The Calgary Flames stand six points ahead of San Jose in the race for the top seed in the Western Conference. Fortunately, Calgary avoiding the injury bug has proven to be significant. Michael Stone is the only current player out due to a blood clot.
GM Brad Treliving deals from a position of strength this trade deadline. Calgary will make the playoffs. It remains a question of how far they can go into them.
Calgary sees themselves as buyers but how aggressive will they be? The playoffs are close enough but are the pieces there to make a run? The problem is this team does need to cover some defensive gaps and some middle six scoring punch.
The Calgary Flames,the Salary Cap, and Juuso Valimaki
At some point, the general manager faces the specter of the salary cap. Calgary remains under the salary cap by about $1.779 million. Now come the deadline, those dollars translate to approximately $8.27 million. So the dilemma is not much of one.
The Calgary Flames can mitigate that further by placing Stone on the long-term injured list. That frees up even more money to acquire talent.
In the meantime, Brad Treliving deciding on future success or success now is legitimate. Calgary winning now is possible. The pieces are there and the talent on offense rivals Tampa Bay (2nd overall in scoring). It becomes a question of patching holes at this point. The key will be Juuso Valimaki. If his return makes an impact, Treliving does not have as much to do as far as making moves.
Who could come and go? Let’s take a peak.
Calgary Flames’ Pieces To Target
Jake Muzzin — The defenseman comes at a reasonable price as far as cap hit ($4 million). One snag plays out as far as the contract. Muzzin still has one more full year left on his deal. Also, the trade commodity would cost in the form of assets (first round pick potentially and prospect). If the price comes down a bit, Calgary could jump but the urgency is not an emergency.
Niklas Hjalmarsson — Hjalmarsson would be a defensive upgrade for his ability to play within himself alone. His relative possession compared to the team is +2.6% at even strength, and this is despite a defensive deployment of over 64%. There are a few snags in a trade. His cap hit is $4.1 million over the next few seasons (not just one year). Furthermore, the Arizona Coyotes defenseman submits a ten team list of teams he desires to go to. Finally, there is the cost of trading within a division. That likely drives up the asking price a little bit.
A couple of cheaper targets
Anthony DeAngelo — DeAngelo appears out of New York in a New York minute come the trade deadline. On a porous New York Rangers squad, his metrics are +3% compared to team relatives. His ice time is sheltered at around 18 1/2 to 19 minutes — that is up two minutes from last year. The problem is he has only played in 31 games. He has been healthy scratched often. The 23-year-old defenseman could be acquired for a very reasonable draft pick or low ranking prospect.
Jordan Oesterle — Oesterle presents as a cheap move made closer to the trade deadline. The defenseman has been serviceable for the Arizona Coyotes. The asking price for Oesterle would likely be a late round draft pick. The nice part is the rental could be brought back for cheap next season as well if he impresses.
It appears at this point Arizona is selling more than buying. Making lateral moves would not be a big shock.
Some Final Words From Brad Treliving
Kristen Anderson of the Calgary Sun: What Brad Treliving mentioned from last year’s deadline could be an inkling of what happens this trade deadline.
“Every deadline there is lots of activity and you wonder how much productivity you’re going to get into,” the team’s general manager was saying, following a somewhat slow day at the Scotiabank Saddledome. “We came in with a certain list of wants that we could address. We looked at a lot of different things and had a lot of conversations. These were the things we were able to do, at prices we felt made sense.”
Again, the Calgary Flames possess options and have higher aspirations than in years past. Does that spur the general manager to do something he normally wouldn’t?