I think it makes more sense for the Flames to acquire a player with some term left. The team isn't good enough to deserve a high end rental. And lower quality rentals should be avoided altogether.
If the Flames are acquiring someone with term, they have to send back some inefficient cap the other way. That would cost a premium.
The least cap efficient players on the Flames who have 1+ years of term remaining are Backlund, Lucic, Coleman, and Monahan.
Coleman has a NTC and can't be traded. Monahan is still fairly good on the PP and can help the team.
So if the Flames are making a major hockey trade and taking on cap space, either Lucic or Backlund will go the other way. Maybe Monahan if the player is very good.
If Backlund or Monahan are being traded, the Flames pretty much have to get a center back. Backlund and Monahan are solid players and the player coming back would have to be pretty good.
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