Flames didn’t get much in return

The Flames ended up with most of what they wanted, cashing out their blue-chip trade pieces, including forward Elias Lindholm (Canucks) and defensemen Chris Tanev (Stars) and Noah Hanifin (Golden Knights).

That mega-talent drain left Flames GM Craig Conroy with one legit, plugand-play NHLer in Andrei Kuzmenko, along with a ready-but-aged prospect in defenseman Daniil Miromanov and a smattering of draft picks, including a pair of first-rounders.

To sum up the return: meh.

But such is the mixed bag of going to market with players just weeks before they are eligible for unrestricted free agency on July 1. Granted, it’s armchair GM-ing at its finest, but that kind of return for three top-notch veterans does not play to the long-existing narrative that deadline dealing yields the best returns. Better to get to market sooner rather than later, and bid up the market when the supply side is weak and the gemstones shinier.

For the quality, longevity, and experience of the three parts leaving Calgary, including the 1,097 regular-season games they logged with the Flames, there wasn’t much pop in the return.

Your faithful puck chronicler reserves the right for a big ol’ mea culpa if one or both of the first-rounders (via Vancouver and Vegas) delivers an elite prospect to the Flames. That’s always the hope, of course, but hope is rarely reality. Unless something really goes awry in Vancouver or Vegas, Calgary’s picks portend to be, at best, middle first-rounders (12-20), but more likely toward the back end (25-32).

When the dealing was done, Conroy told the Calgary media he went to market insisting that a first-rounder be part of a Hanifin swap.

If the Bruins were among those with sincere interest, GM Don Sweeney would have had to consider giving up his first pick in 2025, potentially leaving the Bruins without a name to call in Round 1 for a fourth consecutive year. Not good business. Hanifin is a solid defenseman with size (6-3, 207) and elite wheels, but Repetitive First-Round Surrender Syndrome can be a GM killer.

Meanwhile, Calgarians don’t have to be told their favorite hockey team is officially in heavy reconstruction mode. Conroy, with less than a year in the GM’s chair, is charged with the renovation, a job made all the harder because of the high price and low performance of franchise center Jonathan Huberdeau.

Huberdeau was the prized piece then-GM Brad Treliving received when Matthew Tkachuk forced his trade to Florida (July 2022). The left-shot pivot then soon signed a whopping eightyear, $84 million extension. He has since been a crushing disappointment, and his $10.5 million AAV now a huge impediment to the makeover process.