2025/2026 Season Trade Rumours and Speculation Thread

[Macho0978]

Originally Posted by Burning Beard

How many years did that take? Would any owner want to be s### for that long?

Who cares about 10 years ago. Kevin Adams was hired in 2020 and fired this year. Eichel situation was messed up, but right now they are one of the hottest teams in the league and very young team with all their stars locked in long term or on ELCs many years away from UFA status. Lots of prospects and lots of picks. Flames sucked all through the 90s and in the early 2000s. Why do I care about that?

Things do not look bad in Buffalo anymore. They are no longer a good example of why rebuilding is a bad idea. Edmonton too.

Who is the new example now?

[CliffFletcher]

A) Trade pending UFAs and veterans who don’t want to be here in exchange for picks and prospects, on the understanding that this will likely make you a non-playoff team for the next couple of seasons.

B) Move out most veterans of value, including ones who want to play here, with the deliberate aim of finishing bottom-five in the league for the next three seasons.

Two strategies. Call them what you will. Lots of indications Flames ownership does not want to pursue strategy B.

[Inferno]

Originally Posted by Macho0978

Who cares about 10 years ago. Kevin Adams was hired in 2020 and fired this year. Eichel situation was messed up, but right now they are one of the hottest teams in the league and very young team with all their stars locked in long term or on ELCs many years away from UFA status. Lots of prospects and lots of picks. Flames sucked all through the 90s and in the early 2000s. Why do I care about that?

Things do not look bad in Buffalo anymore. They are no longer a good example of why rebuilding is a bad idea. Edmonton too.

Who is the new example now?

But the whole example about not wanting to be like Buffalo is taking into consideration how long it's taking them.

Nobody should want the Flames to take that long.

[Tbull8]

Not wanting to be buffalo is as ridiculous as St Louis winning without "tanking".
Both are the outliers

[Enoch Root]

Originally Posted by Macho0978

Who cares about 10 years ago. Kevin Adams was hired in 2020 and fired this year. Eichel situation was messed up, but right now they are one of the hottest teams in the league and very young team with all their stars locked in long term or on ELCs many years away from UFA status. Lots of prospects and lots of picks. Flames sucked all through the 90s and in the early 2000s. Why do I care about that?

Things do not look bad in Buffalo anymore. They are no longer a good example of why rebuilding is a bad idea. Edmonton too.

Who is the new example now?

Do you apply that same perspective to the Flames? No, you don't.

[FlamesAddiction]

Nothing against LeBrun specifically, but all these insiders repeat things they heard from other insiders. Old information gets in the feedback loop and becomes new again whether it is still relevant or not. Gotta keep the hits coming.

[dino7c]

The point is you don't want a rebuild to take 10 or 15 years, nobody does. Just being bad isn't enough to gurantee future success.

[PepsiFree]

I for one am with Macho. I’m quietly praying for a Buffalo style rebuild, and we all should. Perhaps in 15 long, beautiful years from now, after 2-3 more rebuilds after the one we’re in, we’ll be lucky enough to be in a wild card spot half way through the season with a commanding 1 point lead on the next closest team.

This is the dream folks. If we believe, we CAN achieve.

[GioforPM]

Originally Posted by Macho0978

Who cares about 10 years ago. Kevin Adams was hired in 2020 and fired this year. Eichel situation was messed up, but right now they are one of the hottest teams in the league and very young team with all their stars locked in long term or on ELCs many years away from UFA status. Lots of prospects and lots of picks. Flames sucked all through the 90s and in the early 2000s. Why do I care about that?

Things do not look bad in Buffalo anymore. They are no longer a good example of why rebuilding is a bad idea. Edmonton too.

Who is the new example now?

Which of their multiple rebuilds?

[gvitaly]

Originally Posted by Jiri Hrdina

Saying Calgary is Buffalo west is just lazy.
Neither team has been successful. No one disputes that.
But the underlying reasons are VERY different.

I always thought the Islanders were a much better comparison. At least in terms of player composition, losing star players, and general record. They had a bit of a Cinderella window in 2019-21 in terms of playoff success. At the same time, I don't remember them finishing higher than 4th/5th in the east, at least since the late 80s.

The Flames had a bit less playoff success, but had a few more division titles, and finished 1st, and 3rd in the west in the meantime.

[howard_the_duck]

Originally Posted by Vinny01

Lebrun could say the opposite that the Flames are engaging multiple teams on their veteran players and I GUARANTEE you that gets more clicks and views from this fanbase and others than saying the team won’t burn it to the ground.


If you are saying the Flames have burned it to the ground the last 3 years that is certainly a difference of opinion. They traded 1 player at the 2023 draft who was entering the last year of his deal and who asked out when they wouldn’t offer him a long term extension. They traded 4 other free agents that year as they were missing the playoffs and could not reach agreements. They traded their goalie in the 2024 offseason and shipped off a winger for a 2nd in the last year of his deal in the summer of 2024. That was the last time this team subtracted a player from the lineup without bringing back a player. They haven’t done anything to resemble tearing it down for a year and a half. That will change very soon with Rasmus getting dealt.

Lebrun didn’t say the flames are not rebuilding he just said they are not tearing it right to the ground which is open to interpretation

Logged in just to thank this post. I’m sure Lebrun salivates at generating clicks from the 16th most engaged fanbase in the league.

[dino7c]

Originally Posted by FlamesAddiction

Nothing against LeBrun specifically, but all these insiders repeat things they heard from other insiders. Old information gets in the feedback loop and becomes new again whether it is still relevant or not. Gotta keep the hits coming.

That was more my point...this is the same thing we have heard for years and hear everyday on barnburner. This isn't new information and also goes against what Conroy has actually been doing.

[Enoch Root]

Originally Posted by Macho0978

W

Things do not look bad in Buffalo anymore. They are no longer a good example of why rebuilding is a bad idea. Edmonton too.

Exactly. We just need to wait it out for 14 years (in both examples), and then everything will be glorious, and our patience will be rewarded!

(though not with any actual Stanley Cups or anything, but with some eventual playoff appearances!)

[dino7c]

Originally Posted by howard_the_duck

Logged in just to thank this post. I’m sure Lebrun salivates at generating clicks from the 16th most engaged fanbase in the league.

So you think anything he said is recent or relevant? Flames are one of the 2 or 3 hottest topics this deadline

[Macho0978]

Originally Posted by Inferno

But the whole example about not wanting to be like Buffalo is taking into consideration how long it's taking them.

Nobody should want the Flames to take that long.

Why does it matter what happened a decade ago? Different GM, different coach, different scouts, different players. They sucked for a long time and most of that is on people no longer in the organization.

They have missed the playoffs for 14 years, but they were not rebuilding for 14 straight years. They just failed in the past and the Eichel situation played a big part in that. Pretty serious injury for an elite player. They only have had 2 seasons below 75 points since they drafted Eichel.

[dino7c]

Originally Posted by Enoch Root

Exactly. We just need to wait it out for 14 years (in both examples), and then everything will be glorious, and our patience will be rewarded!

(though not with any actual Stanley Cups or anything, but with some eventual playoff appearances!)

I know a guy that was a #### up his whole life and then won the lottery...he is rich now but probably not a good financial plan

[GioforPM]

Originally Posted by howard_the_duck

Logged in just to thank this post. I’m sure Lebrun salivates at generating clicks from the 16th most engaged fanbase in the league.

Do you think LeBrun actually spoke to Murray Edwards? If not, why should this be taken seriously.

As for clicks, I think these guys run through the league and try to create clicks for them all.

[Enoch Root]

Originally Posted by howard_the_duck

Logged in just to thank this post. I’m sure Lebrun salivates at generating clicks from the 16th most engaged fanbase in the league.

Well perhaps - just spit balling here - perhaps he has enough time in the day to try and engage ALL the fanbases, even the '16th most engaged' ones.

[dino7c]

I would suggest the Flames are a hot topic right now around the league...they have 3 guys on all the big trade boards. Every show or pod is mentioning them. Ras will likely be the biggest trade in the NHL until the draft. Maybe Kadri.

[D as in David]

Originally Posted by Jiri Hrdina

Buffalo isn't really the example that should be used as the cautionary tale. They just made a series of massive blunders.

The cautionary tales are the re-builds that look promising, with a bevy of high picks and prospects, and it takes the team back to the mushy middle and no forward.

Right now for me it's the LA Kings.

They were considered to have the best prospect pool for a number of years. Now does anyone think they are building towards a contender. Not even close.

Similarly you can't point to Pittsburgh (Crosby), Edmonton (McDavid), SJ (Celibrini) as examples of what you need to do because those players don't come along very often. Takes a lot of luck.

The question is how do you build a contender if you DON'T get a player of that stature. if you end up being lucky enough - great. But chances are you won't. And you shouldn't assume you will.

See also: Senators, Ottawa