2024 Off-season trade rumours and speculation thread

[Major Major]

Hanifin would have been a good signing. Tanev I don't think was ever close or serious but they probably broached out of respect. I think he'll be back. Lindholm was always questionable.

To me though, the pivot and results matter most. If Conroy is going to be a good GM, it will be because of his eye for talent combined with getting Edwards on board with a rebuild. Because at some point that happened.

[Bingo]

Originally Posted by 1qqaaz

Just looking at this year's deadline, some of the veteran centers had surprisingly good returns (Wennberg and Monahan).

It might be wise to sign a veteran center to a 1 year deal and trade them at the deadline. The center would get minutes while playing on the Flames, but then would also get a chance at the cup.

However, I think development is always more important than pretty much anything. So let the young guys play as well.

Absolutely.

Almost impossible to plan though, you just have to be ready to pounce.

You need that vet center that is all out of options and Calgary just sitting there with cap space and a one year contract offer.

Nobody is rushing to Calgary for a one year deal on day one of free agency.

[Bingo]

The Grassy Knoll Treliving stuff just cracks me up.

[Strange Brew]

If you had told me last summer that trading Toffoli, Zadorov, Lindholm, Tanev and Hanifin and taking on a team’s cap dump for next year netted just two first round picks I would have been disappointed. I would have hoped for 4 or 5. But the mix of young players they received is definitely interesting, one of whom already is going to be a 30 goal scorer this year.

I really don’t think you build a contender through being great at trading your own pending UFA’s. Most teams do this when they’re not very good.

It’s about being committed to drafting and development and being better than other teams at evaluating talent. It already seems like there’s a different approach in this regard, which would be a great thing.

[Bingo]

Originally Posted by PepsiFree

“extremely disturbing”

Who says CP is over the top?

It really just meant his plan isn’t to do a scorched earth rebuild, never has been, never will be, and it’s tough to know how many times that needs to be clear before people stop acting shocked and “disturbed” when that information is reiterated.

Funny when some confuse rudderless with "not exactly how I'd do it"

[activeStick]

Originally Posted by sureLoss

FWIW here is an interesting rumor. Source is a kind of sketchy. IIRC a few years ago he was close to some Islanders players (mainly through gambling).

https://twitter.com/user/status/1766206042113798314

Ruslan Iskhakov
https://www.hockeydb.com/ihdb/stats/...php?pid=213751

Seems like it checks off a lot of boxes for the Flames.



23 years old.

Center.

Decent AHL stats.

Russian.

Seems to be buried by oranizational depth

But he is small 5'8''

Ishakov's SO goal last night

https://twitter.com/user/status/1766667993021296765

[Rick M.]

Originally Posted by Parallex

I think the Flames should 100% commit themselves to moving Mangiapane,
Kuzmenko, and Markstrom at the draft (not at the TDL next year... at the draft).

Markstrom would have to approve the trade.

[GioforPM]

Originally Posted by Jay Random

You can't protect a top-3 pick at all costs. If you protect it one year, it generally rolls over and becomes an unprotected pick the following year. GMs don't like to accept trades involving a pick that is protected more than once, because their careers might be over by the time their team finally receives it.

Look at the Hanifin trade. The 2025 1st was protected, but since the conditions were met, it becomes a 2026 1st – unprotected.

It takes two to tango. In the circumstances, when Treliving was trying to trade a pick that already had conditions on it, there was a limit to how much BS in the way of additional conditions the Habs were willing to accept. I think the trade probably reached that limit exactly, because I've never seen a more complicated one.

It's amazing how many people see "lottery protected" and think a GM has lost a chance at a draft lottery pick. It's always only protected for one draft. And a lottery team in year one is pretty likely to be a lottery team in year two.

[TOfan]

Originally Posted by Lanny_McDonald

I find the organization to be rudderless and have no idea what they are doing, allowing the players to drive direction of the hockey club. Been that way since Treliving arrived and has continued under Conroy. Yes, Conroy dealt his UFAs as he stated, but it was extremely disturbing to hear him say he was trying to sign guys right up until the moment he traded them. That showed no resolve, no plan, and no desire to have control over your players. That was frustrating but explained so much.

‘Extremely disturbing’. Geez, hope you’ve been able to get some sleep these past few nights.

Despite the self assured certainty you project, I suspect you don’t know what you don’t know about how the Calgary Flames, or any other NHL team for that matter, runs itself.

[The Cobra]

Originally Posted by Parallex

I think the Flames should 100% commit themselves to moving Mangiapane,
Kuzmenko, and Markstrom at the draft (not at the TDL next year... at the draft).

I doubt Kuz is movable until the trade deadline due to a large cap hit vs. Production.

While the cap is going up, most teams are still cap strapped. And teams with cap likely aren’t’t interested in trading prospects/picks for a rental.

Marky, of course, is a desired commodity that teams in need will make room for.

[Niemo]

I think that’s the only position we can be in this coming year. The back up for solid players that didn’t get the contract they want to showcase themselves. However, our wings are packed so it’ll be either C or D that would be interested.

[Strange Brew]

Originally Posted by Lanny_McDonald

I find the organization to be rudderless and have no idea what they are doing, allowing the players to drive direction of the hockey club. Been that way since Treliving arrived and has continued under Conroy. Yes, Conroy dealt his UFAs as he stated, but it was extremely disturbing to hear him say he was trying to sign guys right up until the moment he traded them. That showed no resolve, no plan, and no desire to have control over your players. That was frustrating but explained so much.

This is not how I would say it but there is some truth to the notion that the organization only trades players that want out. There have been very very few exceptions to this since Darryl Sutter was GM.

If you buy into the notion that Conroy had a deal for Markstrom and it was nixed by ownership then that gives you an idea from where that philosophy comes.

I don't agree with rudderless exactly. If they make good use of their picks, and hit on the prospects they acquired, then the direction looks good.

[Jiri Hrdina]

Originally Posted by Parallex

I think the Flames should 100% commit themselves to moving Mangiapane,
Kuzmenko, and Markstrom at the draft (not at the TDL next year... at the draft).

Why rush to move Kuzmenko while his value is still low.
Give him offensive opportunities and PP time, and build the value back up. Then you have the option of flipping him for a better return or keeping him around. Still a relatively young guy.

Moving him now isn't great asset management.

[Groot]

Originally Posted by Lanny_McDonald

I find the organization to be rudderless and have no idea what they are doing, allowing the players to drive direction of the hockey club. Been that way since Treliving arrived and has continued under Conroy. Yes, Conroy dealt his UFAs as he stated, but it was extremely disturbing to hear him say he was trying to sign guys right up until the moment he traded them. That showed no resolve, no plan, and no desire to have control over your players. That was frustrating but explained so much.

I think you took one specitc quote to try and justify your constant and unrelenting negativity. Should he have said "I couldn't wait to get rid of these players and wish I could have traded them sooner?" That sure endears him to players and staff around the league.

Also, you conveniently chose to ignore other quotes that don't support your "extremely disturbing" narrative.

Here's Tanev on the trade...

“We had brief talks in training camp and then basically a couple weeks ago I sat down with Connie and said, ‘I want to try to win – this could be my best chance to do it. He was super understanding and would only trade me to a team where they had the potential to win, and I appreciate that

Sure sounds like Conroy was trying to sign him up until the last minute /s

Or Conroy on Lindholm...

“The start of the season wasn’t the way we wanted,” Conroy told The Athletic. “It put us in a hole. We had to battle ourselves back. And then obviously, the four (losses). That was disappointing, and that’s maybe a little bit of what led to this. To be honest, this might have sped up my thought process a little bit.”

“I didn’t have a timeline set, I thought it would be closer to the deadline, but about four days ago Vancouver got aggressive, so I circled back with other teams and told them I was getting pushed and needed a decision."

Again, definitely sounds like he was trying to sign him right up until he was traded /s

Noah Hanifin was one player that most fans would've been happy to re-sign at the right price, And it's pretty well reported how the trade process played out with his agent intervening, which also doesn't scream "tried to sign him right until we traded him".

So basically the entire basis for your disgust is you over-reading into a single quote from Conroy because it helped fuel your rampant negativity and negative outlook.

Conroy and the organization have done EXACTLY what anyone clamoring for a rebuild at the start of the year would have wanted. Trade away all UFA's. Promote young players by the bunch. Acquire solid assets. Stockpile draft picks.

And yet here you are still extremely disturbed by this rudderless franchise.

The problem is you.

[PepsiFree]

Originally Posted by Strange Brew

This is not how I would say it but there is some truth to the notion that the organization only trades players that want out. There have been very very few exceptions to this since Darryl Sutter was GM.

If you buy into the notion that Conroy had a deal for Markstrom and it was nixed by ownership then that gives you an idea from where that philosophy comes.

I don't agree with rudderless exactly. If they make good use of their picks, and hit on the prospects they acquired, then the direction looks good.

Toffoli and Zadorov were exceptions this year. They only “wanted out” when it was clear the Flames would not be re-signing them.

And you can argue that Lindholm, Hanifin, and Tanev are all exceptions as well. People take “we tried to sign them” as evidence that they wanted out, but it’s pretty easy to argue that Conroy set what he thought was a fair contract and was happy to trade them if they wanted more than that.

They’re all situations where you can say they all wanted out, but when you look at why they wanted out, it’s pretty clear that trading them was on the table for the Flames before it got to that point. And Markstrom is a pretty good example of a player that never asked to leave and they still explored trading.

[All In Good Time]

Being flexible and open to all options does not mean rudderless
Yes, I agree that it seems lately the players have been calling the shots but many of them are gone now
As far as being open to all the options, is 2 or 3 years of Tanev more beneficial to a young d-core than a couple of draft picks and a prospect? Or is Hanifin on a decent contract more valuable to this team than picks? I don’t know the answer but it’s worth checking to see if and what they might re-sign for

[Jiri Hrdina]

I think there were valid reasons to sign most of the UFAs. Hanifin is in his prime and still improving in some ways. Tanev, on a 2-3 year deal probably would have been OK.

The only real bullet dodged was Lindholm and it seems like it was a big bullet. Not sure what has happened to that guy.

[GioforPM]

Originally Posted by PepsiFree

Toffoli and Zadorov were exceptions this year. They only “wanted out” when it was clear the Flames would be re-signing them.

And you can argue that Lindholm, Hanifin, and Tanev are all exceptions as well. People take “we tried to sign them” as evidence that they wanted out, but it’s pretty easy to argue that Conroy set what he thought was a fair contract and was happy to trade them if they wanted more than that.

They’re all situations where you can say they all wanted out, but when you look at why they wanted out, it’s pretty clear that trading them was on the table for the Flames before it got to that point. And Markstrom is a pretty good example of a player that never asked to leave and they still explored trading.

I assume this should have been "wouldn't be".

I think with any pending UFA, Conroy would be foolish not to at least have extension discussions. It tells him what they want, it tells other teams that it's not a fire sale, it lets him know what teams would be able to afford an extended player, it hopefully keeps the players motivated.

Just like every pending UFA says (truthfully or not) "sure I would re=sign (at the right price)", Conroy can say to players "we'd extend you (at the right price).

[Roof-Daddy]

"We tried to sign them"

Like others have said, it seems more like Conroy offered them what he thought was fair and if they wouldn't take it then he would trade them, probably the whole time knowing full well they wouldn't take the deals offered.

Hopefully he takes the same approach with Mangiapane, Sharangovich and Kuzmenko as well.

[dissentowner]

Originally Posted by FlamesAddiction

So I guess we really need to make sure the pick is top 10 next year?

People keep saying this like it's the only option. How about instead we finish on top of the division and both Calgary and Florida's picks are late 1sts. I think for the betterment of the long term future you are probably right but this team has shown they are on a playoff pace without that bad start. What if they add a big piece like Reinhart in the offseason and don't move Markstrom but Vladar instead? Too many unknowns for me come this offseason.