2025/2026 Season Trade Rumours and Speculation Thread

[Burning Beard]

Originally Posted by Rhett44

I think not trading both Coleman and Kadri by Friday will delay the rebuild by at least a year.

And I also think it could be the difference between us drafting a superstar in the top 3 picks and a 2nd pairing guy at pick 6 or 7. We need to bottom out.

So yes, I do think it would be an epic failure to not trade both.

Fair enough (I am out of thanks or I would give you one for the reply). I guess I just don't see an uninterested Kadri gaining this team an extra 4-8 points in the standings. He isn't going to win an extra 2-4 games single-handedly in my opinion. I don't recall him winning a game all by himself for a good long while in fact.

[Stampede2TheCup]

I think Trocheck and Kadri being dealt are largely waiting on O’Reilly now. He is having a great season and has by far the best contract to take on out of the three.

Apparently when the break ended, O’Reilly had no appetite to discuss trades while Nashville were so close to a playoff spot.

Now they’ve lost enough to have fallen back out of the playoff race enough to make them sellers, but O’Reilly left the game with an eye injury last night. Apparently it’s not supposed to be too bad, but they’re waiting on an evaluation back home tomorrow.

Barring the eye injury coming back as significant or a miracle trade between Colorado and Calgary, I think O’Reilly is the first domino to fall. I would be surprised if there aren’t some teams that have been waiting to see if he becomes available by the deadline. I think we are also waiting on teams in the Thomas sweepstakes right now too.

[Yanda]

Originally Posted by SuperMatt18

Okay here are my uninformed guesses for the day.

Coleman + Hanley to Dallas for Hemming + 2026 2nd + Lybushkin

Lindell - Heiskanen
Harley - Lundkvist
Bischell - Myers
Hanley - Petrovic

Dallas sheds the cap hit of Lybushkin for this year and next year, but gain Coleman and Hanley to help balance their depth on defense. Hanley at $1.75M and Coleman at $4.9M is combined $5.6M - so taking back Lybushkin and his $3M pretty much means that you're retaining 50% of that for Dallas.

Kadri ($2.25M retained) to Colorado for 2027 1st + Gulayayev + Brindley

Why are we retaining on Kadri, we going to only get a 2nd instead of a 1st or 1 less nobody prospect you listed? Who cares, we can get far more using that retention slot the next few years.

[Macindoc]

Originally Posted by Yanda

Flames would be stupid to tie up a retention slot on Kadri for years. All for what.. an extra second or B prospect? Instead you could use it on expiring contracts yearly and accrue a much bigger return.

Dont lose out on a better package for Frost or Whitecloud down the line with retention just to get an extra late 2nd in 2028 on Kadri. Tying up that retention slot on Kadri would be the dumbest Flames move since trading a 1st to move Monahan.

So are you going to force a GM to make a trade offer for Kadri that doesn't require retention? Because from what I have heard (keeping in mind that I'm no insider), no such offer has been made at this point.

[SuperMatt18]

Originally Posted by Yanda

Why are we retaining on Kadri, we going to only get a 2nd instead of a 1st or 1 less nobody prospect you listed? Who cares, we can get far more using that retention slot the next few years.

Because I don't think we have any other major deals that really need retention the next two seasons and you'll still have 2 spots open up once Andersson and Markstrom are off the books as of July 1.

[Enoch Root]

Originally Posted by Rhett44

I think not trading both Coleman and Kadri by Friday will delay the rebuild by at least a year.

And I also think it could be the difference between us drafting a superstar in the top 3 picks and a 2nd pairing guy at pick 6 or 7. We need to bottom out.

So yes, I do think it would be an epic failure to not trade both.

LOL. No hyperbole there!

[ComixZone]

I'll choose to read into this stuff as all posturing at this stage. They clearly only have 1 slot for retention available, it SHOULD be used on Kadri in my eyes, particularly if that's the only way he can be moved - but Conroy likely is trying to manage packages on both Coleman and Kadri and see where it is best used.

In my eyes, Kadri getting traded is the most important piece of this trade deadline. If the Flames are going with a blanketed approach of 'we won't retain on him', then that's foolish in my eyes. Time is of the essence with Kadri.

Coleman at next year's deadline? Still an attractive asset.

Kadri? He will likely never be an attractive asset without retention, and Father Time is breathing on his neck at this point. Kadri with retention out the door is the move to make.

[Bingo]

Originally Posted by Rhett44

I think not trading both Coleman and Kadri by Friday will delay the rebuild by at least a year.

And I also think it could be the difference between us drafting a superstar in the top 3 picks and a 2nd pairing guy at pick 6 or 7. We need to bottom out.

So yes, I do think it would be an epic failure to not trade both.

I think you're confusing "epic failure" with "epic personal disappointment".

Something can't be a failure unless you know what was available to be done.

[Bonded]

Originally Posted by SuperMatt18

Because I don't think we have any other major deals that really need retention the next two seasons and you'll still have 2 spots open up once Andersson and Markstrom are off the books as of July 1.

That is assuming they don't need to retain on Coleman. It is tough to say without knowing what the offers look like. If they are 2nd+ for a retained Kadri vs a 1st+ for a retained Coleman is isn't that cut and dry

[PepsiFree]

Originally Posted by Yanda

Being firm in thinking that Kadri cant be traded without retention is just silly. Taking back a bad contract like Kotkaniemi would literially achieve the same thing. 2nd line centers are worth 7mil, Kadri's contract isnt bad or need retention.

I wonder if you could work something like this with a third team if a team needed Kadri retained.

Example:
Kadri to Carolina (no retention) > Colorado ($2M retained)
Kotkaniemi > Calgary (no retention)

(obviously not including the other pieces that would come from Colorado or Carolina etc)

In this scenario, Colorado gets their player for the price they want, and Carolina saves $13M+ over 4 years and is out of the JK contract a year sooner.

Though, it’s only slightly more beneficial than buying that player out, so would be more useful for a team with a more buyout proof contract.

[dino7c]

At the same time you can't trade Kadri with retention just to trade him...you need to be getting something really good back. The retention is valuble, Kadri being on the Flames longer doesn't hurt them...retaining for 3 years without getting much back does hurt them.

[IamNotKenKing]

Originally Posted by ComixZone

Coleman at next year's deadline? Still an attractive asset.

Can confirm...

[topfiverecords]

Originally Posted by taxbuster

Between Rhett and Lanny I have to check…is the sky falling? I thought TDL was Friday….

It's not always the sky falling. Sometimes it's "stuff" rising from below. Like when you don't have a backflow valve.

[YourMother]

Here's my dream scenario:

Conny is trying his best to trade both Kadri and Coleman without retaining.
He'll then get an asset from Montreal by taking Laine's contract and flip him right after more another asset by using the last retention spot for him.

[united]

The cost of retention on Kadri should be, and is, high. At 30% retained, Kadri would be the 3rd most costly retention of the cap era in terms of actual dollars at $6.6 million. At 25%, he would come in a 4th.

It is easy for us fans to be flippant about money as we usually think in terms of cap hit instead, but the reality is for a small market Flames team with poor attendance the actual dollars matter. Even more alarming for the Flames is this is the first season where they haven't sold out boxes in over a decade, and food and beverage is significantly down even in booked boxes. So when the top dogs see dark boxes, retention asks become more difficult to swallow especially when there is no incremental cap value to the retention like with Kadri at 1:1. Of course, this philosophy from a team being handed hundreds of millions of dollars of tax payer money, I digress.

Point being the Flames are willing to retain on Kadri, but they aren't going to exchange $4-6 million USD cash for a 3rd- to 7th-round pick just to get a deal done. Layer on the opportunity cost of tying up 3 seasons of a retention slot for potentially better returns in aggregate too and it creeps a bit more.

Now, there may come a time where they are forced to eat a #### sandwich. But we aren't there yet, thankfully.

...

The largest cash costs of retention to the trading team in the salary cap era with context of the moves:

Kevin Hayes, Flyers: $8.5 million
- The Flyers received a 6th-round pick
- Among the worst trades of the salary cap era but driven from a new GM in a position of desperation with a disgruntled player.

Ryan Johansen, Predators: $8.0 million
- The Predators received the rights to Alex Galchenyuk, who did not play another game in the NHL.
- The Predators were going to spend $10.7 million buying out Johansen's contract that summer anyway.

Ekman-Larsson, Coyotes: $6.0 million
- Alongside Ekman-Larsson, the Canucks received Conor Garland.
- The Coyotes received #9, #47, a 7th, Jay Beagle, Antoine Roussel, Loui Eriksson.
- This trade was complicated - hard to quantify value of the retention.

Erik Karlsson, Sharks: $5.0 million
- This was a three-way trade involving 9 players and 3 draft picks. Hard to quantify value of the retention.

Brent Burns, Sharks: $4.4 million
- Alongside Burns, the Hurricanes received Lane Pederson.
- The Sharks received a 3rd, Steven Lorentz, and Eetu Makiniemi.
- This was in isolation a poor deal for the Sharks, but Burns had a 3-team trade list...so limited in what they could do.

[Jiri Hrdina]

Originally Posted by Rhett44

The same people who were saying a few months ago to be patient and wait until the trade deadline to trade Kadri are now telling us we don't have to move him. And that we can wait until the off season.

Back to making things up about what people have said.

[dino7c]

Originally Posted by Bonded

That is assuming they don't need to retain on Coleman. It is tough to say without knowing what the offers look like. If they are 2nd+ for a retained Kadri vs a 1st+ for a retained Coleman is isn't that cut and dry

actually it kinda is, do Coleman in this case

[ComixZone]

Originally Posted by dino7c

At the same time you can't trade Kadri with retention just to trade him...you need to be getting something really good back. The retention is valuble, Kadri being on the Flames longer doesn't hurt them...retaining for 3 years without getting much back does hurt them.

Oh for sure, I'm assuming that Kadri with retention returns at least a 1st round pick - and that'd be my bar. At least a 1st? It's a win. Moves Kadri to a spot where he can see out his career, moves the Flames a step closer to moving forward. Everyone walks away with something. Home run? Nope, but I don't think there's a home run on the table for this situation, but you do your best with the cards you have.

I don't think retaining $6-8M over 3 years holds THAT much value at the end of the day, because that cap space is getting devalued as the cap climbs.

[D as in David]

Originally Posted by PeteMoss

I mean they put Kuznetsov on waivers at the start of the year. They could have lose him for nothing - so don't think that counts as a point in their favour of knowing who is or isn't ready.

Just goes to show you that he outdid 31 other GMs with that move. They could have had Kuznetsov for nothing.

[Pickle Juice]

The major positive for me at this stage is that there has not been a lot of movement from most of the teams contending for the cup. Aside from Dallas, Vegas and Minnesota making minor moves there hasn’t been much. Something is really holding up the market and I’m not sure who or what team is doing it, but it seems very slow out there league wide at the point. All it going to take is Colorada or Tampa to load up with someone we didn’t see coming to unleash the flood gates.

I am just as anxious as everyone else to see some movement, but this is not just a Flames problem at this point.