The Fourth Period: David Pagnotta on the Calgary Flames and what direction they may be headed after they weren’t able to keep up their strong start to the season.
** NHLRumors.com transcription
Kate Pettersen: “… but lots to talk about around the league. Let’s start in the West, and let’s start with Calgary.
I’m going to say it gently, they’ve been exceeding expectations, but they are sort of sliding back into reality in terms of where we thought that they would be this season. They’re on the outside looking in, but they’ve got some pieces to move. Some guys with term on their contract if they decide to sell at some point, maybe later in the season. What could we be looking at there?
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Pagnotta: “Yeah, you’re right. They’ve come back down to earth, so to speak, and now Craig Conroy, their GM, has to navigate the trade waters with respect to what direction he wants to go in.
They’ve got some pieces on expiring deals, Andre Kuzmenko’s kind of leading that charge up front. You’ve got Dan Vladar in goal, also on an expiring deal. Those are going to be two guys that are going to get talked about as the season moves along closer to the March 7 trade deadline.
But they have other pieces that have been making headlines for one way or another. That were available in the summer that teams are going to start to circle back on or the Flames are going to start to explore as well.
You’ve got Nazim Kadri at the center position up front, you got Rasmus Andersson on that back end, will continue to draw significant interest from Calgary. He’s got another year on his contract. He’s got a little bit of protection, but he’s a coveted asset for teams looking to shore up their blue line, especially in the top four, now and next season, not exclusive to a run this year because of the extra year on his contract.
So I, and I believe at least in the summer, he was open to a change of scenery. Wanted to seem and the Flames wanted to see how they would do this year. So something to look at from Calgary’s perspective. Not going to be exclusive to guys on expiring deals.
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I think Craig Conroy is open to making additional moves, plus he also wants to kind of buy, they’re going through their retool right now, and if they can find a center, a young center in his mid-20s, that’s going to be a piece that that he would like to add. That might be more achievable in the summer.
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