[SuperMatt18]

Sam had shown flashes in his 6 years here, and failed for a variety of reasons.

Playing him on the wing, the own pressure he put on himself as the highest pick in Flames history, trying to make him a grinder instead of an open ice skilled player, really just bad coaching in general TBH.

But really the fact is during the 19-20 season there were some metrics (Evolving Hockey’s GAR) that had him as the worst forward on the flames roster that season.

And even in the 20-21 season he showed some flashes when Sutter became coach but he didn’t really have a great start to that season either. Big part of that was coaching again when Ward asked him if he wanted to play Center & then saddled him on the 4th line instead of playing with Dube and Lucic.

But in the end he asked for a trade, probably wouldn’t have been protected in the expansion draft, and Treliving got two 2nd round pick equivalents in return.

It sucks he never worked in Calgary and the 6 years of them mismanaging him irritates me, but I don’t get irritated by the trade. It was the right move to make at that time based on what Sam had shown as a Calgary Flame, based on his trade demand, and based on the looming expansion draft.

I’m happy for him in Florida, always was a booster and fan of the guy. Really wish they would have made Tkachuk-Bennett-Versteeg a thing during Tkachuks rookie year.