Elliotte Friedman dropped a bit of a bomb on the Jeff Marek Morning Show today.
It will be a bit before we can get the exact wording as it was live and it hits podcast form in a few hours.
Essentially Friedman pointed out that the Flames are trending towards doing moves that they weren’t going to do at the beginning of the season. He mentioned the UFA class of Toffoli, Tanev, Backlund, and Lindholm as options.
Wow.
It makes sense. Today we woke up to Pierre LeBrun saying that the Oilers have pivoted to Matthias Ekholm as a target. The ask from the Predators starts with two first-round picks.
This trade deadline just got a whole lot more exciting.
Consider this.
This season Blackhawks general manager Kyle Davidson has traded Riley Stillman, Sam Lafferty, Jack Johnson, Jake McCabe and taken on the Nikita Zaitsev contract.
For that, he’s gotten Jason Dickenson, a 2025 first-round pick, three second-round picks spanning the next two drafts and a fourth-round pick. Lafferty is the only player that you would even want to see on the Flames.
Tomorrow we’ll dig into some potential offers. Today we have a game to preview.
That’s right, the Flames play the 1st place Bruins tonight in what may be a final opportunity to watch one of the aforementioned core players in a Flames jersey.
The Bruins come into the match on the tail end of an Alberta back-to-back. They won 3-2 over the Oilers in Edmonton last night. Boston has won seven straight games. On Saturday, they not only rolled the Canucks — Bruins goalie Linus Ulmark scored a goal on the empty net.
Should be a big challenge for a Flames team whose only consistency this season is remaining inconsistent.
Breaking Coverage It was fairly humbling watching the Avalanche flex their speed on the Flames last Saturday. While some rough performances from a few select players underlined the loss (see: Zadorov), the two teams simply seemed divisions apart.
Boston is more structured than they are fast, but their pace with the puck has gone unrivalled this season. The Flames will have to play a patient game until they find a seam in the transition play if they are to secure two points on the night.
Familiarity Daniel Vladar will be starting tonight. The now 25-year-old was acquired on July 28, 2021, for a third-round pick in the 2022 NHL Entry Draft.
Vladar has a bit of a book on some of the Boston regulars. He’s only played them once but held the Bruins to just two goals. Sadly, a .926 save percentage wasn’t enough to secure a victory as the Bruins took the game 2-1 earlier this season. It was the seventh consecutive loss for the Flames spanning from October 29 to November 10.
Calgary Flames Projected Lineup Courtesy of Pat Steinberg. @Fan960Steinberg
Dube-Lindholm-Toffoli Pelletier-Kadri-Huberdeau Mangiapane-Backlund-Coleman Lucic-Lewis-Duehr Weegar-Andersson Hanifin-Tanev Zadorov-Gilbert
Vladar Markstrom
Boston Bruins Projected Lineup Courtesy of dailyfaceoff.com.
Marchand – Bergeron – DeBrusk Zacha – Krejci – Pastrnak Foligno – Coyle – Frederic Greer – Nosek – Hathaway
Orlov – McAvoy Lindholm – Carlo Forbort – Clifton
Ullmark Swayman
New Guys Recent additions Dmitry Orlov and Garnet Hathaway appear to have meshed. They required one pointless game against Vancouver before putting up a combined three points against Edmonton.
The Bruins paid a heavy price for the two pending UFAs. Right winger Craig Smith, Boston’s first-round pick in 2023, Boston’s third-round pick in 2024, and Boston’s second-round pick in 2025. Orlov immediately slots into the first pairing.
Game time is 7:00 pm MST. Catch the broadcast on Sportsnet West, Sportsnet One, NESN and TVAS.
Trevor Neufeld
@Trevor_Neufeld
Stats via naturalstattrick.com, capfriendly.com, and nhl.com.