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With the Calgary Flames all but officially eliminated from playoff contention, many – GM Brad Treliving included – are looking ahead to the off-season.
There are plenty of items on his to-do list. Among them, apparently, is to try and trade back into the 1st round.
This from Elliotte Friedman's latest 30 Thoughts column.
12. Word out of the GM meetings is Calgary GM Brad Treliving will look to add a first-round pick in this year’s draft. The Flames traded their 2018 selection to the Islanders in the Travis Hamonic deal, and will try to replace it. That would likely mean a major move, but the way this season is ending necessitates something big.
I'll go more in-depth on these kinds of things when the regular season concludes, and Flames hockey is over until the fall, but for now I have a few thoughts:
1) The Flames traded high-end futures for Travis Hamonic with the intention of contending sooner than later. They're clearly not as far along as they hoped but trading a quality piece – likely from their roster – for picks would only widen the gap. I'm not sure that makes sense given their captain, and ice time leader, is 34 and their starting goaltender is 35. You'd think they'd be trying to find a way to add to the supporting cast, not subtract.
2) Draft picks are always overvalued closer to the draft so the Flames will have to be careful here. All year long you hear 'this crop isn't great' and then come June you're still paying premiums to move up.
3) By my count, the Flames have seven roster players that would be able to fetch a quality 1st round pick without anything else being added: Sean Monahan, Johnny Gaudreau, Matthew Tkachuk, Mikael Backlund, Mark Giordano, Dougie Hamilton and T.J. Brodie. (I think Sam Bennett and Travis Hamonic could be thrown into the mix if we're talking about a pick later in the round.)
Monahan isn't going anywhere. Gaudreau isn't going anywhere. Tkachuk isn't going anywhere. Backlund just re-signed and isn't going anywhere. Giordano is the captain and isn't going anywhere.
I think it's within the realm of possibility they listen on Hamilton, although I certainly wouldn't. If they really want to move up the guy I'm looking at is T.J. Brodie.
He's not having his best season. I don't think anybody would argue otherwise. Still, he's averaged close to 24 minutes per game and is on pace for almost 40 points. If that's a down year, that will attract a lot of teams – especially given he's signed for two more seasons at $4.65 million.
If there's a "major move" to shake things up and bring in a meaningful return, Brodie being involved would make a lot of sense – be it for a high draft pick, quality forward, or anything else Treliving deems a need.
It'll be interesting to see which path Treliving elects to take here. Regardless, the off-season figures to be much more entertaining than the 2nd half of the season has been.
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