Early in the Calgary Flames’ 2023–24 NHL season, it became clear that change was inevitable. The team had so many pending unrestricted free agents and many of them were mentally already in a different city or just waiting for a trade call to happen.
Nikita Zadorov was the most vocal of the bunch, publicly requesting a trade through his agent in November. Despite being one of the Flames’ most honest and transparent players, Zadorov was also one of their most exciting defenders. Yes, he played on the third pairing, but he provided far more value than that.
With the Vancouver Canucks enjoying playoff success and Zadorov playing a critical part of that, it’s clear that the Calgary Flames did not get enough value out of him in their trade.
The Zadorov deal
Zadorov was traded on November 30 to the Vancouver Canucks in exchange for a third-round pick in 2026 and a fifth-round pick in 2024. The fifth-round pick was later flipped at the deadline for defenceman Nikita Okhotiuk, who played nine games with the team and is a pending restricted free agent at 23 years old. He’s a bit of a question mark still, so really the deal boils down to a third in 2026.
This trade comes down to basically a futures only trade—even if that pick ends up being an NHL player, it will be years before he plays in the NHL.
On the flip side, Zadorov played in 54 games for the Canucks during the regular season, registering five goals and nine assists, but through just eleven postseason games he has four goals and four assists. He sits in a tie for third in the league for goals from a defenceman, with Cale Makar, Miro Heiskanen, and Evan Bouchard being the defenders beside him. He also sits sixth in scoring by a defenceman in the NHL while being the fifth most-played player in the postseason among the Canucks, third among defencemen.
Zadorov has been critical to the team’s on-ice success, while also being a massive physical presence for the team to deter the antics of other team’s pests. That combination, which made him a fan favourite in Calgary, is giving Zadorov an amazing chance to cash in this offseason.
Missed opportunity
The biggest issue with the Zadorov deal was that it was done under pressure and earlier than some would have liked. He was a massive distraction for the club, which at the time was still competing for a playoff spot, and the team needed to be rid of the headache.
Opinions were split on whether the two picks were enough for Zadorov and hindsight being 20-20, they were not.
Now looking at original predictions for what a deal could look like, perhaps the returns for Zadorov were a bit too greedy. But with how Zadorov played after his deal and leading up to the deadline, holding him for a bit longer could have potentially increased his value.
When looking at other defenceman deals at the deadline, like Noah Hanifin and Chris Tane for example, the Flames may have captured decent value at the time of the deal. That being said, nothing increases the value more than a bidding war.
The Flames could have done a lot worse in this deal, but after the postseason that the Canucks are having the Flames could have also done a lot better. They obtained an embarrassment of riches from the Canucks in the Elias Lindholm deal, which means maybe at the end of the day they made out even.
