TRELIVING LIKELY HAS HIS PHONE CLOSE AT HAND
Hoffman deal could be the first of many this week with NHL draft approaching
If his fiancée wasn’t on Twitter, Mike Hoffman would have been the type of player the Calgary Flames are looking for this week.
A perennial 30-goal threat with two years left on a contract paying him US$5.1875 million annually, Hoffman could have filled a gap up front the Flames are so desperately hoping to address.
Alas, on a team emphasizing character above all else when acquiring players, Flames GM Brad Treliving obviously took a pass on what became a relative garage sale for the 28-year-old Senators castoff.
Ideally, the sniper Treliving hopes to land will be right-handed anyway and won’t have a fiancée who is an alleged cyberbully.
The hope for Flames fans now is that Hoffman being traded twice Tuesday will get the ball rolling on a swap market expected to be quite busy any day now.
After all, the Alex GalchenyukMax Domi swap over the weekend did nothing to spur trade activity leaguewide.
“There can be a domino effect, but not with that deal,” said Treliving.
“Traditionally when one deal happens, it moves the needle a bit. There are some bigger names people are waiting to see what happens to. Everybody is together this week and everybody is trying to see if they can make themselves better.”
Will the Flames be one of those teams — or will they be wallflowers — showing up late Saturday to make a few picks before hitting the lobby bar for more trade banter?
“I don’t know — I can’t predict,” said Treliving when asked if he’d leave Dallas with some new roster players.
“You can’t just do something for the sake of doing it. It needs to fit. If we don’t, then we keep working. We don’t play until October. Once the draft is over, it doesn’t mean stuff is going to end.
“The goal is not to come here and create a headline. In the past, it was to fill specific holes, which we think we did.”
Trading is really the only way the Flames can effect any change to their roster this week.
With no draft picks until the fourth round and only four in total, Treliving is armed with little to offer anyone unless he starts offering up roster players like Sam Bennett, Dougie Hamilton or TJ Brodie.
To this point in his four-year stint in Calgary, Treliving has made most of his big moves at the draft. He acquired Hamilton three years ago followed by Travis Hamonic and Mike Smith in separate deals last June.
The ammunition he used in those deals revolved around high draft picks — something he can’t throw around this year.
Thus, the notion the Flames can afford to trade a high-end defenceman to land a top-six forward.
After all, several of the Flames’ top prospects are blue-liners, including Rasmus Andersson and last year’s first-rounder Juuso Valimaki.
Treliving has paid lip service to the outside chance of trying to acquire a first-rounder, which is not going to happen. The more pressing need is finding someone who can be a difference maker now for the Flames.
“We’ve got some areas and ideas of things we want to do and if it takes longer, it takes longer — we’re not going to panic,” said Treliving of the process of trying to find a trade partner for a deal that makes sense.
“We can’t force something that’s not there.”
You can bet the Flames will kick plenty of free-agent tires leading up to July 1 as the freefor-all represents one of the only other ways the club can make an immediate impact on a roster taken over by coach Bill Peters this fall.
The Flames will be careful not to spend too much of their $12 million in cap space as Matthew Tkachuk needs a new deal a year from now.
Treliving won’t say if his hotshot right-winger will be presented with an offer on Canada Day, the earliest he can do so.
“He’s still got a year left on his contract, so the urgency isn’t there, but it’s certainly on the todo list,” said Treliving, who will have to pay upward of $5 million a year to sign Tkachuk.
“He’s an important guy and he’s a key member of our core moving forward.”
Traditionally when one deal happens, it moves the needle a bit. there are some bigger names people are waiting to see what happens to.