2023/2024 Trade Rumors and Speculation Thread

[monkeyman]

The way I remember it, Valimaki sat most of his time in Calgary before being sent down, it took him a little to acclimatize, but he played better and better. I think it's debatable if he was outplayed by the end of the AHL season.
I'd really love to hear Scorpions take on it though he'd have a much better sense of that AHL team than most of us.

[Jay Random]

Originally Posted by ComixZone

At what point do we stop accepting this ridiculous narrative that it’s okay that things just don’t work out sometimes so it’s fine to let players go for free/pennies on the dollar only for them to perform elsewhere?

At the same point when we stop watching hockey and start watching a game that is entirely predictable for years into the future.

[Bingo]

Originally Posted by PepsiFree

When it stops happening to every team, every year, forever.

Just imagine the opposite.

Player has a terrible injury and can't get untracked after recovering. He loses his job in the NHL but is waiver eligible so he moves down to the AHL to regain his confidence. Gets to the AHL but just isn't good enough to play in their top six and sees his ice time reduced.

Next fall he comes to NHL camp and is no longer waiver eligible. He stinks and is literally 8th or 9th on the team's depth chart by anyone that watched camp.

But makes the team because you can never lose a player for nothing that you drafted high.

Great message to guys actually playing well.

It happens to every team. You have to make a call on the tweener players and you hope you get them right.

San Jose buggered it on Kiprusoff. Calgary buggered it on St. Louis.

[Macho0978]

Valimaki situation is more about opportunity than anything. Maybe his relationship with Sutter. But what did we lose? Sure, his stats look good and he's better than Oesterle and maybe even Zadorov. But in Arizona, he's playing Rasmus, Hanifin or Weagar's role. He's cheaper than those guys at $1 mil but that's for one year, then he will get paid. Is he better than they are? If not, who cares?

Would he be happy playing the 6th dman role like Oesterle? Probably not

Having this year on cheap deal would be nice if he broke out with the limited minutes, but that may never have happened. If we kept him, we would have needed to trade someone like Hanifin a year earlier. Otherwise, what happened in Arizona would have never happened here.

[Tbull8]

Originally Posted by Macho0978

Valimaki situation is more about opportunity than anything. Maybe his relationship with Sutter. But what did we lose? Sure, his stats look good and he's better than Oesterle and maybe even Zadorov. But in Arizona, he's playing Rasmus, Hanifin or Weagar's role. He's cheaper than those guys at $1 mil but that's for one year, then he will get paid. Is he better than they are? If not, who cares?

Would he be happy playing the 6th dman role like Oesterle? Probably not

Having this year on cheap deal would be nice if he broke out with the limited minutes, but that may never have happened. If we kept him, we would have needed to trade someone like Hanifin a year earlier. Otherwise, what happened in Arizona would have never happened here.

Trading Hanifin last year could've really helped his value though. 2 years left on a team friendly deal looks a lot better to a team with a window than one year left

[GioforPM]

Originally Posted by Macho0978

Valimaki situation is more about opportunity than anything. Maybe his relationship with Sutter. But what did we lose? Sure, his stats look good and he's better than Oesterle and maybe even Zadorov. But in Arizona, he's playing Rasmus, Hanifin or Weagar's role. He's cheaper than those guys at $1 mil but that's for one year, then he will get paid. Is he better than they are? If not, who cares?

Would he be happy playing the 6th dman role like Oesterle? Probably not

Having this year on cheap deal would be nice if he broke out with the limited minutes, but that may never have happened. If we kept him, we would have needed to trade someone like Hanifin a year earlier. Otherwise, what happened in Arizona would have never happened here.

Reminds me of Byron. Some Flames fans were crying when he broke out with the Habs and he was a great player for the money for 3 years. But then the Habs signed him to a pretty rich deal and he fell off big time (partly injuries).

[Macho0978]

Originally Posted by Tbull8

Trading Hanifin last year could've really helped his value though. 2 years left on a team friendly deal looks a lot better to a team with a window than one year left

I was one who posted frequently that we should have traded Hanifin last summer. If we did, we likely would have an extra 1st in 2023 and very good prospect in that trade plus likely gain Valimaki back. A lot of posters were not ready to trade Hanifin and most said it didn't make sense. I think we would have been much further ahead if we did trade Hanifin last summer but hindsight is 20/20 and it would have been a huge risk back then to trade Hanifin to make room for Valimaki without knowing what we know now.

[Lanny_McDonald]

Trading Hanifin coming off the season we had and the value of his contract would have been a non-starter for the club, especially for futures. The loss of Gaudreau and Tkachuk all but made the trade of anyone else a non-starter. It was not in the cards for a team trying to remain competitive with a mandate to remain competitive.

[Macho0978]

Originally Posted by Lanny_McDonald

Trading Hanifin coming off the season we had and the value of his contract would have been a non-starter for the club, especially for futures. The loss of Gaudreau and Tkachuk all but made the trade of anyone else a non-starter. It was not in the cards for a team trying to remain competitive with a mandate to remain competitive.

I agree. I was for it, but I doubt the team was even considering it at all. It's easy to sit on the sidelines and say trade a 25-year-old 48-point dman because I would have in my keeper league. With Weegar coming in the Flames look to be loaded on d and Valimaki just wasn't going to get a crack.

If Tkachuk and Gaudreau stayed, then Hanifin getting traded might have been an option to make cap space for their contracts.

[Enoch Root]

If Valimaki had been wowing them, and looking ready for a spot, then trading Hanifin would have looked a lot more enticing.

[Macho0978]

Originally Posted by Enoch Root

If Valimaki had been wowing them, and looking ready for a spot, then trading Hanifin would have looked a lot more enticing.

And it quite often happens that a quality player goes to a bad team, gets all the ice and does well. Then when that team starts to fill their roster as they are no longer in tank mode, the player could regress.

If Valimaki continues to grow with more competition on the blue line in Arizona, then we can talk about how we messed that one up.

[Super-Rye]

I dont understand the Valimaki stuff.

Kid wasnt ready, didnt like the coach, setback from injuries, any number and combination of reasons. Whatever it was, he got sent down to thr AHL, sulked and played terribly. Then he comes to the next training camp and is just absolutely awful.

Is he young and does he have potential? Sure. But i dont believe that, in the long run, you win with players like that. So he can go Arizona and get some playing time and look good on young but bad team and try a carve out a career. Good for him. Maybe at some point he matures and becomes a depth piece on a winning team. Or maybe he starts to struggle, loses his playing time and pouts his way out of the league.

Good for the Flames for not just handing him a spot cause he was a first round pick.

Now with Ty Smith and Lassi Thompson also hitting waivers this season the Flames aren't the only team to put a recent first round talent on waivers.

There's a lot of what if's for this team the last couple seasons but Valimaki is sure as hell not one of them.

[blankall]

Interesting seeing so many posters dismiss guys like Valimaki and Philipps as having little worth, but then also getting their ropes ready to lynch the management for not acquiring late 1sts and 2nd round picks for our vets. You do realize these assets all have about the same value?

[mile]

https://twitter.com/user/status/1708901686629274103

[bax]

Originally Posted by Super-Rye

I dont understand the Valimaki stuff.

Kid wasnt ready, didnt like the coach, setback from injuries, any number and combination of reasons. Whatever it was, he got sent down to thr AHL, sulked and played terribly. Then he comes to the next training camp and is just absolutely awful.

Is he young and does he have potential? Sure. But i dont believe that, in the long run, you win with players like that. So he can go Arizona and get some playing time and look good on young but bad team and try a carve out a career. Good for him. Maybe at some point he matures and becomes a depth piece on a winning team. Or maybe he starts to struggle, loses his playing time and pouts his way out of the league.

Good for the Flames for not just handing him a spot cause he was a first round pick.

Now with Ty Smith and Lassi Thompson also hitting waivers this season the Flames aren't the only team to put a recent first round talent on waivers.

There's a lot of what if's for this team the last couple seasons but Valimaki is sure as hell not one of them.

You’re overthinking it. Valimaki was a first round talent that had some setbacks due to injury. His numbers were great across the board last year.

Sutter decided he liked Mackey more as a 7th defenseman. Sometimes this league really is that easy. Choose the 23 year old with untapped potential over the 26 year old journeyman.

At least Conroy seems to view things differently than Sutter and Treliving did.

[Icon]

Originally Posted by mile

https://twitter.com/user/status/1708901686629274103

Queue him being traded this afternoon.

[dissentowner]

Originally Posted by Icon

Queue him being traded this afternoon.

How do you figure? I don't get the dislike for FS, he is one of the most accurate insiders in hockey.

[Pickle Juice]

Originally Posted by mile

https://twitter.com/user/status/1708901686629274103

Well that's great news! Hopefully Conroy can get him on a solid AAV like he did with Backlund!

[Icon]

Originally Posted by dissentowner

How do you figure? I don't get the dislike for FS, he is one of the most accurate insiders in hockey.

Just stirring the pot

[PaperBagger'14]

Fun fact, Seravalli is 35 years old