The March 7, 2025 NHL Trade Deadline looms and the future of the Calgary Flames stands on the edge of a knife.
Stray but a little, and it will fail, to the ruin of all.
If you consider staying in the playoff race beneficial for the Flames in the long term, the Vancouver Canucks have certainly helped General Manager Craig Conroy justify sticking with it. Vancouver has gone 1-4-0 in their last five, allowing the Flames and their meagre 2-2-1 record in the same amount of games to maintain a feeble tie-breaker hold on the final Western Conference Wildcard spot.
Lord of the Rings references out of the way, today we’ll be looking at acquisitions and divestitures. Five potential deals that would change the Calgary Flames viewing experience.
Brand Recognition
The Flames fourth line has been a point of contention over 60 games. Center Kevin Rooney has found himself a pariah at times in social media. Running a -6 even strength goal differential at five on five and playing a major role on Calgary’s 27th place 73.9% penalty kill while averaging only 9:28 a game has provided ample ammo for criticism.
We’re not here to rip on Rooney, but it’s fair to say that the fourth line is a bit of a work in progress.
What if the Flames were to run a line of Ryan Lomberg, Martin Pospisil and, say, Brandon Tanev?
To Calgary
F Brandon Tanev
To Seattle
Second round draft pick in 2025 (Colorado)
Edmonton and Boston provided a solid precedent for acquiring depth muscle on Tuesday morning when the Oilers acquired bruiser Trent Frederic for a 2025 second round pick and a 2026 fourth round pick, several minor leaguers were also involved but we won't waste your time listing out names.
Tanev is certainly not the six-foot-five Frederic, but provides a wealth of energy to the lineup. More importantly, he adds a much needed speed element that Calgary is desperately missing.
The Flames, a team that has pivoted into a dump-and-chase puck recovery offence, are extremely shallow in forecheckers that can recover the puck. It's also notable that the Flames pursued a trade for Brandon during the time that his brother Chris patrolled Calgary's blue line.
[Treliving’s Flames Allegedly Almost United the Tanev Brothers]
Bonus points if they can bulk up their return to get Yanni Gourde thrown in. Blake Coleman’s former line mate for two successful Stanley Cup runs would add fierce competition to the forward ranks. Slotting Gourde in on the left side of Backlund and Coleman would make for a formidable, complete shutdown line.
Gourde and Tanev, both 33, are pending UFAs, but could be resigned at reasonable numbers if they fit. Gourde would need to return from LTIR before the deadline, so his addition may be a stretch.
What if the Flames go the
other way?
Getting Younger
Most realists will insist that this isn’t the Flames’ year.
The aforementioned 73.9% penalty kill will bury the Flames in the later rounds even if they managed to get past first-place Winnipeg in round one. Edmonton beat LA, Vancouver and Dallas on the power play. There is little to no chance that Calgary musters a 4v5 defence good enough to win a seven game series with such a glaring weakness to their game.
So, why not address a team weakness and get faster in the process?
To Calgary
C Casey Mittelstadt
To Colorado
C Nazem Kadri - $2,000,000 retained for four seasons.
The fact of the matter is that Nazem Kadri is a better asset in the playoffs than the Minnesota born Casey Mittelstadt.
The 34-year-old Flames center plays an aggressive style and feeds off the emotion of high-stakes games. Former General Manager and current President of Hockey Operations, Joe Sakic, wanted to keep Kadri in the fold, but couldn’t meet the $7,000,000 annual salary that former Flames General Manager Brad Treliving signed Kadri to on August 18, 2022.
Mittelstadt, 28, has ten goals and 23 assists for 33 points in 61 games in a second line center role with the Avalanche in 2024-2025.
Kadri, a Libra, certainly has better stats this season, with 21 goals and 23 assists for 44 points in 60 games, but plays first line, first power play; first everything but penalty kill in Calgary.
Would this deal make Calgary a better team? Not likely. They would get faster, but Mittelstadt isn’t a first line center. He gets pushed off pucks frequently.
More importantly, Casey is signed for three more years at $5,750,000. The Flames can buy that out, trade it with retention, there is no NMC attached to his contract; all factors that the Flames can use when pivoting towards a harder rebuild season in 2025-2026.
The hard truth is that signing Kadri isn’t Conroy’s work.
The Flames exec inherited two albatross contracts in Kadri and Jonathan Huberdeau. The two are a combined -26 and soak up the majority of power play and offensive zone deployments on the worst offence in the NHL at 2.53.
Technically, they’re tied with Nashville at that number, but tied for last sounds so much less dramatic.
Tik Tok Supremacy
Apologies. That last one got spicy. The pan will need to soak.
How about the Flames craft their
own early career revival? They haven’t done it since Noah Hanifin and Elias Lindholm came over to Calgary from Carolina.
Wow, yeah, the room is pretty quiet—LETS MAKE IT A BLOCKBUSTER.
To Calgary
C Trevor Zegras
To Anaheim
First round draft pick in 2026 (Las Vegas)
D Hunter Brzustewicz
The problem with designing a potential trade for the 23 year old Zegras is that precedent is lacking. The deal would have to be deemed worth it for the Ducks, but it appears that Trevor isn’t loving his time under the old school Greg Cronin.
Also of concern is Zegras’ injury history. He’s missed 76 of 141 games in the last two seasons. His points per game have been a little below half a point per game at 31 points in 65 games between this season and last.
The season prior to that? Zegras had 23 goals and 42 assists for 65 points in 81 games as a 21 year old. He made the cover of NHL of EA’s NHL 23. He was a star in the making with intangible market traction among the younger side of the fanbase; Gen Z.
The Vegas first round pick may be the crown jewel of Conroy’s re-tool. The Golden Knights could go on a deep run and find themselves crippled with injuries next year. The fact that the pick has no lottery protection makes it even more enticing. Anaheim may be more interested in roster players, but that may be the best deal they get offered for what many consider damaged goods.
Sutter’s Dream Defenceman
We end this with a simple one, albeit a trade happening maybe three years too late.
To Calgary
D Carson Soucy
To Vancouver
Third round pick in 2025
The Flames blue line is lacking in muscle. Carson Soucy, for all of his blemishes, makes forwards pay for being around him.
Dustin Wolf may cause a nightmare or two, but his team simply isn’t one that opposing players lose sleep about playing against. Florida, Tampa Bay and Carolina beat Calgary on autopilot.
Hailing from Darryl Sutter’s Viking, Alberta, Soucy would be provided with greater opportunity in Calgary.
Carson, a lefty, would form a brutal and unforgiving tandem with the right-handed Brayden Pachal.
"Just an Alberta and a Saskatchewan boy making sure that the opposing top-six knows that there are consequences to their actions."
We can dream, Hank.
Be sure to check the comments for game day lineups and notes of interest this week. We’ll be switching to a more trade-centric format up until the NHL Trade Deadline.
Calgary Flames Blogger • 
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