Flames Will Look To Move Veteran And Add Young NHL Caliber Players
Fourth Period’s Dave Pagnotta joined the Sirius XM NHL Network Radio Power Play with Steve Kouleas and Jason Strudwick on Wednesday. There, he was asked about the Calgary Flames’ draft, as they have eight picks in the first three rounds. Are they continuing to rebuild, or are they trying to add to become competitive again?
Writing for NHLRumors.com
The Calgary Flames Coaching Search and Rebuild Will Continue
Jason Strudwich: “Calgary Flames fans had a lot of picks. I think they have eight picks in the first three rounds this year, and they’re not the first team to rebuild to have it. But you think maybe they’re changing and being aggressive now to add players to someone else’s line, you know, the current players of those picks, and improve the draft by building the quo.”
Dave Pagnotta: “Yeah, they’re tied for that, and they’re a team that at least initially wanted to move up from sixth. I don’t know if that’s really going to happen, but they got eight picks in the first three rounds. They got four second-round picks this year that I’m sure will bring NHL-caliber players to go.
But the young ones, like this is not the situation where they are, of course, they will rebuild, but they have a lot of money, as you say, and if there is an opportunity to go out, 1,2,3 of those picks, and bring young, 20-year-old NHL players who are at risk of becoming, I believe that now they will look for something.
NHL Rumors: What’s Calgary Flames Timeline To Be Competitive?
Besides, they have many players willing to leave, including Blake Coleman and Morgan Frost. Both are entering the final year of their contracts, and will be UFAs later. So don’t be surprised, not only Blake Coleman, we know about Coleman’s ties with Dallas and a few others, and I think before the trade deadline there was something with Dallas. If they had released a player, I believe Ilya Lyubushkin would have made the money work in another deal. It didn’t happen.
He stayed in Calgary, so I wouldn’t be surprised if they re-evaluate that now, because Lyubushkin is available again, but other than that, there will be more interest in Coleman. It will be of interest to Morgan Frost. There are other players who are willing to listen to them as well, up and down this list, we will see what other work they do.
But when they take away some of the choices and whatnot, they’re not just trying to bring back more prospects and things like that. If they can get young NHL players, 20 year olds, that seems to be the goal. “
NHLRumors.com note: GM Craig Conroy’s goal is to get this team competitive before the new Scotia Place opens in Calgary. They have traded many assets over the years, including Rasmus Andersson, Nazem Kadri, Noah Hanifin, Nikita Zadorov, and Elias Lindholm, to name a few.
NHL Rumors: How Will the Calgary Flames Do?
There were two types of times when Conroy decided to acquire assets by returning his top players. Now the Flames need to start doing what the Montreal Canadiens did and take a chance on one or two players. They need NHL-caliber difference makers in Calgary. The Flames don’t have that. But they are building a good thing in Calgary.
The goal is long-term success in Calgary, not making the playoffs one year and missing the next. However, expect Blake Coleman to take off this offseason.
We had to restart our X account. Please follow @MyNHLRumorsX
Have you subscribed to our YouTube channel? Rumors and hot topics from around the league. We also post some stuff on Instagram.
If you like our reporting, choose NHLrumors.com as a favorite source on Google.
