2024/2025 Season trade rumours and speculation thread

[Bingo]

Originally Posted by SuperMatt18

Kind of but not really.

Generally since the 2006 lockout the Flames have been a cap team that had a pick defect and we're still in the same position of battling for a playoff spot in the 7-10 range.

The big difference this time is they are second lowest salary cap in the league, have $17M in cap space, have moved out assets for picks and actually have a surplus of picks for the first time in a while.

It might be a similar position in the standings but in no way is the same situation as they've been in historically.

Well said.

I've always thought the 30 year Flames crew is lazy in their blanket grouping every season as the same.

They've won divisoins.
They've missed the playoffs

That alone isn't consistent.

But this year is completely different even if they finish 9th overall in the West.

[Enoch Root]

Originally Posted by Bonded

I think people are going to be disappointed with an Andersson return with some of the expectations being thrown out. Hronek and Chychrun returns are the comparables.

I doubt there is a single GM outside of Vancouver that thinks Hronek is as good of a player as Andersson is. Yes, he was making a similar salary at the time, but he is a complementary partner. Andersson is the driving partner. He is arguably the best player on the Flames. Any team acquiring Andersson, for $4.5M or less, for this year and next, just elevated their blueline immensely.

[Enoch Root]

Originally Posted by howard_the_duck

Steinberg’s latest suggests the Flames want to keep him, but it’ll be up to the player.

I like Rasmus, but I’m not into committing more big money to players in their late 20’s to mid-30’s, especially with the D pipeline in the system.

It’s an easy ‘pass’ for me, but the other side of Ras is he’s an outstanding spokesperson and community ambassador, AKA captain material. If the Flames give him the same pitch as Backlund and he decides to stick around, there could be worse things.

I don’t think Ras staying or going will dramatically impact the rebuild, though I sure would love the king’s ransom he’d command to add to our other draft and prospect capital.

Yeah, if Andersson wants to sign and stay, and the price is right, then fine - he is a leader, and an ambassador, as well as a great hockey player.

But big picture, I think the Flames have to look at is as: they should keep one of Andersson or Weegar, but not both.

And Weegar is already signed long term at a good price, and seems more desiring to stay. So that brings us back to needing to move Andersson.

[Aarongavey]

Originally Posted by transplant99

Except they cant "lose" points.

Calgary isnt a good team....but many others are much worse.

Thats the predicament.

I will always hope for wins and if they get screwed this year it is just sort of a fitting end to the Treliving regime. But if Conroy trades Rasmus they will likely be signiricantly worse as I doubt he will be getting anything back that helps this year. Having Barrie or Hanley in the lineup every night would be worth 2 additional losses ever 10 games alone, above whatever the regular amount of losses would be.

[Enoch Root]

As for the CBA discussions - that is a pretty reasonable ask from the players. But of course, to get it, they'll need to give up something. And reducing the length of max term contracts is an obvious choice.

The concern is that BOTH are bad for small market teams. So to make up for that somewhat, a possible solution would be to create a 2-year difference in contract length, instead of one, for re-signing with the current team instead of going UFA.

Drop the max contract from 8 to 7 for re-signing. And drop max contracts for UFAs to 5 years. A 2-yr differential is a pretty big enticement to get players to stay.

[transplant99]

Originally Posted by Enoch Root

Yeah, if Andersson wants to sign and stay, and the price is right, then fine - he is a leader, and an ambassador, as well as a great hockey player.

But big picture, I think the Flames have to look at is as: they should keep one of Andersson or Weegar, but not both.

And Weegar is already signed long term at a good price, and seems more desiring to stay. So that brings us back to needing to move Andersson.

Why not?

Thats an anchor on each of your top 2 pairings...then let the plethora of young guys sort it out over the next couple years.

I think Andersson wanted to see what this thing looked like before deciding on staying or going, and truth is they just need a couple(big) pieces up front to be truly competitive as it looks now.

If something like 7X7 is enough to interest him in staying....get it done July 1.

Alernatively, if he fetches one of those "big" pieces up front, only then do you move him or he shoots for the stars in the $$ part of things IMO

[dammage79]

So from what I'm reading today in this thread is, it doesn't matter that the Flames remain in the mushy middle so long as they dont remain in the mushy middle the same way they've done it for decades?

Man that sure feels like some lipstick on the same bloated dead pig to me.

Mushy middle is the mushy middle no matter how they get there.

The entire point of not being in the mushy middle is to draft a top 5 talent and build around that, can't achieve the ideal retool or rebuild without that part of the plan.

Lots of runway left in the season to see where this roster metes out, but it's looking super mushy. And that's not a good thing, even if theyre going at it from the other end of the build perspective.

[Sandman]

Out of thanks, but 1000% dammage.

[Poe969]

It's not peanut butter and jam, it's jam and peanutbutter! I put the jam on first this time, so it's different!

Not a contender. Not a bottom feeder.

Jam and peanutbutter.

[Paulie Walnuts]

The mushy middle is even worse because it’s actually a pretty bad team. They have been saved by goaltending.

It’s super frustrating at times. When we needed the saves with good teams we never got them.

On top of that they are playing a disgusting brand of hockey most nights. It’s not enjoyable to watch but I guess it’s not Brent Sutter.

[ComixZone]

Originally Posted by stemit14

Buffalo with their 6th loss in a row tonight. What is the solution for that franchise? I can’t believe it’s another rebuild through the draft… they’ve tried that so much for so long and never made anything of it. Seems like most players become big contributors on winning teams when they leave Buffalo.

They still have arguably the deepest or one of the deepest prospect pools in the league. They have high level prospects in virtually every position. So they have the choice to start trading some of those prospects for impact players (could be tough to do with no trade lists that likely include Buffalo), trade their actual NHL players that aren’t getting it done, or keep being patient and hope it pays off.

Would love to pry Helenius from them more than any other prospect in their system IMO.

When you look at Buffalo you have to keep it isolated to Kevyn Adams (June 2020 hire). If you look back before that, you're getting into things that can't be controlled (ownership issues). Just like with the Flames, you have to keep it isolated to Conroy's run at this point. Current regimes can't be held accountable for previous management group shortfalls.

If you look at Kevyn Adams' run, it actually lines up a lot with what Conroy has been doing in his first two years. There's a decent amount of sell off, with a sprinkling of 'now' focused moves in a very limited fashion (Conroy prioritized Sharangovich in a Toffoli trade, Adams dealt 2nd + 5th for Greenway).

Adams, in his 5 years at the draft as GM has had 8 first round picks, and 7 second round picks. Adams got Power in his 2nd year at 1st overall.

Conroy is (currently) poised to have 8 first round picks, and 7 second round picks in his first 5 years at the draft. Conroy got Parekh in his 2nd year at 9th overall.

If Adams had managed to keep Eichel, I'd say they'd be rounding the corner into contending. Eichel, Dahlin, Power + all the depth picks over the years? Yeah, that's how you build a Champion. Subtract Eichel though and you end up being a mushy middle team that could potentially go a run if everything hits exactly right and a number of players have career years. Powerhouse team though? Unlikely. They don't have the top-end talent up front to do it.

Where does that leave Calgary? Mushy middle in all likelihood, with a lower ceiling than Buffalo currently has. Whether you do that at $80M in salary or $60M in salary is irrelevant, because either way you're not acquiring the talent needed.

I think Conroy knows this though, and it's why we'll see Andersson traded and not re-signed.

I also live in a fantasy world where Cale Makar is going to be our next Captain in the Summer of 2027 as we go into our new building.

[Redrum]

Originally Posted by dammage79

So from what I'm reading today in this thread is, it doesn't matter that the Flames remain in the mushy middle so long as they dont remain in the mushy middle the same way they've done it for decades?

Man that sure feels like some lipstick on the same bloated dead pig to me.

Mushy middle is the mushy middle no matter how they get there.

The entire point of not being in the mushy middle is to draft a top 5 talent and build around that, can't achieve the ideal retool or rebuild without that part of the plan.

Lots of runway left in the season to see where this roster metes out, but it's looking super mushy. And that's not a good thing, even if theyre going at it from the other end of the build perspective.

They've been in the mushy middle so long some fans are getting institutionalized like Brooks from Shawshank.

[traptor]

The problem in Buffalo seems pretty obvious. They're one of, if not the youngest team in the NHL.

They have enough young talent, they need to add some veterans to stabalize throughout the lineup.

They're at the point where they need to add a couple coleman and tanev type vets in their lineup.

Adams conference was pretty bad though and missed the mark bigtime. Hes just framing it as Buffalo not being a good market, instead of trying to build the market up and sell it as a great place to be.

[dissentowner]

Originally Posted by traptor

The problem in Buffalo seems pretty obvious. They're one of, if not the youngest team in the NHL.

They have enough young talent, they need to add some veterans to stabalize throughout the lineup.

They're at the point where they need to add a couple coleman and tanev type vets in their lineup.

Adams conference was pretty bad though and missed the mark bigtime. Hes just framing it as Buffalo not being a good market, instead of trying to build the market up and sell it as a great place to be.

Adams killed any momentum they had by hiring a dinosaur who is the worst coach for that roster just for nostalgia reasons. It was a bad bad hiring.

[PepsiFree]

Originally Posted by dammage79

So from what I'm reading today in this thread is, it doesn't matter that the Flames remain in the mushy middle so long as they dont remain in the mushy middle the same way they've done it for decades?

Man that sure feels like some lipstick on the same bloated dead pig to me.

Mushy middle is the mushy middle no matter how they get there.

The entire point of not being in the mushy middle is to draft a top 5 talent and build around that, can't achieve the ideal retool or rebuild without that part of the plan.

Lots of runway left in the season to see where this roster metes out, but it's looking super mushy. And that's not a good thing, even if theyre going at it from the other end of the build perspective.

It might not be a good thing but the team got there doing the exact thing people were endlessly clamouring for and, despite repeated warnings that they couldn’t just will themselves into the bottom five and if players like Wolf hit their potential it’d be near impossible… those same people are somehow acting surprised and dismayed they’re where they are.

Ideals are just ideals. Reality is what we have to work with. And unless people want to ship out guys like Wolf, Zary, and Coronato, this is reality.

I think people who believe losing Andersson is going to single handled drop up a bunch are in for disappointment as well. We shipped off Hanifin and Tanev and it hasn’t made much of a difference.

[1qqaaz]

Originally Posted by PepsiFree

It might not be a good thing but the team got there doing the exact thing people were endlessly clamouring for and, despite repeated warnings that they couldn’t just will themselves into the bottom five and if players like Wolf hit their potential it’d be near impossible… those same people are somehow acting surprised and dismayed they’re where they are.

Ideals are just ideals. Reality is what we have to work with. And unless people want to ship out guys like Wolf, Zary, and Coronato, this is reality.

I think people who believe losing Andersson is going to single handled drop up a bunch are in for disappointment as well. We shipped off Hanifin and Tanev and it hasn’t made much of a difference.

Well at least shipping players off results in more picks and prospects, and more ice time to develop younger players.

If they trade away veterans, and still end in the mushy middle, at least they're have the other picks. They'd also have a somewhat competitive team that is good for development.

If they trade away their veterans, and finish near the bottom, then they finally get the long needed lottery pick and a chance for a true elite center.

Seems fine either way.

[dammage79]

For clarity, I'm excited that the kids and some of the new young acquisitions the Flames have sprinkled into the line up have pushed this team to where they are. I get it.

I just don't share the idea that staying in the mushy middle is somehow a silver lining due to the performance of the goaltending and some of the kids. The Flames still need to draft or trade for a young long term center.

[Enoch Root]

Originally Posted by PepsiFree

It might not be a good thing but the team got there doing the exact thing people were endlessly clamouring for and, despite repeated warnings that they couldn’t just will themselves into the bottom five and if players like Wolf hit their potential it’d be near impossible… those same people are somehow acting surprised and dismayed they’re where they are.

Ideals are just ideals. Reality is what we have to work with. And unless people want to ship out guys like Wolf, Zary, and Coronato, this is reality.

I think people who believe losing Andersson is going to single handled drop up a bunch are in for disappointment as well. We shipped off Hanifin and Tanev and it hasn’t made much of a difference.

I don't entirely agree with this.

I do agree, generally, that the addition or subtraction of a single player (other than a good goalie) will have less effect on the standings than most people think. However, moving Hanifin and Tanev DID have a significant impact on the team - they were terrible after the trade deadline. The difference this year is that 1) both Andersson and Weegar have really stepped up in their roles, and 2) Bahl, Pachal, and Miromanov are playing (aggregately) MUCH better than anyone could have hoped. However, I think the removal of Andersson would make a significant difference because it would break up their best pairing, and force everyone into higher roles than they are (likely) ready for.

I still think that moving out Andersson all but guarantees a bottom 10 finish.

[Aarongavey]

Originally Posted by dissentowner

Adams killed any momentum they had by hiring a dinosaur who is the worst coach for that roster just for nostalgia reasons. It was a bad bad hiring.

Well that and rebuilds where you guy the team of any actual veteran presence almost never work.

[Paulie Walnuts]

Originally Posted by PepsiFree

It might not be a good thing but the team got there doing the exact thing people were endlessly clamouring for and, despite repeated warnings that they couldn’t just will themselves into the bottom five and if players like Wolf hit their potential it’d be near impossible… those same people are somehow acting surprised and dismayed they’re where they are.

Ideals are just ideals. Reality is what we have to work with. And unless people want to ship out guys like Wolf, Zary, and Coronato, this is reality.

I think people who believe losing Andersson is going to single handled drop up a bunch are in for disappointment as well. We shipped off Hanifin and Tanev and it hasn’t made much of a difference.

While I don’t disagree with everything I think a few points.

I love the step Zary and Coronato are taking. Them being on pace for 40 points and leading the team in scoring isn’t the reason we are in the spot we are. It’s simply Dustin Wolf and to an extent Vladar.

Also once Hanifin was gone the team was like .300. I think shipping off your top pairing Dman will have a significant impact on this team. He is one of the few who can carry the puck and create. Once he is gone we will have Weegar.