Shore on road once again
Nick Shore has been living out of his suitcase for the past two weeks.
So, when the call came on Monday for him to arrange his things to meet the Calgary Flames in Dallas on Tuesday morning, he was, essentially, already packed.
The 25-year-old Denver native had been part of the Feb. 13 trade that saw winger Marian Gaborik and himself head to the Ottawa Senators while defenceman Dion Phaneuf and forward Nate Thompson joined the Los Angeles Kings.
“Oh yeah,” Shore said with a chuckle. “When I was traded to the Senators, we were on the road and I didn’t have any of my stuff. This is a similar situation. There’s a lot that goes into it.”
Like, for example, travel itineraries.
At the time of the trade, the Kings were in Raleigh, N.C., which meant Shore had to board a flight to meet the team in Canada’s capital. The Senators had been on the road, too, losing 6-3 at Pittsburgh.
The road show continued the following week as Ottawa played two games in Nashville and Chicago and, approaching Monday’s trade deadline, they were set to board a flight for Washington.
But after just getting acclimatized to a new team, a new city, and a new dressing room — boom — the news hit and he was bound for Dallas and, coincidentally, back to Denver.
It’ll be a surprise, too, for parents David and Sarah.
“It’s still pretty fresh so I haven’t had a chance to reach out to them yet,” Shore said with a chuckle.
If the name sounds familiar to Flames fans, it should because Shore’s older brother Drew was traded to Calgary on Jan. 9, 2015, in a straight-up deal for Corban Knight.
Drew, 20 months older than Nick, played 13 games for the Flames and another 71 with the team’s American Hockey League affiliate though 2015-16. Nick, meanwhile, was drafted in the third round (82nd overall) by the Los Angeles Kings in the 2011 NHL draft.
He won a Calder Cup with the Manchester Monarchs in 2015 and has played a total of 227 NHL games (14 goals and 36 assists), including six with the Senators.
“My brother had a lot of good things to say about the organization as a whole and living in the city,” Shore said. “Certainly, it’s an exciting and new opportunity for me to be back in the playoff race. You want to try to establish yourself and get in the playoffs and go from there.”
Shore is a restricted free agent at the end of the 2017-18 season, which gives the team some flexibility and a manageable cap hit of $925,000.
“So, he’s not necessarily a pure rental ,” said Flames general manager Brad Treliving, who has scouted the player since his days with the University of Denver. “One of the things we were looking for is a right-shot centre and someone that could handle a defensive role.”
Like Drew, Nick is a right-handed centre which gives the Flames another option down the middle among their bottom six forwards.
“When you look at our centreice position with (Sean) Monahan, (Mikael) Backlund), (Mark) Jankowski and, I also put (Sam) Bennett and (Matt) Stajan and (Curtis) Lazar in there, we’ve got good depth there,” said Treliving who gave up a seventh-round pick in 2019 for Shore.
“He’s had offence in his career,’’ said Treliving. “It hasn’t translated to the NHL. I think there is more talent and skill and ability there that hasn’t translated into the numbers, quite frankly. He’s still a young player in this league.
“We think he can come in and help us.”