2025/2026 Season Trade Rumours and Speculation Thread

[TrentCrimmIndependent]

Originally Posted by The Cobra

Unfortunately, keeping veterans is a god away of getting an 8 year abyss.

Keeping old veterans with term is definitely a very good way to ensure a lengthy abyss happens.

Which begs the question: Can't they trade these ones, capitalize on the assets, and then sign new vets (who aren't washed up) when they decide to load up and try to compete again?

We can out-maneuver this tired Maloney logic, surely.

[blankall]

Originally Posted by The Cobra

Unfortunately, keeping veterans is a god away of getting an 8 year abyss.

The Flames have done a good job of maximizing returns with the - We don't plan to move X player, but if the right offer came along - Line. Any vet is likely available for the right price.

[Aarongavey]

Originally Posted by TrentCrimmIndependent

Keeping old veterans with term is definitely a very good way to ensure a lengthy abyss happens.

Which begs the question: Can't they trade these ones, capitalize on the assets, and then sign new vets (who aren't washed up) when they decide to load up and try to compete again?

We can out-maneuver this tired Maloney logic, surely.

Who should they trade and who should they keep? You cannot trade all of them because you would have a very hard time making the floor. They have traded 8 already, suspect they will trade more before the end of this year.

[Braden]

Originally Posted by Aarongavey

Who should they trade and who should they keep? You cannot trade all of them because you would have a very hard time making the floor. They have traded 8 already, suspect they will trade more before the end of this year.

Can always dish out a couple higher AAV short term contracts in free agency, I'm not sure why this is always such a concern

[Red Potato Standing By]

So give out bad contracts then? Why not just keep the bad contracts you already have?

[Caged Great]

If they slow walk it, it'll be 2035 to 2040 before the team is relevant again.

[DJones]

Originally Posted by Aarongavey

It also shows how little Lebrun knows about the NHL. The Flames have to keep some guys around just to make the cap floor. They cannot trade Kadri, Weegar, Farabee, Coleman, Yegor because they would not make the cap floor then. And also every team keeps some guys around, that is just how that works.

Plenty of teams have went scorched earth and sold everything. You can always accept bad contracts in your team.

Chicago win the lottery and there years later still can't put together a competent team. That's what they won't do

[The Cobra]

Originally Posted by Aarongavey

Who should they trade and who should they keep? You cannot trade all of them because you would have a very hard time making the floor. They have traded 8 already, suspect they will trade more before the end of this year.

They should trade any veteran who can get a good return who will not be part of the core once they are a playoff team again.

Kadri, Coleman, Weegar and perhaps whitecloud, although they can likely wait on him.

It doesn’t matter how many they have traded, it’s how many they have left.

[Enoch Root]

Originally Posted by TheScorpion

Year four with no playoffs and not really much in the way of a light at the end of the tunnel ... whoaaaaaa, we're halfway there

whoaaaaaa livin' on a prayer

[The Cobra]

Originally Posted by DJones

Plenty of teams have went scorched earth and sold everything. You can always accept bad contracts in your team.

Chicago win the lottery and there years later still can't put together a competent team. That's what they won't do

Chicago won the lottery 3 years ago, and are on the verge of having an excellent team. Their future is exceptionally bright. They have been reluctant to add veterans on contracts that won’t age well into their contention window. They are playing a huge number of youngsters. And have Frondell and Kanseriv coming over at the end of the year.

Chicago has tanked the right way. They will add in UFA only when the time is right.

[Enoch Root]

They HAVE to keep some vets - you have to hit the cap floor

But the vets are being moved, one by one, and the ones that are here are only going to get worse as they age.

They are bottom 4 this year (which, I will remind everyone that that was the goal before the season started: be bottom 5), and the team is going to be worse next year, so another bottom 5 is a virtual certainty.

And yet: constant, relentless whining

[bluejays]

The reason Chicago can't put it together is they didn't have enough young high end talent all together at the same time. It's not an issue of vets IMO. They decided the second Bedard was drafted, was the moment the rebuild was done. Rebuilds are at least 3 years around the basement to draft impactful players.


Buffalo is just unique. They have had talent for ages, but can never play as a team.

[1qqaaz]

Even if they trade all of Kadri, Coleman, Whitecloud, Hanley and Cooley, they'll still have vets like Backlund, Weegar, Huberdeau, Sharangovich, and Lomberg.

Guys like Farabee, Frost, Bahl, even Pachal, Pospisil, etc. will be considered vets within a few years.

If they take on bad contracts like Anderson, Gallagher, or Palat, then they'll have more veterans yet.

[Enoch Root]

Originally Posted by The Cobra

Chicago won the lottery 3 years ago, and are on the verge of having an excellent team. Their future is exceptionally bright. They have been reluctant to add veterans on contracts that won’t age well into their contention window. They are playing a huge number of youngsters. And have Frondell and Kanseriv coming over at the end of the year.

Chicago has tanked the right way. They will add in UFA only when the time is right.

Players that are 30 or older, on the Hawks:

Bertuzzi, Burakovsky, Teravainen, Foligno, Dickenson, Mikheyev, Lafferty, Murphy, Grzelcyk and Donato will be 30 in April

[Jay Random]

Originally Posted by 1qqaaz

If they take on bad contracts like Anderson, Gallagher, or Palat, then they'll have more veterans yet.

If they take on bad contracts like those, they will have veterans who know how to teach the young players to lose, have bad attitudes, and demand astronomical salaries for doing that.

[Vox]

So I'm confused by expectations.

In 2.5 years as GM, Conroy has traded away 4 of his top 6 defensemen, including 3 of his top 4, (Anderson, Tanev, Hanifin, Zadorov), his number one center (Lindholm) number one goaltender (Markstrom), top scorer (Toffoli), mid roster player (Mangiapane) and one young player (Pelletier). Basically the top player (or players) at every position.

This brought in 11 younger (mostly) players of which 9 remain, six on the roster today,

Yegor Sharangovich
Kevin Bahl
Morgan Frost
Joel Farabee
Zach Whitecloud
Hunter Brzustewicz
Artem Grushnikov
Daniil Miromanov
Abram Wiebe

and netted picks to the positive of

4 x 1st round picks
2 x 2nd round picks
2 x 3rd round picks
1 x upgrade to 4th round pick from 5th round pick
1 x upgrade to 6th round pick from 7th round pick

those picks becoming

2023 3rd-round pick → Aydar Suniev
2024 1st-round pick → Matvei Gridin
2024 2nd-round pick → Jacob Battaglia
2024 4th-round pick → Luke Misa
2024 6th-round pick → Eric Jamieson
2025 1st-round pick → Cole Reschny
2025 2nd-round pick → Theo Stockselius
2025 7th-round pick → Yan Matveiko
2026 1st-round pick
2026 3rd-round pick
2027 1st-round pick
2028 2nd-round pick

WITH the possibility of still trading the remaining number one center (Kadri) and Blake Coleman.

How is this NOT a tear down?

[Jay Random]

Originally Posted by Vox

How is this NOT a tear down?

He never said the magic word.

That's it. That's the whole argument.

[sureLoss]

HNIC:

Panarin's price starts at the same price as Brock Nelson trade (1st, 3rd, and Cal Ritchie)
Anaheim, Washington, bunch of other teams might be in there

challenge to move Lafrenière, as a former 1st overall Rangers will still want a lot

Dougie Hamilton derby is now at a standstill with Luke Hughes injury
Still not impossible if a team makes an offer the Devils can't refuse

Slow around the Flames, things have quieted down a bit. NOT because of lack of interest

[TheScorpion]

Originally Posted by Jay Random

If they take on bad contracts like those, they will have veterans who know how to teach the young players to lose, have bad attitudes, and demand astronomical salaries for doing that.

Well. To a degree, isn't that what they already have?

At least those Habs guys have played in the Cup Final ...

[Strange Brew]

Originally Posted by Aarongavey

It also shows how little Lebrun knows about the NHL. The Flames have to keep some guys around just to make the cap floor. They cannot trade Kadri, Weegar, Farabee, Coleman, Yegor because they would not make the cap floor then. And also every team keeps some guys around, that is just how that works.

I don’t get this from anything Lebrun is saying.

Has any team in the history of the cap era had problems with meeting the cap floor? It’s nothing to worry about.

The focus for the Flames should be getting value for some of their oldest players (Kadri, Coleman) who certainly won’t be part of the team when they are competitive again.