkachuk, Jonathan Huberdeau, and MacKenzie Weegar all swapping places. Both teams saw their fortunes change dramatically overnight, with the Panthers going from playoff flameouts to back-to-back champs and the Flames missing the playoffs each year since. It’ll go down as one of the most consequential deals in league history.

But over the past few decades, the Flames and Panthers have been more than just occasional trading partners. More than a few star players — nearly a full roster’s worth — have racked up their fair share of Air Miles flying between YYC and Miami-Dade.

With all that in mind, it’s time to embark upon a fun summer exercise. We already know that the Flames and Panthers have an amazing combined all-time roster. But is there any other team that can give Florida a run for its money with its collection of Flames castoffs and acquisitions?

St. Louis, Toronto, and many more immediately come to mind. But before we put on our thinking caps, let’s set some ground rules:

– Players must have played at least one regular season or playoff game for both teams to qualify. We’re not including guys who were drafted by one team but never played for them (looking at you, Craig Anderson). Generally speaking, precedence will be given to players who made strong contributions to both teams.

– We’re only taking into account the quality and quantity of games played for the two teams in question at any given time. For example, a guy like Grant Fuhr would be one of the top picks for a Calgary/Edmonton team, but he wouldn’t grade out particularly well for a Calgary/Los Angeles team.

– We’re not including anyone who played for Atlanta but not Calgary. However, if someone played in both cities, we’ll take their entire Flames tenure into consideration (call it the Nilsson Rule).

Let’s kick things off with the main event.

Gary Roberts – Joe Nieuwendyk – Matthew Tkachuk
Jonathan Huberdeau – Sam Bennett – Jaromir Jagr
Cory Stillman – Olli Jokinen – Valeri Bure
Martin Gelinas – Dave Gagner – Michael Frolik
Todd Bertuzzi / Jiri Hudler / Kristian Huselius

Jay Bouwmeester – MacKenzie Weegar
Jordan Leopold – Dennis Wideman
Todd Simpson – Rhett Warrener
Steve Montador / Erik Gudbranson

Mike Vernon
Jacob Markstrom
Trevor Kidd

That’s one heck of an opener, with Hall of Famers at both the No. 1 centre and goalie positions and six Stanley Cup rings on the first line alone. Bennett and Jokinen are both remembered more for their shortcomings in this market, but remember — we also get credit for their accomplishments in Florida. That means a Conn Smythe for Bennett and four 30-goal seasons for Olli.

Jagr only scored one goal in Calgary but it’s easy to forget that he put up 66 points one year in Florida, enough to lead the Panthers as a 44-year-old. He’s team captain here. Guys like Bure, Gelinas, and Frolik all provide different dimensions in the bottom six, and if Bertuzzi, Hudler, and Huselius weren’t enough as reserves, we also have Marcus Nilson, Niklas Hagman, Dave Lowry, Bill Lindsay, and Brian Skrudland to call upon if needed. Seriously, so many forwards have played for both these teams.

If there’s one area of weakness here, it might be on the blue line. Bouwmeester and Weegar form a solid top pair but it starts to deteriorate rather quickly thereafter, with Todd Simpson only just eking out the sixth regular spot. As a silver lining, we do receive credit for Wideman’s career-best 56-point season.

All in all, that’s a serious contender for the title right off the bat.

Gary Roberts – Joe Nieuwendyk – Lanny McDonald
Robert Reichel – Doug Gilmour – Gary Leeman
Mike Bullard – Nazem Kadri – Lee Stempniak
Jonas Hoglund – Matt Stajan – Owen Nolan
Matthew Lombardi / Niklas Hagman / Freddy Modin

Mark Giordano – T.J. Brodie
Jamie Macoun – Chris Tanev
Dion Phaneuf – Phil Housley
Brad Marsh / Rob Ramage

Curtis Joseph
Ken Wregget
Grant Fuhr

As you might expect, there’s a lot of history to draw from here, and the resulting roster certainly isn’t short on big names. But this team would probably end up being a lot lesser than the sum of its parts, or at least exceedingly top-heavy.

First, the positives: Roberts and Nieuwendyk are back, and they both contributed a lot more in Toronto than they ever did in Florida, which is a nice bonus. We also get pretty much all of Lanny McDonald, the best periods of Doug Gilmour’s career, and one of the strongest defensive pairings in Flames history. (Honestly, the entire defensive group is pretty great).

But man, it really thins out quick up front, with Gilmour forced to play with legendary Flames trade bust Gary Leeman (who did they give up to get him again?) and multiple centres forced out of position just to ice a full lineup. Mike Bullard did score 103 points with the Flames one year but didn’t stick around long, and the only natural winger on his line is Lee Stempniak!

The goalies are fine, but they have the same problem as Nolan on the fourth line, which is that they were mostly past their prime by the time they played for either of these teams. Joseph had a nice little run in Toronto but barely played for Calgary; Wregget is better remembered as a Flyer or Penguin than a Flame or Leaf; and Fuhr was only a stop-gap in Toronto (and put up an .856 save percentage with the Flames).

It’s not a bad team, but given how much longer the Leafs have been around compared to Florida, you’d expect better … but it could always be worse.

Mike Cammalleri – German Titov – Kent Nilsson
Martin Gelinas – Derek Ryan – Curtis Glencross
Dean McAmmond – Mark Lamb – Alex Chiasson
Milan Lucic – Jim Dowd – James Neal
Markus Granlund / Brian Glynn / Tobias Rieder

Steve Smith – Roman Hamrlik
Ladislav Smid – Steve Staios
Kris Russell – Tyson Barrie
Andrew Ference / Brett Kulak

Grant Fuhr
Dwayne Roloson
Curtis Joseph

This is flat-out abysmal, and it isn’t all that surprising given the historical lack of player movement between these two teams. Hey, at least Andrew Mangiapane will push Neal out of the lineup come October.

If there’s one saving grace, it’s in net, where Cam Talbot, Freddy Brathwaite, and even Mike Smith are all sitting on the sidelines. But it’s not going to matter when they’re facing 90 shots a game. (Seriously, who is Mark Lamb?)

Joe Mullen – Marc Savard – Jarome Iginla
Milan Lucic – Elias Lindholm – Willi Plett
Bobby Lalonde – Michael Nylander – Jaromir Jagr
Chuck Kobasew – Stephane Yelle – Lee Stempniak
Bob Sweeney / Shean Donovan / Nevin Markwart

Brad McCrimmon – Dougie Hamilton
Andrew Ference – Dennis Wideman
Nikita Zadorov – Derek Morris
Brad Stuart / Derek Forbort

Reggie Lemelin
Pat Riggin
Dan Vladar

Much better.

Plett and Lucic on the same line would be chaos. There’s Stempniak again, who earns a spot by virtue of leading the Flames in scoring that one time (look it up). Bobby Lalonde was only 5’5″ and played exactly one game with the Calgary Flames, which means we get credit for his 56-point year with Atlanta in 1978-79.

From a stylistic perspective, McCrimmon and Hamilton would make for a pretty incredible top pairing, but the rest of the defensive group is just okay, and Lemelin was never really a true starter, although he’s fondly remembered in Boston for his performance in the 1988 playoffs.

Tony Amonte – Doug Gilmour – Theo Fleury
John Tonelli – Bob MacMillan – Rene Bourque
Kris Versteeg – Michael Nylander – Michael Frolik
Ville Nieminen – Jeff Shantz – Troy Brouwer
Dean McAmmond / Chris Simon / Lance Bouma

Gary Suter – T.J. Brodie
Phil Russell – Phil Housley
Trent Yawney – Adrian Aucoin
Steve Smith / Nikita Zadorov

Andrei Trefilov
Brian Boucher
Vacant

The Flames and Blackhawks had a relatively strong pipeline going in the late 2000s and early 2010s, but it amounted to relatively little — at least, for our purposes.

The forwards aren’t bad, although we’re helped out a bit by Amonte shifting to his off wing on the top line. And thanks to the Nilsson Rule, we get credit for MacMillan’s 108-point year in Atlanta. But the defence isn’t fantastic — sure, we get credit for Brodie’s best years in Calgary, but also for his buyout in Chicago — and the goaltending … well, it’s borderline disqualifying.

Two more, and then we’ll leave the rest to you.

Alex Tanguay – Nazem Kadri – Jarome Iginla
Chris Drury – Stephane Yelle – Theo Fleury
Rene Bourque – Steven Reinprecht – Owen Nolan
Shean Donovan – Jeff Shantz – David Jones
Chris Simon / Chris Stewart / Blake Comeau

Jordan Leopold – Tyson Barrie
Nikita Zadorov – Derek Morris
Scott Hannan – Cory Sarich
Oliver Kylington / Bob Boughner

J-S Giguere
Brian Elliott
Rick Tabaracci

We’re applying the Nilsson Rule to other teams, too, meaning Nolan just sneaks in under the wire and gets credit for all his Quebec years by virtue of his nine games in Colorado. That’d be a lot more helpful if he were a centre, though. Kadri saves this from being a team without a single natural top-six pivot. Sure, it’s great to have Iginla and Fleury, but isn’t it a bit on the nose that they have nobody to play with?

The defence is serviceable, although there isn’t really a true top-pairing guy to be found, and the goaltending trifecta is entirely made up of guys who were much better elsewhere. It’s certainly not bad, but you’d expect better from two former Northwest Division rivals.

And finally …

Joe Mullen – Doug Gilmour – Brett Hull
Mike Bullard – Guy Chouinard – Bob MacMillan
Dan Quinn – Craig Conroy – Mark Hunter
Eddy Beers – Olli Jokinen – Lee Stempniak
Cory Stillman / Valeri Bure / Greg Paslawski

Jay Bouwmeester – Al MacInnis
Phil Housley – Rob Ramage
Kris Russell – Dennis Wideman
Ric Nattress / Trent Yawney

Grant Fuhr
Curtis Joseph
Brian Elliott

No fewer than 77 players have skated for both the Flames and Blues franchises, and many of them can stake a decent claim to be included on this roster. There were some real tough cuts. But in the end, the Calgary Blues can run four strong lines and three great two-way pairings, and if one of their three All-Star goaltenders goes down, they’ll still be able to call up Roman Turek, Rick Wamsley, Freddy Brathwaite, or Jamie McLennan to fill in. Not bad!

The Blues indirectly acted as the Flames’ farm team for much of their dominant run in the 1980s, although they got their revenge in the end when Brett Hull started scoring 70 goals a year. The two teams didn’t do quite as much business together as the years wore on, although the Stillman-for-Conroy trade certainly had a lasting impact.

But is this team better than Calgary/Florida? MacInnis helps a great deal — with all due respect to MacKenzie Weegar, he’ll never be at that level. But the winger depth isn’t quite there, especially considering that both Quinn and MacMillan were natural centres in their playing days. Still, it’s a ton of fun to imagine a top line of Mullen, Gilmour, and the Golden Brett going up against Nieuwendyk, Roberts, and Tkachuk, with Fuhr and Vernon in net at either end.

It’s probably safe to say that the Blues and Panthers make the two best teams with the Flames, but now it’s up to you to prove me wrong. Using Hockey-Reference’s handy tool, your challenge is to post your own hybrid Flames rosters in the comments.

Are Tyler Toffoli and Robyn Regehr enough to help Iginla and Conroy make the Calgary Kings the team to beat? How about putting Hamilton and Noah Hanifin on a pairing together for the Carolina Flames? Or Cammalleri and Sean Monahan on a line with the Calgary Canadiens? Fire up that tool and let us know what you come up with.

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