GM says Flames `not throwing in the towel'
Treliving's deadline moves more about roster management than surrender
Brad Treliving didn't view himself as either a buyer or a seller at Monday's NHL trade deadline.
That would be oversimplifying things, the Calgary Flames general manager said minutes after the deadline had passed.
Yes, Treliving dealt away two fan favourites in backup goaltender David Rittich and 2014 firstround pick Sam Bennett. And no, he didn't get anyone with NHL experience in return, landing draft picks and a prospect.
On the surface, that definitely looks like Treliving was more seller than buyer, but he insisted the Flames' approach to this year's deadline was more complicated than that.
“I know from a media perspective you want to define it easily as buying or selling,” Treliving said. “Obviously, when you're in a real good playoff spot you usually aren't taking anything off your roster. When you're not in a good playoff spot, you more (often) than not look to see the value of expiring contracts and whether there's interest or what the market will bear.
“The other piece is I think I was on both sides. We looked at acquiring players here today. Not necessarily from a rental basis or an expiring contract basis, but if there were things that could help us now and if there were things with term moving forward, certainly we explored all avenues.”
The reality for the Flames is that they are not in a good position to make the playoffs. Far from it. They're not mathematically eliminated, but heading into Monday night's slate of games, the Flames were six points back of the Montreal Canadiens, who are in the North Division's fourth and final playoff position and had played three fewer games than the Flames prior to their Original Six matchup with the Toronto Maple Leafs.
Given their position, it always was extremely unlikely that Treliving would move future assets for immediate help.
The more common question was whether the Flames might consider moving on from one of their established stars, such as Johnny Gaudreau or Sean Monahan, to fast-track a change in identity or even a mini-rebuild, of sorts. The fact captain Mark Giordano's name was being tossed around in trade rumours speaks to that, as well.
Ultimately, that was not the direction Treliving chose to go.
Instead, he opted to move two players who the team might have lost for nothing after the season.
Treliving revealed he'd spoken with Rittich's agent and had come to understand that the 28-year-old would likely be seeking a new opportunity as a potential unrestricted free agent this summer.
That was always the likely outcome once the Flames signed Jacob Markstrom to be their long-term No. 1 option in net last off-season, and the Flames got a decent return in a third-round pick from the Leafs in exchange for Rittich's services for the rest of the year.
Bennett, meanwhile, is also set to become a restricted free agent at the end of the season and there was a good chance the Flames would have had to leave him unprotected in the upcoming expansion draft as the Seattle Kraken prepare for their inaugural season.
Instead of getting 15 more games out of Bennett before potentially losing him for nothing, the Flames dealt him to the Florida Panthers in exchange for Emil Heineman, the 43rd overall pick in the 2020 NHL Draft. The Flames also received a 2022 second-round draft pick in the deal.
With all that in mind, calling the Flames “sellers” at the trade deadline doesn't tell the whole story. The Flames got assets back for players they might have lost for nothing at season's end. That's not quite the same as gutting the roster and giving up on the current core.
Anyone looking for clues about what Flames management intends to do with the team's most famous and expensive players in the off-season will have to wait.
“I'm not about to do autopsies on the corpse here,” Treliving said. “We've got lots of hockey left to go. Today's a day on the calendar where there's a deadline for transactions up until the season's done. We did things we felt were prudent here today. We felt if we were going to make these moves, these moves weren't going to be available to us beyond today.
“We did that and it doesn't signal anything other than we had some business to get done today and we got it done. We'll deal with the off-season in the off-season. I stress again, we've got 15 games to go here.”
Those 15 games loomed large throughout Treliving's media availability on Monday afternoon. As much as the playoffs are a longshot for this group, everyone on the roster and around the organization has maintained they still believe there's a chance they can qualify. Treliving reiterated that.
The Habs had lost three in a row heading into Monday night, after all, and the Flames get five cracks at them before the end of the season. Catching the Canadiens remains improbable, but it's not impossible.
Given those odds, Treliving didn't go all in and leverage the team's future for rentals who might help the Flames go after a spot in the post-season. But trading Bennett and Rittich shouldn't be interpreted as him giving up on his group, either.
“I've got a job to do to manage the team,” Treliving said.
“I said this earlier in the week, when you're in the position we're in — and none of this should be perceived as us throwing in the towel — we had to make some decisions on players whose contracts were expiring. We had expansion issues.
“We felt we got real good return, but we're not throwing the towel in on the year.”