2025/2026 Season Trade Rumours and Speculation Thread

[Macho0978]

Originally Posted by TOfan

I don’t understand the attraction Rossi.

The movie Rudy came out in 1993.

Coming from a team's fan base that was led by Johnny Gaudreau for almost a decade.

Height matters, but weight for me always is the bigger concern. Johnny was 150 when he was drafted, Rossi is the same weight as Kadri

[TOfan]

Originally Posted by Royle9

Yet his 60pts would put him 3rd on the Flames a team who can't seem to find the net very much.

Sounds nice, I would aim higher. Literally and figuratively.

[TOfan]

Originally Posted by Macho0978

Coming from a team's fan base that was led by Johnny Gaudreau for almost a decade.

Height matters, but weight for me always is the bigger concern. Johnny was 150 when he was drafted, Rossi is the same weight as Kadri

…..and carried us to game 5 of the second round.

[Paulie Walnuts]

You win wit big guys down the middle not tiny players. Chasing Rossi is stupid. You just signed Frost and have Kadri and Backlund along with Zary.

[Macho0978]

Originally Posted by TOfan

…..and carried us to game 5 of the second round.

St Louis won a cup...he was short, but he was very strong/stalky.

Rossi is built different than Johnny.

[Macho0978]

Originally Posted by Paulie Walnuts

You win wit big guys down the middle not tiny players. Chasing Rossi is stupid. You just signed Frost and have Kadri and Backlund along with Zary.

Crosby is under 6 feet but is 200 lbs. Elite prospects lists Rossi at 192lbs. He's short yes, but tiny no. Johnny was tiny.

[devo22]

Originally Posted by TOfan

Sounds nice, I would aim higher. Literally and figuratively.

everyone wants to aim higher, but those #1 centers just never hit the market. Well, one did (Eichel), but we missed out. It is what it is.

Rossi and Frost down the middle is fine for now. Ideally you find a guy who pushes them to #2 and #3 eventually, but you won't find that guy today. We'll have to draft him.

[FlamesAddiction]

Originally Posted by devo22

everyone wants to aim higher, but those #1 centers just never hit the market. Well, one did (Eichel), but we missed out. It is what it is.

Rossi and Frost down the middle is fine for now. Ideally you find a guy who pushes them to #2 and #3 eventually, but you won't find that guy today. We'll have to draft him.

Yup, you either crash and burn to draft one or do without and try your best.

[Paulie Walnuts]

Originally Posted by Macho0978

Crosby is under 6 feet but is 200 lbs. Elite prospects lists Rossi at 192lbs. He's short yes, but tiny no. Johnny was tiny.

So we are going to compare the greatest player in our generation to a 60 point hobbit in Minny?

[devo22]

Rossi is stocky. Strong legs, low center of gravity. People focus on the size listed too much.

[TOfan]

Originally Posted by Macho0978

St Louis won a cup...he was short, but he was very strong/stalky.

Rossi is built different than Johnny.

So one guy did it once.

I’ll show you 20 C’s who are over 6’ for every 5’9” C that has won a cup.

[Paulie Walnuts]

Originally Posted by devo22

Rossi is stocky. Strong legs, low center of gravity. People focus on the size listed too much.

Size matters especiallyt down the middle. We are already small as is.

Rossi does nothing for this team

[Bingo]

Originally Posted by Paulie Walnuts

So we are going to compare the greatest player in our generation to a 60 point hobbit in Minny?

Do you have to be so damn over the top with everything?

Calling something stupid seems a little harsh if others feel differently.

[gvitaly]

Originally Posted by Royle9

Yet his 60pts would put him 3rd on the Flames a team who can't seem to find the net very much.

It's even more impressive when you consider he did it in MIN, and they scored about the same amount of goals as CGY last year. Which puts them firmly in the bottom 3rd of the league, so points were much harder to come by.

[Royle9]

I love how we keep pandering for that #1 Center whos 6'4 and built like Lindros to take us to the cup final in 2028.

Its 2025, we haven't seen a top line #1 center in 2 decades.
We kinda/sorta had a good one in Monahan who then got hurt, real bad, many times we shipped out for spare parts.
We drafted Bennett who was "maybe" going to be a 1a/1b but he wasn't a BIG center either and we also traded him for 6 cents on the dollar.

And yet we keep circling back to "WE NEED A HUGE #1 center" over and over and over again, wheras these guys just don't exist and certainly nobody trades you one.

We're not bad enough to suck our way to a top 3 pick, let alone the #1 pick where most of those guys are drafted. Do we just continue to suck and pray/hope we get a #1 O/A pick here soon?

I'm baffled at some of these responses.

[Macho0978]

Originally Posted by Paulie Walnuts

So we are going to compare the greatest player in our generation to a 60 point hobbit in Minny?

Comparing his size because you are saying big wins and looking at height only If that is the case, Sid is not big but I'm sure he won a few things in his career.

Sportsnet did an article on Rossi's workouts in 2020. He is not tiny and 99% of CP would not call him tiny in person.

His weight is right there with all forwards we have other than Klapka, Huberdeau, Backlund and Coleman. He is the same height as Lomberg but outweighs him by 5lbs.

Everyone tells me that Zary is a center, but he never actually plays center in the NHL. If we get our big centers, could we not transition Rossi to the wing at some point?

[Macho0978]

Originally Posted by Royle9

I love how we keep pandering for that #1 Center whos 6'4 and built like Lindros to take us to the cup final in 2028.

Its 2025, we haven't seen a top line #1 center in 2 decades.
We kinda/sorta had a good one in Monahan who then got hurt, real bad, many times we shipped out for spare parts.
We drafted Bennett who was "maybe" going to be a 1a/1b but he wasn't a BIG center either and we also traded him for 6 cents on the dollar.

And yet we keep circling back to "WE NEED A HUGE #1 center" over and over and over again, wheras these guys just don't exist and certainly nobody trades you one.

We're not bad enough to suck our way to a top 3 pick, let alone the #1 pick where most of those guys are drafted. Do we just continue to suck and pray/hope we get a #1 O/A pick here soon?

I'm baffled at some of these responses.

Or we could tank for Bedard...who is smaller than Rossi.

[ResAlien]

If he's such a beast what happened with getting benched/stapled to the 4th line in the playoffs by Minnesota? I genuinely don’t know but it feels like that was a thing

[devo22]

Originally Posted by ResAlien

If he's such a beast what happened with getting benched/stapled to the 4th line in the playoffs by Minnesota? I genuinely don’t know but it feels like that was a thing

it happened because John Hynes is an idiot.

The end.

[Jiri Hrdina]

Originally Posted by ResAlien

If he's such a beast what happened with getting benched/stapled to the 4th line in the playoffs by Minnesota? I genuinely don’t know but it feels like that was a thing

Sam was often benched here. Less so in the playoffs but my point is that if these guys didn't have some risks, they wouldn't be available.
Players DO get traded and find a new level with their new team. We obsess over instances where the Flames have been on the bad end of those, but we resist any options to try and do the reverse.

My view is
- Rossi is not a Bill Guerin type player. Though he did draft him I think. But I think he favors bigger players
- Rossi has got a lot of skill
- I think overall he's likely a #2 center not a 1. But the Flames need that too.
The risk is he's only a 50 - 60 point player. There may be some risk if he was being propped up by Kaprizov but that doesn't seem to be totally the case

As with all these things, it comes down to acquisition cost. People just dismissing it outright, when we don't know those costs, are making a premature decision in my view.