[GranteedEV]

After taking a day to full digest the details behind this trade, here are my thoughts:

Hamilton vs Hanifin
I think we got the long term better player, because of Hanifin's discipline levels. I was simply fed up by Dougie's propensity to get only slightly out of position, be able to recover with his feet, and take a hook instead. Offensively, Hamilton's style didn't quite jive with me as it was best described as mechanical hockey.

Defensively, based on what I've read from Canes fans, Hanifin might not be as far along in his development as we hope however, and I won't be surprised if Kulak and/or Kylington both show cleaner gaps next season. I do believe Hanifin is young and malleable enough that this will develop, but I am not expecting this to come next season and if Hanifin finds himself on the third pair with Stone/Andersson next season while Kulak holds down the fort with Hamonic, we shouldn't remotely panic as it's a positive that we have the depth to shelter Hanifin further down the lineup.

It's no secret that I firmly believe TJ Brodie is a right side defenseman, so I am also excited to see Brodie be partnered with one of Giordano, Kulak, or Hanifin. I think if Giordano-Brodie is the plan next year, we will also see Gio pop back up from that 40-ish point range back into that 55+ point range as he and Brodie simply had more offensive chemistry in setting each other up, contrasted with the mechanical "shoot it on net if the puck is on your side" shot attempt padding style of the Gio Hamilton pair. We probably will be a worse possession team next year, but I am okay with that as I expect we'll still be hovering near that ~52%+ mark that is representative of contending hockey teams. I do hope Hanifin gets lots of penalty killing time, however, as does Kulak.

Ferland+Fox vs Lindholm
Given that Ferland was a pending UFA in the same offseason as Tkachuk, and Fox confirmed my previous suspicions of not signing I can stomach it overall, but I do think Ferland is a damn solid and unique 2nd liner. We didn't just give up a generic 3rd line grinder riding his linemates' coattails as people are alluding to. I think it's highly optimistic to think just anyone can throw up the 14 5v5 goals he threw up in less than 1000 minutes (only eighteen players in the NHL put up more goals with as few minutes, and much of that list contained true superstar players like Matthews, Boeser, Marchand, Eichel).

In Lindholm I don't think we added a legitimate 1st liner as some do, but we did add a legitimate team need in a playmaking right handed shot. There is no indication that Lindholm is a high-end goal scorer and he's gotten way more ice time over his career to prove otherwise. If he can help Monahan and Gaudreau increase their output though, it could work out - but we've seen that even a guy like Frolik doesn't necessarily have chemistry with those two. I expect a lot of line blendering next year at 5v5. Where this will possibly or at least ideally change the dynamic of our team isn't at ES, but on the power play since Sean Monahan will be able to receive setup passes by Lindholm from the left circle but Johnny Gaudreau will also be far more of a threat to score on the far right rather than defaulting to his pellet shooter wrister. I think Lindholm won't score a lot of goals for us, but simply having Tkachuk, Monahan, and Gaudreau on PP1 alongside him will give him a lot of options if the four are positioned correctly. Back to even strength, the numbers certainly indicate that Lindholm isn't as strong as Sam Bennett, so I'd keep overall expectations in check and I don't expect a whole lot to change there. A 15G / 35A overall season, including some penalty killing, is probably a fair expectation because Lindholm will be a fixture on Peters' power play.

Losing Fox still hurts because ostensibly he would have been the cushion for losing Hamilton and I think should have been more likely to sign with the removal of Hamilton from the roster. At this point a lot of this team's offensive upside is dependent on the emergence of Rasmus Andersson as I do believe you need at least one offensive RHS defenseman somewhere on your roster. In fact, while I consider both Valimaki and Kylington to be better prospects than Andersson, we're now in a situation where Andersson is both our most valuable prospect and the prospect we cannot trade because there is no overlap in his skillset remaining in the system.

Overall: do I think the Flames lost or won the trade? I don't think we're more skilled or talented today than we were two days ago, but it's undeniable that we are more balanced. We're still short a top 6 forward, because we DID trade one away regardless of how people feel. I don't think James Neal, James Van Riemsdyk or David Perron at the costs they will command will necessarily be the right answer in UFA. If the team is willing to trial-run Andrew Mangiapane in our top six, perhaps the answer will be found internally. Whether our forward core can shape up is still up in the air. If we were to tough it out for a year, there's a UFA on the market who can "complete" our roster in 2019... his name is Micheal Ferland.

The jury is still out on this trade until we see the results. The pieces - all five of them - are still in their developmental stages and there is too much uncertainty to hold any definitive position. Currently, the Flames are still looking like a bubble team with upside to be more. This wasn't a trade to put us over the top next year, it was a trade to fix our broken power play and in that regard it probably will succeed. I'm not sure we're asset-rich enough to make a trade to put us over the top (well, barring a huge Valimaki / Sprong type swap) so a lot should depend on the emergence of youth like Mangiapane, Foo, Phillips, Tuulola, Klimchuk, and Poirier and perhaps the signing of a "surprise" stud like Czarnik.

TL;DR version: I said nothing one way or the other.