On the Calgary Flames, Johnny Gaudreau, Sam Bennett and Mikael Backlund …
Chris Nichols FanRag Sports: Flames GM Brad Treliving was on Sportsnet 960 and was asked about Johnny Gaudreau’s “Yeah, it’d be sweet,” comments about playing for the Philadelphia Flyers someday.
“This does not concern me at all. I think in some ways he’s having an interview in his hometown. And I think anybody when you talk about your hometown, there’s two ways to answer the question. There’s the way of saying, ‘Absolutely hell no do I ever want to be there,’ or I think a general response that Johnny gave was probably the correct one and probably the popular one that you, I, or anybody would respond to.”
Treliving on Flames restricted free agent Sam Bennett and how contract talks are going.
“No update on Sam,” said Treliving, who continues to maintain that it’s better not to negotiate through the media. “We continue to work at it. We’ll see. Those are interesting. If you look back here in the history – not just with our team, but really throughout the league of some of those players coming out of their entry-level contracts – history has shown that they tend to take a little bit of time.
“So we’ll keep working away at that. We’ve still got some time here before training camp. But I have every belief that we’ll get to a good conclusion and we look forward to getting that one done.”
Mikael Backlund has a year left on his deal and would be an unrestricted free agent after next season. He is eligible to a sign an extension at any time now.
“I would say at the sake of breaking my rule of not negotiating contracts publicly… that’s an area that we have had an initial conversation,” revealed the general manager. “I think on both sides right now both sides have got work to do in terms of just really scheduling the different types of businesses going on right now.”
Treliving adds that it’s not unrealistic that they have some talks in the next few weeks and they will see what it would take to get him locked up.