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The Calgary Flames only made one trade on deadline day, acquiring 27-year-old blueliner Oscar Fantenberg from Los Angeles in exchange for a 4th round pick in 2020.
They reportedly came close to pulling off a much bigger trade, though. No, not for Mark Stone. For Jason Zucker.
Michael Russo of The Athletic provided more details in a recent article:
The Athletic and TSN learned Monday afternoon that Zucker was nearly traded to the Calgary Flames. Sources say it would have been for a package that included veteran Michael Frolik and a draft pick. For some unclear reason as of now, the trade fell through at the very last moments before Monday’s 2 p.m. CT trade deadline.
As much as I like Michael Frolik, and I do feel he's underrated by a lot of people, that sure sounds like a great deal for the Flames.
Even in an at least partly percentage driven down year for Zucker, he'd still be a clear upgrade over Frolik. Evolving-Hockey.com has Zucker worth 5.9 goals above replacement on the year while Frolik is worth 2.7. Factor in the age difference – Zucker is 27, Frolik is 31 – and Zucker is a good bet to be noticeably better moving forward as well.
If all it took was, say, a 2nd round pick to compensate for the difference, I think it'd be a steal for Calgary. You could even justify a future 1st, although I'm not sure that would have been necessary.
Whatever the case, I'm most interested to see whether something ends up coming from this down the road. Personally, I'm not overly optimistic.
For one, the stretch run gives Zucker more time to positively regress (like we've seen with Nino Niederreiter in Carolina), which could make the Wild less interested in dealing him. Another potential issue: there will be more suitors for a player like Zucker in the summer.
New Jersey, for example, really needs scoring. They had the cap space and futures to make something work now, but that kind of deal wouldn't interest the Wild in the midst of a playoff push. It could in June.
Cap-strapped teams that could use Zucker – Edmonton, for example – will have ample time in the summer to make something work and figure out the financials later.
I've learned never to say never but I think the Zucker-for-Frolik+ ship has probably sailed. And that's unfortunate for the Flames.
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