Prout an insurance policy for the Flames
GM Treliving likes blue-liner’s stock
Around these parts, this counts as quite a compliment.
No doubt aware some armchair general managers would be puzzled that defenceman Dalton Prout was able to command a oneway contract, Calgary Flames boss Brad Treliving referenced another Canada Day eyebrow-raiser.
“I’m not a big fan of doing comparables, but it was four years ago that we brought in Deryk Engelland,” Treliving said. “A lot of people didn’t know about Deryk Engelland, but I think Deryk has gone on and had a number of good years. I think Dalton is trying to get that same type of traction in his game.”
Between pancakes, Budweisers and other Calgary Stampede delicacies, hockey fans are still buzzing about Treliving ’s off-season overhaul, including that blockbuster swap with the Carolina Hurricanes on the draft floor and the signings of free agent forwards James Neal, Derek Ryan and Austin Czarnik.
With all the additions up front, there hasn’t been much of any talk about Prout, the likely frontrunner to open the season as the Flames’ seventh defenceman.
The 28-year-old toughie was acquired midway through last winter, arriving from New Jersey in a trade for goaltender Eddie Lack. A big dude at 6-foot-3 and 230 pounds, he would spend the rest of the campaign with the American Hockey League’s Stockton Heat, contributing two goals and seven assists in 34 contests with the farm team and earning rave reviews from the coaching staff.
Prout’s one-way deal doesn’t guarantee he has seen the last of Stockton — only that he’ll collect his full US$800,000 wage even if he’s toiling in the minors — but the hard-nosed left-hander from LaSalle, Ont., is planning to spend this upcoming winter inside the Saddledome.
Calgary’s defence crew features captain Mark Giordano and his old/new partner T.J. Brodie, plus newcomer Noah Hanifin and returnees Travis Hamonic, Brett Kulak and Michael Stone.
Rasmus Andersson and Juuso Valimaki will push to complicate matters at training camp. Thing is, it wouldn’t make much sense for either of the youngsters — the right-handed Andersson is 21, while Valimaki is only 19 and fires from the opposite side — to be watching from the press box as the spare part.
Prout is a better fit in that role. The beefy blue-liner is no stranger to NHL action, with 242 outings on his resume.
“(The Flames) were very clear, through negotiations, that I’d be a depth defenceman for them,” Prout said. “But at the end of the day, it’s up to me — just like anyone else — how much you’re going to play. You dictate your own path, your own ice time.
“The organization, sitting down in the summer, they do their job trying to pencil people in where they think they’re going to fit in and try to forecast as far as the salary cap and try to project players. But for me, it’s about taking advantage of the opportunity.”