The Calgary Flames just snapped a three-game losing streak, and they’ve won five of their last 10 games. There has been much debate among fans about the direction the team should take. We all have the same desire though—we want to see the Flames be successful.
Many fans are willing to trade immediate success for future success, while others argue that the Flames should continue trying to ice a competitive team now. Fans in the former group think the team needs to continue losing to draft an elite prospect like Macklin Celebrini, who is expected to go first overall in the 2024 NHL draft. I sit in this group, and I’d love to see the Flames have a chance to select Michael Misa high in the 2025 draft too.
The other side points to the Buffalo Sabres and Edmonton Oilers as teams who bottomed out and drafted exceptional players like Jack Eichel, Rasmus Dahlin, Owen Power, Taylor Hall, Ryan Nugent-Hopkins, Leon Draisaitl, and Connor McDavid, but still remain irrelevant in the Stanley Cup consideration. I get it—we don’t want to see that either—but there’s something to be said about the positive impact those types of players have on an organization.
Since we fans can’t seem to agree on a preferred direction, I think we can all at least agree that Flames General Manager Craig Conroy has found a happy medium. His retool approach should be exciting for fans on both sides of the debate.
Trading for players that help immediately
As I said, we’re all passionate fans who want to see the Flames succeed. Looking at the limited number of moves he’s made so far, Conroy has done well at identifying good hockey players to acquire at a fair price. Those players—Yegor Sharangovich and Andrei Kuzmenko—quickly won fans over.
The Flames acquired Sharangovich in the June trade that sent Tyler Toffoli to the New Jersey Devils. Like much of the fanbase, I was lukewarm on this deal initially. Toffoli led the Flames in goals (34) and points (73) last season, while Sharangovich was coming off a 30-point season at age 24. It was Conroy’s first trade, and it didn’t look good. The trade is looking like a slam dunk in hindsight.
Fast forward eight months, and Sharangovich has become something of a fan favourite. He’s currently second in goals and third in points on the team. We’ve also learned that he loves Lego-building, and we’re eating it up. He recently traded his stick with a fan for a Lego set; how awesome is that?
Conroy’s third trade as GM of the Flames—less than three weeks ago—saw Elias Lindholm sent to the Vancouver Canucks, with Andrei Kuzmenko being a key part of the return for the Flames. Unlike the Toffoli trade, I was excited about this one right from the get-go. We soon saw Kuzy’s bubbly personality, and he showed immediate chemistry with Sharangovich and Jonathan Huberdeau, scoring in his debut as a Flame. What’s not to like about him?
All this to say, despite having to move out most of the Flames’ core this year, Conroy has added players that have easily won fans over. If he can continue to find these types of players—Noah Hanifin, Chris Tanev, and maybe even Jacob Markstrom could be on their way out very soon—the Flames will be a team we can all be excited about, win or lose, even in spite of all the negative energy around the team in recent years.
The vibes will be immaculate.
The Flames have added valuable draft capital
For those of us who want to see the Flames go scorched-earth and raze the roster to the ground, each trade Conroy has made has brought in valuable draft capital.
In addition to Sharangovich, the Flames received a third-round pick in 2023 (80th overall) from the Devils. They used this pick to select Aydar Suniev—a Russian forward who has looked promising this year for the NCAA’s University of Massachusetts Minutemen. He’s an intelligent player with good vision and puck skills, but his skating needs some work. Take a look at the great pass and finish on this play:
In the November trade that sent Nikita Zadorov to the Canucks, the Flames acquired a 2026 third-round pick and a 2024 fifth-round pick. The fifth-round pick is nothing to get too excited about, but adding more draft capital in the early rounds is always a good thing, even if it is a couple of years away. The following are some highly-regarded prospects that were selected in the third round of recent drafts:
- 2020 draft: Topi Niemela (Toronto Maple Leafs), Jeremie Poirier (Flames), Alexander Nikishin (Carolina Hurricanes)
- 2021 draft: Sasha Pastujov (Anaheim Ducks)
- 2022 draft: Ty Nelson (Seattle Kraken), Jordan Dumais (Columbus Blue Jackets)
- 2023 draft: Jacob Fowler (Montreal Canadiens), Hunter Brzustewicz (Canucks), Caden Price (Kraken), Jayden Perron (Hurricanes)
Finally, in the trade that sent Lindholm to the Canucks, the Flames also received the Canucks’ 2024 first-round pick and a 2024 fourth-round pick that becomes a third if the Canucks advance to the Western Conference finals.
Acquiring picks in the first three rounds of the coming drafts should appease the rebuild crowd.
The Flames are adding to their already solid prospect cupboard
In addition to high draft picks, the Flames added a pair of new prospects in the Lindholm trade. Conroy acquired the aforementioned Brzustewicz and Joni Jurmo—a 2020 third-round pick of the Canucks.
What did they get in Brzustewicz? I’m really excited about this addition. He’s the highly-coveted right-shot defenceman who moves the puck extremely well in transition. This is something the current iteration of the Flames seriously lacks. The Kitchener Rangers defenceman is second in scoring by defencemen in the OHL, behind only Zayne Parekh, who is expected to go somewhere in the top 15 of the 2023 NHL draft. Brzustewicz’s 78 points are tied for first on the Rangers and are good for sixth among all OHL players. Check out this incredibly accurate pass that sent his teammate off on a shorthanded breakaway:
And what can we expect of Jurmo? Another third-round pick, Jurmo isn’t quite the point-producing machine that (do I really have to type Brzustewicz again??) is. He’s got size and speed, and is certainly capable of contributing offensively. A real positive about him is he’s been competing against men in the Finnish Liiga for the last four years.
These are the only prospects Conroy has acquired so far, but both have promise. Brzustewicz, in particular, should have the rebuild crowd very excited.
Trades are fun
Show of hands: who’s played NHL video games? Fantasy hockey? I play both, and trading is always fun, be it with the brilliant AI in EA’s NHL games or dealing with frenemies in fantasy. Seeing trades go down in the NHL is fun too—why else would so many armchair GMs make hypothetical trades online?
The retool approach that Conroy and the Flames are taking is fun for everyone, so let’s all agree to be happy and just sit back and watch Conroy continue to cook.
