The Calgary Flames are off to a 1-6-1 start … When do they start looking to move some assets?
TSN: Chris Johnston and Darren Dreger on the slow start by the Calgary Flames and if it’s too early to start trading assets.
** NHLRumors.com transcription
Kevin Hayes: “When does Calgary realize, well, like they’re (1-6-1). They’re getting shelled.”
Jeff O’Neil: “Like shellacked.”
Hayes: “Like shellacked. At what point, like, last year was a magical year. They had a great start. (Ryan) Huska did a great job. (Dustin) Wolf was phenomenal. They got the new building in a couple of years. Like, at what point do they realize they have to do some serious, serious, you know, reworking of their roster? And at what point does that happen? And how reasonable is it to move off guys who are, you know, in their 30s and have a lot of turn left on their deals?”
Johnston: “Yeah, I mean, it’s, it’s going to be one of those ones I think is a real interesting one to watch this season. My sense of Calgary, guys, is that they, internally, have been pretty, and what’s the best word? I think they’ve been pretty realistic about what this season could be there.
You know, even the fact that they’ve had this Rasmus Anderson situation kind of hovered over, you know, September leading into the season. You know, his camp had shown an interest in potentially, you know, trying to get back to the table if there was an eight-year deal there for him or something like that. And, you know, they rightfully kind of like, yeah, we’re not sure about that. I think that they wanted to see this season play out.
And so it’s not to say that they were expecting to be bad, but I do think that they kind of understood how much went, you know, went right last year to get them where they were, you know, basically a tie breaker away from making the playoffs. And that it wasn’t guaranteed to go right again.
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And so I do think there’s a bit of a bigger picture plan in place there. And as a result of that, you know, you’re not blowing it up after seven games. But I think that they could be one of the teams if we look for, when does the, when does the sort of trade freeze, and it’s an official trade freeze in league rules, but when does it thaw?
You know, maybe it’s a team like Calgary that could be one of the ones that’s out there, you know, stirring that up at a certain point. Probably wouldn’t be before November. But, you know, I think that, I think that they, they weren’t expecting necessarily, internally, I know the players were talking about making the playoffs, but I think that at the management level, they’ve had pretty realistic expectations. And obviously, it’s been a really tough goal here in the first few weeks.”
Hayes: “Yeah, well, and you got, you know, like, what do you do with (Jonathan) Huberdeau? There’s nothing you can do with Huberdeau.”
Jonas Siegel: “(Nazem) Kadri.”
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Hayes: “Kadri’s a different story. Like, what would be the market for a guy like Kadri?”
Dreger: “Pretty solid. I mean, again, with a change to the CBA and whatnot, more than ever, it’s going to be dollar in, dollar out. So how do you make the pieces fit?
You know, if you’re Calgary, if you’re trading players like that, to take a bigger look and a harder bite that just go, we’re going to the woods. You know, we’re going to move Rasmus. If you’re moving Kadri, if you can find it, take it for. I’m with CJ. I don’t feel, like it’s way too early to say they’re there yet, but what they’ve got going out of the gate, obviously isn’t working.”
Hayes: “That’s it. Like (16-1) and the roster is the roster.”
Dreger: “Yeah.”
Hayes: “Like, it’s not, if this was Colorado that started this way, you think they’ll find a way out of it. Edmonton has done it before. That’s not happening.”
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