2024/2025 Season trade rumours and speculation thread

[TOfan]

Originally Posted by CFO

Right now flames have Dylan Larkin level center or potential capable centers.

What?

Who on the Flames depth chart compares to Larkin? I don’t think we have anyone who is close to that level. We have two legitimate C’s in their mid-30’s, Frost who might be a 2C, and after that it’s a black hole.

The Flames don’t need just an elite C, they needs 2 or 3 C’s.

[Sandman]

If only we could get our hands on Callum Ritchie….

[TOfan]

Originally Posted by Sandman

If only we could get our hands on Callum Ritchie….

Honest question, Sandman.

Seeing as you’re as plugged into prospects as anyone, what might the Flames have been thinking in taking Honzek over Ritchie?

Is the Flames lack of C’s, quality ones, somewhat self inflicted? Is there a team in the league worse at either identifying, acquiring, developing C’s? Honestly, it truly seems like any C the Flames pick has a huge uphill battle to become a C in the NHL, which is curious given how little they seem to have at the position.

I’m starting to think the Flames might need to put their draft list aside and start reaching for C’s in the next year or two.

[Saqe]

Originally Posted by jayswin

We have a number two and three centre and then other centres trying to become top 6.

By the time this team maybe gets to a contender status Kadri will be off to greener pastures. And what Zary actually is we'll only see in the playoffs because that's ultimately what matters if you want to win a championship. Some guys shrink and are useless, mostly IMO guys are a little worse what they are during the regular season. Very rarely they punch above their pay grade like Toews/Kadri/Bennett.

[Saqe]

Originally Posted by TOfan

I’m starting to think the Flames might need to put their draft list aside and start reaching for C’s in the next year or two.

Disagree totally. They need to take the best player available and try to find a star player. They have none at any position. Wolf could be but goalies shouldn't be picked with high picks anyway.

[Royle9]

Originally Posted by jayswin

Yep. it's the "Well we'll get the New jersey 10th OA for Markstrom but we better not be giving up Pospisal too, they can have our late first instead, but I'm hesitant to even give that up" CP fan stuff all over again, lol.

I don’t think it’s quite as crazy as that scenario was.

1. Because unlike the Markstrom situation, Calgary has all the power this time.
2. Both sides wanted to make the trade work last time, the 10th pick was part of negotiations but never happened ultimately.

This time around the entire situation is different.

1. NJD are overplaying their hand making it known they REALLY want Andersson and it’s believed that Markstrom is probably helping.
2. Mercer is having a down year and Calgary has wanted him since the Markstrom trade went down, NJD are not as strict on moving him now.
3. Nemec and NJD are essentially done, he’s let them know he wants a fresh start somewhere else.

This gives Calgary far more leverage this time around, like a lot more.
With that said I’ve been told that if this offer was on the table it would be a done deal. Both teams have had varying levels of discussions. It’s going to take an offer like that for Calgary to move Andersson anywhere.

Craig still wants another young center, I’d also expect to see Calgary drafting centers this year so long as players available are on the same “shelf” if you will.

[Jiri Hrdina]

Originally Posted by TOfan

Honest question, Sandman.

Seeing as you’re as plugged into prospects as anyone, what might the Flames have been thinking in taking Honzek over Ritchie?

Is the Flames lack of C’s, quality ones, somewhat self inflicted? Is there a team in the league worse at either identifying, acquiring, developing C’s? Honestly, it truly seems like any C the Flames pick has a huge uphill battle to become a C in the NHL, which is curious given how little they seem to have at the position.

I’m starting to think the Flames might need to put their draft list aside and start reaching for C’s in the next year or two.

Ritchie basically wasn’t healthy his entire draft year which impacted his play and production. It was a savvy pick by the Avs to look past that and see the underlying potential

[TOfan]

Originally Posted by Saqe

Disagree totally. They need to take the best player available and try to find a star player. They have none at any position. Wolf could be but goalies shouldn't be picked with high picks anyway.

I think Parekh has star, or better potential. I also wouldn’t sleep on Gridin, Mews, Brz, and maybe even others.

BPA is a term that is pretty loose. BPA according to who? BPA suggests all teams have the same list/rankings. If you play fantasy hockey, do you skip your draft and let yahoo pick for you based on their rankings?

Best player available and team needs are not always aligned.

[Saqe]

Originally Posted by TOfan

I think Parekh has star, or better potential. I also wouldn’t sleep on Gridin, Mews, Brz, and maybe even others.

BPA is a term that is pretty loose. BPA according to who? BPA suggests all teams have the same list/rankings. If you play fantasy hockey, do you skip your draft and let yahoo pick for you based on their rankings?

Best player available and team needs are not always aligned.

The point is don't reach just because it's a C.

[TOfan]

Originally Posted by Saqe

The point is don't reach just because it's a C.

Okay, well, let’s go with ‘prioritizing’ then.

If the Flames are faced with picking a LHS winger who is higher on their list over a C who is within the same ledge as Royale put it, I think they’re at the point where they should take the C.

[stemit14]

I think it’s a similar case league wide. If you look at lists of the top prospects across the NHL, centers are few and far between. Wingers and defencemen currentky dominate most lists. Ritchie and Helenius are usually the top center prospects on these lists and I haven’t seen one where either of them crack the top 10. In fact, most lists only have one of them cracking the top 20. I haven’t looked recently but I’m pretty sure only 4 or 5 of the top 50 prospects on Wheeler’s list were centers.

Not sure exactly why this is the case or if this is pretty common but I’m guessing there could be a few reasons.

1. I imagine any time a player is an A-level prospect and is a center, they don’t stay a prospect for long (i.e. they become an NHL player within months of being drafted). Celebrini, Bedard, Fantilli, Smith and Carlsson didn’t spend much time being prospects after getting drafted.

2. Some recent drafts have been thin at centre outside the top 5. Last year’s draft in particular was heavy on defence and wingers.

I also wonder if the flames have applied the philosophy of “best player available” very strictly when drafting over the last few years. That could mean if they are on the clock and they have a winger available that they score as an 87/100 and a center available that they score as an 84/100, they will still take the winger. I only say that because it’s no secret that they need centers and they have needed them in the system for years but have still taken wingers when other center prospects are available. This isn’t a criticism, just an observation/speculation - I think they have drafted really well over the last few years. And the fact that there are very few centers in the list of top NHL prospects maybe shows that they have made the right choice in a lot of cases.

I’ll also add that I think the Flames saw the potential (and still see the potential) for Honzek to play center. They looked at his potential to be a similar player to Rantanen if he reached his highest ceiling. Honzek’s development was really derailed by missing most of his D+1 season with injury. You can’t plan for those kind of things. Who knows where he would be if that had not happened. He can still recover and reach his potential as an NHLer but it will likely take longer to do so.

[TOfan]

Originally Posted by stemit14

I think it’s a similar case league wide. If you look at lists of the top prospects across the NHL, centers are few and far between. Wingers and defencemen currentky dominate most lists. Ritchie and Helenius are usually the top center prospects on these lists and I haven’t seen one where either of them crack the top 10. In fact, most lists only have one of them cracking the top 20. I haven’t looked recently but I’m pretty sure only 4 or 5 of the top 50 prospects on Wheeler’s list were centers.

Not sure exactly why this is the case or if this is pretty common but I’m guessing there could be a few reasons.

1. I imagine any time a player is an A-level prospect and is a center, they don’t stay a prospect for long (i.e. they become an NHL player within months of being drafted). Celebrini, Bedard, Fantilli, Smith and Carlsson didn’t spend much time being prospects after getting drafted.

2. Some recent drafts have been thin at centre outside the top 5. Last year’s draft in particular was heavy on defence and wingers.

I also wonder if the flames have applied the philosophy of “best player available” very strictly when drafting over the last few years. That could mean if they are on the clock and they have a winger available that they score as an 87/100 and a center available that they score as an 84/100, they will still take the winger. I only say that because it’s no secret that they need centers and they have needed them in the system for years but have still taken wingers when other center prospects are available. This isn’t a criticism, just an observation/speculation - I think they have drafted really well over the last few years. And the fact that there are very few centers in the list of top NHL prospects maybe shows that they have made the right choice in a lot of cases.

I’ll also add that I think the Flames saw the potential (and still see the potential) for Honzek to play center. They looked at his potential to be a similar player to Rantanen if he reached his highest ceiling. Honzek’s development was really derailed by missing most of his D+1 season with injury. You can’t plan for those kind of things. Who knows where he would be if that had not happened. He can still recover and reach his potential as an NHLer but it will likely take longer to do so.

It’s a good point you bring up on Honzek. IIRC right after that pick was made Stienberg said from the draft that Rantinen was the player/prototype they saw. That talk has died down and I wonder if the Flames don’t want to put undue pressure on him. Also, obviously, performance and injuries since the draft have put a damper on this sort of talk.

[flambers]

Originally Posted by Royle9

Craig still wants another young center, I’d also expect to see Calgary drafting centers this year so long as players available are on the same “shelf” if you will.

For sure, Flames I expect will draft best player available,

Obviously they will select center's

Type of center they require, will never be available at that spot.

[Poe969]

Wingers and D are always around because there are so many more of them than C's. You're more likely to draft a good D in the later rounds than you are to draft a good C.

Knowing that, shouldn't the team move a guy like Anderson for a young C if they have a chance? They'll have a better chance at drafting another guy like Anderson than they will at getting a guy like mercer or cozens.

[Paulie Walnuts]

If you look at the list of #1 centers that how won the cup since the lockout you can even go further back but outside of Eichel and O’Reilly they have all won on the team that drafted them and most have never left.

It’s the most important position to win and it’s the hardest to find and teams who them aren’t trading them. We just traded for Frost and have Zary. Going out and getting another middle 6 forward isn’t what this team needs they need to move guys out and get picks.

The amateur scouts have done a great job so giving them more chances of finding our guy is the best bet to get the player we need. We have to realize we are going to have to draft the player.

That’s why the Cozens talk is silly he’s not good and is going to be moved the wing.

There are some names on the list that got taken later on and later rounds. Point, Bergeron, O’Reilly, Kopitar, Datsuyk. That’s a pretty good list of elite #1C taken outside of the top 10. Keep your picks, add more picks, make your picks and maybe we find our guy to add to the list.

[Paulie Walnuts]

Originally Posted by TOfan

Okay, well, let’s go with ‘prioritizing’ then.

If the Flames are faced with picking a LHS winger who is higher on their list over a C who is within the same ledge as Royale put it, I think they’re at the point where they should take the C.

I think BPA for teams is a bit different from what I can tell. Like up said they have groupings and you can probably take anyone from that group and he would technically be BPA.

I think they will go for more centers this time around. He’s probably found out teams don’t want to part with centers. So just keep drafting them and developing them.

We don’t want a repeat of the Iginla and Kipper years wasted 2 hall of fame careers.

[dammage79]

BPA isn't as simple as reading Bobby Mak's list and saying that's BPA. I think it's pretty evident that 32 lists will never be the same.

Organizational need absolutely plays a significant factor in how their lists are made. So when the Flames load up on centers this draft. They're going BPA. Because that's what they need.

[Paulie Walnuts]

Bobs list is usually the best but like you said teams have players in different orders. Hard to say someone is a reach unless it’s Huntrr Smith being taking with a 2nd round pick.

[dammage79]

My 2025 draft prediction is the Flames manage to trade up and grab a slipping center( Ryabkin/McQueen).

They have the bullets in 2025 picks if they feel they need to condense their picks to get a guy falling that's high on their list.

[TOfan]

Originally Posted by dammage79

BPA isn't as simple as reading Bobby Mak's list and saying that's BPA. I think it's pretty evident that 32 lists will never be the same.

Organizational need absolutely plays a significant factor in how their lists are made. So when the Flames load up on centers this draft. They're going BPA. Because that's what they need.

I agree

The question I have then is when someone says ‘take best player available’ what is that even supposed to mean? Doesn’t that go without saying?

It’s like saying ‘I’m hungry, so I’m going to go eat some food’.