2025/2026 Season Trade Rumours and Speculation Thread

[Bonded]

Originally Posted by SuperMatt18

And the Florida scenario isn't just "depth".

It's "Stars + Depth", and there is a big difference there.

Flames are all depth outside of Wolf and it shows

[Jason14h]

Originally Posted by GioforPM

The seas parted for the Oilers in two consecutive runs. They were handled easily by Fla (albeit the Panthers set up sweep and then coasted in the first year).

The Oilers had better depth in their second run and were never really a threat in the finals.

If only they had a Farabee , Sharagovich or a Zary they would be 2 time cup champions right now

[Muta]

Flames need an impact gamebreaker like McKenna so badly; what a player to lead this team with it's current skillset

[ResAlien]

lol depth. Sounds like the old Sutter 20 goal scorers comment and that sure worked out great. The point of depth is that they're behind your starters and stars, people who in a pinch can short term hopefully fill in. When your whole team is depth that just means you got a bunch of guys playing higher up the lineup than they should be which, to be clear, is not a recipe for success.

[blankall]

Originally Posted by Jason14h

Exactly . Depth doesn’t matter . Stars do

There are plenty of star players who haven't won cups. Both depth and star players matter.

[Bonded]

Originally Posted by blankall

There are plenty of star players who haven't won cups. Both depth and star players matter.

Depth doesn’t matter without stars is true

[Macho0978]

The Oilers depth has been fine both cup runs. Is it the best 3rd/4th lines and 3rd pairing in the league? No, but the depth was fine.

They haven't won the cup because they are missing high end d and goalies.

Oilers can't get over the top because their star players have to deal with Jones, Ekblad and Forsling to go along with Barkov and Reinhart. When they do get a chance, Bobrovsky.

Bouchard, Nurse, Ekholm and Skinner are not shutting the door like teams like Florida, Tampa and Vegas are.

[Bingo]

Originally Posted by Jason14h

If only they had a Farabee , Sharagovich or a Zary they would be 2 time cup champions right now

This is a very illogical hill to die on!

[GioforPM]

Originally Posted by Jason14h

If only they had a Farabee , Sharagovich or a Zary they would be 2 time cup champions right now

I'm really not sure what your point is.

[Jason14h]

Originally Posted by GioforPM

I'm really not sure what your point is.

That being afraid to trade our depth for better players because then we "won't have depth" is illogical, doesn't reflect what wins in the NHL, and a horrible way to build a team

It's literally in the post I referred too. Clear enough?

[blankall]

Originally Posted by Muta

Flames need an impact gamebreaker like McKenna so badly; what a player to lead this team with it's current skillset

Most cup winning teams have 2-3 impact players and a good goalie. They typically also have several solid depth players, who can pick up some of the slack when those star players get targeted.

[Jason14h]

Originally Posted by Bingo

This is a very illogical hill to die on!

I'm not sure you know what a hill to die on means based on this response

If anything the 'Farabee is good because of his underlying stats despite his actual performance being garbage' is the hill you seem to want to die on

[GioforPM]

Originally Posted by Jason14h

That being afraid to trade our depth for better players because then we "won't have depth" is illogical, doesn't reflect what wins in the NHL, and a horrible way to build a team

It's literally in the post I referred too. Clear enough?

No one has said "don't trade for better players"?

[GioforPM]

Originally Posted by Jason14h

That being afraid to trade our depth for better players because then we "won't have depth" is illogical, doesn't reflect what wins in the NHL, and a horrible way to build a team

It's literally in the post I referred too. Clear enough?

This is the post you responded to

Originally Posted by blankall

If you trade guys like Zary you end up with a team with no depth on it and you burn the good years of your franchise players trying to find that depth.

Obviously, if there's a deal you can't refuse, for example a trade involving Zary for a #1 centre prospect, then you do it, but a team needs to be always looking towards the future. By this logic, even a player like Parekh is on the board. What if someone drafts McKenna, and he pulls a Lindros, stating he won't play in X city.

[Jason14h]

Originally Posted by GioforPM

This is the post you responded to

Correct - If you are only going to consider moving depth players for a #1 center in a deal you can't refuse this team isn't going anywhere - because that deal is never going to be on the table.

Depth players should be shipped the minute you can extract more value from them. Flames fans fall in love with depth players.

[Aarongavey]

Originally Posted by Jason14h

That being afraid to trade our depth for better players because then we "won't have depth" is illogical, doesn't reflect what wins in the NHL, and a horrible way to build a team

It's literally in the post I referred too. Clear enough?

I am not sure that we have any evidence that Conroy is afraid to do that. So far his entire modus operandi has been to trade almost all vets for picks and prospects. I suspect he continues to do that for awhile but eventually probably will do a 2 for 1 to try to get a better player.

It is not like the Flames have a backlog of NHL ready prospects that are being prevented from playing in the NHL because of the depth at the NHL level. I suspect if they ever had a fully healthy lineup it would be Gridin and Kirkland that go down to the minors. But they have nobody in the AHL that clearly should be in the NHL right now.

[GioforPM]

Originally Posted by Jason14h

Correct - If you are only going to consider moving depth players for a #1 center in a deal you can't refuse this team isn't going anywhere - because that deal is never going to be on the table.

Depth players should be shipped the minute you can extract more value from them. Flames fans fall in love with depth players.

There's no evidence that there was a better player than Zary available. Or that he hasn't been part of trade talks. Plus he was injured a fair bit so untradeable.

Straw man.

[The Cobra]

Originally Posted by Aarongavey

I am not sure that we have any evidence that Conroy is afraid to do that. So far his entire modus operandi has been to trade almost all vets (who won't sign an extension with the Flames for what they consider reasonable) for picks and prospects. I suspect he continues to do that for a while but eventually probably will do a 2 for 1 to try to get a better player.

Corrected for accuracy.

[Funkhouser]

Originally Posted by Sandman

If we’re trading with Canadian teams, I would suggest Montreal or Winnipeg as partners- they have many WONDERFUL prospects that they could part with, without batting an eye. Vancouver has Braeden Cootes, but it’s doubtful that they would consider trading him.

Who would you target as impactful prospects??
MTL:
-I suspect Hage or Fowler are untouchable :-/
-Reinbacher is probably available but is a RD and is made of glass
-Beck, Koivu, Tuch, Mooney, etc are all question marks or tweeners
-maybe Zharovsky (RW) but he is also a project
-Hage would be my #1 target, but I can't imagine a scenario

WPG:
-Yager and Boumedienne would be a good package for Kadri
-others??

[Jiri Hrdina]

Originally Posted by Funkhouser

Who would you target as impactful prospects??
MTL:
-I suspect Hage or Fowler are untouchable :-/
-Reinbacher is probably available but is a RD and is made of glass
-Beck, Koivu, Tuch, Mooney, etc are all question marks or tweeners
-maybe Zharovsky (RW) but he is also a project
-Hage would be my #1 target, but I can't imagine a scenario

WPG:
-Yager and Boumedienne would be a good package for Kadri
-others??

I suspect Reinbacher would be off the table given how early they picked him.
I would love Zahrovsky. I think he has very high ceiling.

Yager is a good name from WPG because he wasn't drafted by them. You tend to see those guys move around more.