The Tanev surgery is big news the more I think about it. If he is looking at a 4-6 month recovery period, then the Flames may have nearly 2 months of $4.5M cap relief. That should give Treliving a fair amount of breathing room to use that salary to help sign Tkachuk and Gaudreau.
There could be another injury or maybe a trade would be necessary when Tanev comes back. Downside is that they wouldn't be able to accrue extra cap space for the deadline, but if the alternative is to be forced to trade Mangiapane or something, then this seems preferable.
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