For the Calgary Flames faithful, the past year has been nothing short of a roller coaster.
From a regular season that ended with a division title, to a two-round playoff run that ended with a devastating loss to the rival Oilers. Then an off-season of chaos that saw the club dismantled and rebuilt, superstar talent out, superstar talent in. And now this, an uneven 2022-23 campaign that has the Flames sitting on the fringes of the playoff picture, after entering the season with what seemed like an improved squad.
With more than half the season in the books, the Flames find themselves four points back of the second wild card spot, but still within reach of their division’s top three. All of which leaves fans wondering what exactly Brad Treliving is planning as the trade deadline approaches.
Speaking with NHL.com earlier this month, the Flames GM said the club’s deadline decisions will be dictated by where the team’s at in the immediate run-up to March 3.
“We’ve been up and down. There’s been some inconsistency to our game. It’s hard to sit here and start making any proclamations about what you’re going to do at the deadline,” Treliving said. “We continue to watch our team. We’d like to help it, but you’ve got to be careful how far you chase it when you’re in the position we’re in.”
A turn to seller makes little sense for the club, regardless of where they sit in the standings in March, given the $113 million they just invested in bringing Jonathan Huberdeau and Nazem Kadri to town in the off-season. The question is whether Treliving opts to stand pat, or whether he feels his club has enough potential for a meaningful run if everything begins to fall into place.
While the Flames manager has been careful not to tip his hand, Treliving did admit to one weakness he’d like to address before the season’s through.
“I think we could certainly use another forward,” the GM said, cautioning that such an addition could come internally, from the organization’s prospect pool. With his club sitting 17th in the league in goals per game, though — and, more importantly, with marquee signing Huberdeau still yet to find his offensive footing in Calgary — a more seasoned addition seems a better fit.
Sportsnet’s Elliotte Friedman suggested as much last week, reporting in a recent 32 Thoughts column that Calgary is on the hunt for a winger to help out Huberdeau. In this week’s thoughts, Friedman reported the Flames had “kicked tires” on Brock Boeser.
“Calgary is being careful, realizing this could end up being a summer where the Flames have to redefine who they are,” Friedman wrote last week. “One thing they are looking for: a winger who can open up space for Jonathan Huberdeau to create — like Anthony Duclair did in Florida.”
If Treliving does see a need to add, history suggests he will.
Take a look back through the GM’s history and he’s shown he has no qualms with working the trade market to shake up his squad. More than a few deals that have crossed his desk have done that in a major way: acquiring and trading away Dougie Hamilton, bringing in Elias Lindholm and Noah Hanifin, and just this past off-season, turning the impending departure of Matthew Tkachuk into Huberdeau and MacKenzie Weegar.
While Treliving tends to do much of his dealing in the off-season, he’s been known to make waves on deadline day, too. Just look at his past three years in Calgary, all of which saw Treliving move fairly notable names in or out to give his team a different look for the home stretch of the season. Let’s take a closer look at how those deadline windows shook out:
2020 Trade Deadline
The Flames approached the deadline in a tough spot in 2020, sitting fifth in their division — the same position they currently sit in now — when the day came and went. Still, Treliving went to work trying to upgrade his group, swinging two deadline-day deals to bolster his blue line:
• Feb. 24: Flames acquire defenceman Erik Gustafsson from Chicago for a conditional third-round pick
• Feb. 24: Flames acquire defenceman Derek Forbort from Los Angeles for a conditional fourth-round pick
They weren’t earth-shattering deals, by any means, but the club’s position didn’t warrant anything greater. The Gustafsson acquisition, though, had some intrigue to it at the time, the defender then just a year removed from a career-best 60-point season in Chicago. Treliving also shipped out defender Brandon Davidson (to San Jose, in exchange for future considerations) on deadline day, making room for his acquisitions.
Also of note: a month prior to the deadline, Treliving traded depth forward Michael Frolik and his $4.3-million cap hit to Buffalo (for a fourth-round pick), opening up cap space for his eventual deadline moves.
It’s an interesting blueprint for the type of approach Treliving might take this time around — a low-stakes gamble on someone who could potentially spark something, but not at too high a price.
2021 Trade Deadline
In 2021, the Flames found themselves on the other side of the line. With the NHL temporarily realigned amid the pandemic, Calgary approached the deadline on the outside of the playoff picture looking in, sitting on the wrong end of the all-Canadian North Division.
With their playoff hopes dwindling, Treliving shifted to become a seller, and shipped out two well-known Flames around the deadline:
Treliving made two deals, one on deadline day and one a day prior:
• April 11: Flames trade netminder David Rittich to Toronto for a third-round pick
• April 12: Flames trade forward Sam Bennett to Florida for Emil Heineman and a second-round pick
Both deals were notable enough given the players involved. One year earlier, Rittich had taken over as the club’s starting netminder, had become a fan favourite, local nickname and all. Bennett was the highest-drafted player in Flames history, tabbed with the No. 4 pick in 2014, giving fans hopes of a franchise cornerstone when he first became a Flame.
But when the fit stopped making sense — when others took on greater, overlapping roles — Treliving moved the pair out to try and stockpile assets (one of which came into play the following deadline).
2022 Trade Deadline
If 2020 offered a glimpse of Treliving on the line, his club on the fringes, and 2021 showed us Treliving as a seller, 2022 was the other end of the spectrum.
This time last year, the Flames were all in on a deep playoff run, the club sitting first in its division and an off-season of potential changes looming. In that context, we saw Treliving as a buyer, the Flames GM acting early and swinging one of his most important deals a month before the deadline, before following up with two more closer to the big day.
• Feb. 14: Flames acquire forward Tyler Toffoli from Montreal for Heineman, Tyler Pitlick (who’d been acquired the previous July for a pick), and three draft picks (a 2022 first-rounder, a 2023 fifth-rounder, and a 2024 fourth-rounder)
• Mar. 16: Flames acquire forward Calle Jarnkrok from Seattle for three draft picks (a 2022 second-rounder from the Bennett deal, a 2023 third-rounder, and a 2024 seventh-rounder)
• Mar. 21: Flames acquire forward Ryan Carpenter from Chicago for a fifth-round pick
The first of those three was, obviously, the biggest splash. Toffoli was coming off a dominant year that had seen him put up 28 goals in 52 games, and play a key role in Montreal’s march to the Cup Final. He had a Stanley Cup ring — won with Flames coach Darryl Sutter — and a different offensive profile from the rest of the club’s top six. The Flames GM identified his man and went out and got him, a move that’s still paying off, with Toffoli currently leading the club in both points and goals.
In the other two deals, too, Treliving showed he was willing to make moves to bolster the club’s depth scoring. And in Jarnkrok’s addition specifically, Treliving again showed a preference to add players who have an extra layer of connection with the club, something that could potentially lead to an ideal fit and a greater impact. In this case, it was the winger’s connection to Lindholm (his cousin) and Jacob Markstrom, the trio having grown up together in Gavle, Sweden.
More importantly, though, the trio of deals showed that Treliving is willing to pick up the phone and roll the dice on the trade market if he believes in his group’s potential.
Which is why he might be among the most interesting managers to watch as March 3 approaches. Because even amid an uneven season that doesn’t seem likely to end in a deep playoff run, there’s still reason for Treliving to believe in the current iteration of his team — and that a trade might be what his club needs to find its footing.
Rewind back a year, and Treliving believed in his team enough to swing big at the deadline. Much of that squad has remained in place, aside from the two key pieces up front, with Huberdeau and Kadri essentially replacing Gaudreau and Tkachuk. Treliving’s spoken about the difficulty his newcomers have had adjusting to their new club — particularly Huberdeau — and according to Friedman, is already mulling the idea of altering the forward group to help Huberdeau find his game.
If they can, perhaps that gives Calgary’s offence enough of a boost to begin climbing the standings. It all comes down to how Treliving sees those hypotheticals playing out, and what his team can show him as the deadline approaches, how much noise they can begin to make.
Because as the Flames manager’s shown us before, if he believes his team has a chance, even a slight one, he’ll make some noise himself over the final days of trading.