The Calgary Flames have pulled off a massive trade, moving Elias Lindholm with no salary retained for five assets. The assets were a first-round pick, a conditional fourth-round pick, NHLer Andrei Kuzmenko, and prospects Hunter Brzustewicz and Joni Jurmo.
It’s hard to think of a trade that has so much upside for the Calgary Flames in recent memory. Not only did they get a roster player with high potential, they also got back two prospects who fill numerous organizational gaps, plus two draft picks. Let’s break it down:
Andrei Kuzmenko
An undrafted forward, Kuzmenko was signed out of the KHL by the Vancouver Canucks in 2022 following a 20-goal, 53-point season in the KHL. He finished the season second in points in the entire league and was one of the most intriguing free agents available at the time.
After signing with the Canucks, Kuzmenko would have a massive first NHL season, putting up 39 goals and 74 points in 81 appearances. This was good for fourth on the team in points and a tie for the team lead in goals with Elias Pettersson.
However, this season has been a major step back for the Russian. He was scratched multiple times and saw his ice time drop dramatically. As a result, he has just 21 points in 43 games, good for ninth on the team in scoring. Yikes!
It seems as though Kuzmenko and head coach Rick Tocchet did not see eye to eye. The forward saw his ice time decrease, and it seemed as though his confidence dropped with it. He was simply not the same player he was last season. Take a look at his numbers from Evolving Hockey here:
The other challenge for Kuzmenko is that he was shooting a ridiculous 27% last season, which was simply unsustainable. This was always bound to come back down to normal, but to drop down to 12% is quite dramatic.
For the Flames, taking on Kuzmenko has no downside. The best case scenario is that the Russian forward goes back to being an elite offensive winger for the balance of this season and the early part of next, where the Flames have the choice of either keeping him or flipping him to a contender the following deadline for even more assets. At 27, he is in the prime of his career right now, and if he works out as part of GM Craig Conroy‘s retool, the Flames keep him as part of their group—but if he doesn’t work out, no issue.
Even if Kuzmenko remains a marginal player, the Flames simply don’t lose. Kuzmenko was part of this deal to make the cap math work. Assuming any one of the other players or picks work out and the Flames let him walk as an unrestricted free agent at the end of next season when his contract ends, it’s not really a problem. They end up with $5.5 million in extra cap space and an extra contract spot to sign someone new.
Kuzmenko seems like a good player to gamble on. He has put up really good numbers at the NHL level, comes in with strong underlying numbers from the previous year that were not buoyed by power play time, and he can play anywhere up and down the lineup. There is little in the way of major concerns with him and they are not bound by a long-term contract with limited mobility. A great pick-up by the Flames.
Hunter Brzustewicz
There may not have been a better player that the Flames could have acquired as part of a deal with the Canucks than Hunter Brzustewicz. Described by some as the “Adam Fox of the OHL,” Brzustewicz is an offensive defenceman currently playing for the Kitchener Rangers. A third-round pick of the Canucks in the 2023 NHL Draft, he has 69 points in 47 games, good for third in the entire OHL in points.
His production has been out of this world this season, and unlike most offensive blueliners, Brzustewicz can hold his own defensively, especially when defending on the rush. Offensively, he is a prototypically offensive defenseman, with excellent hands and skating, able to walk the blueline with ease and quarterback a power play. Take a look at some of his highlights here:
If this wasn’t enough to sell you on him, here’s the best part: he’s a right-shot defenceman who projects to play NHL minutes. Prior to Brzustewicz, the Flames had exactly one right-shot defensive prospect in their organization and that was Jake Boltmann, who has one (1) point this season. Yes, you read that correctly. This is a big step backwards from his last season when he had five (5) points. Again, not a typo.
The Flames desperately needed a right-shot defenceman that they were actually going to sign, and they have that in Brzustewicz. Best-case scenario, he becomes a top-four offensive defenseman, worst case, he becomes a good AHLer and additional organizational depth, but there is no downside here.
Joni Jurmo
Look, Jurmo is not a prospect that really moves the needle, but he does have some really good aspects to his game. Another third-round pick, the Finnish defenceman is a brick wall, standing 6’5″ and weighing in over 200 pounds. While his offence won’t dazzle you, he skates really well and has really good acceleration to move the puck up ice. Take a look at this clip from him at the World Juniors:
He has just four points this season in the Finnish Liiga but does have some really good upside potential. The Flames really don’t have many defensive prospects that even if he can become an AHLer, that’s not a bad thing. Those guys are dime-a-dozen, but we’ll take one more big body blueliner.
A 2024 first-round pick
This is the big piece of the trade. To walk away from that trade with a first-round pick for an expiring contract is an enormous value add for the Flames. While they still have to pick the right player with said pick (which is a tall order for this franchise given their history of picking first-rounders), the odds of them picking an NHLer are very high.
The question mark here will be how high of a pick that will be. This will depend on how the Canucks do in the playoffs and is likely somewhere between the 20–30 range. This is a great range for the Flames, who selected both Jakob Pelletier and Connor Zary in this range in 2019 and 2020 respectively.
Late first-round picks are a mixed bag, and rarely are franchise players. That being said, they are almost always NHLers, which is an enormous add for a team with limited potential impact NHLers in their prospect pool.
Plus, if that pick becomes the one that the Flames use to take Tij Iginla, that would be just beautiful.
A conditional 2024 fourth-round pick
On top of a first-round pick, the Flames also got a conditional fourth-round pick. That gets upgraded to a 2024 third-round pick if the Canucks make the Western Conference Finals and Lindholm plays in half of their games. In either case, there is a huge upside.
The Flames have been very good of late in the fourth round, taking Adam Ruzicka, Martin Pospisil, and Johnny Gaudreau in that round. If it’s a third-round pick, even better. They have taken Jeremie Poirier, Aydar Suniev, and Adam Fox in this round.
Even more than that, it replaces the third or fourth-round pick that the Flames traded away in 2025. This pick is part of the trade that the Flames made with the Montreal Canadiens for Sean Monahan. And while a third- or fourth-round pick is a dice roll, having more picks is always better than having fewer.
The Flames have been very guilty of not making all of their picks over the last number of years, making at least seven draft picks in just three of the last ten drafts. It’s high time the Flames restock the cupboards, and this pick helps with that.
Did the Flames win the Lindholmd trade?
Perhaps the biggest win of all is not paying Lindholm $9+ million per season for the next eight years. This team is desperately in need of a revamp, and keeping the struggling Swede for basically the rest of his NHL career felt like a poor financial decision.
To have walked away with this many assets is also enormous. It allows the Flames to potentially win this deal in so many ways, whether it is through one of the picks, production or trade value of Kuzmenko or the two prospects, or even just cap flexibility, there are a lot of net positives for the team.
At the end of the day, it is far too early to declare a winner, but each piece that the Flames got back has enormous potential upside and that in itself is a huge win for Conroy.
