On the eve of the 2024 NHL Draft, the Calgary Flames made a splash in the trade front. They’ve sent Andrew Mangiapane to the Washington Capitals for a second-round pick.
Calgary trades Mangiapane
The move isn’t necessarily a surprise, given TWC had a report on Mangiapane being unlikely to re-sign with the team, but the timing of the trade surely is. There were little rumblings about Mangiapane being traded sooner rather than later, especially with him still under contract for one more year. In addition, the return isn’t impacting this year’s draft either.
In return for Mangiapane, the Flames receive a 2025 second-round pick that was originally the Colorado Avalanche’s. Washington received the pick when they traded Lars Eller to Colorado prior to the 2023 trade deadline.
Mangiapane’s career thus far
Drafted 166th overall by the Flames, the winger has been a solid middle-six option for the Flames and had his best season back in 2021–22 where he posted 35 goals and 20 assists. Over his whole career, he’s played 417 games with Calgary, scoring 109 goals and 106 assists.
Away from the scoreboard, Mangiapane was often deployed and excelled at playing a two-way game, and his meshing with Mikael Backlund and Blake Coleman as one of the league’s best 5v5 lines has been a highlight as he carved out his NHL role.
Mangiapane also represented Team Canada at the IIHF Men’s Worlds on two separate occasions, being named the tournament’s MVP back in 2021 when his entry midway in the tournament ignited Canada from a near bust straight to a gold medal.
Business at hand
At the end of the day, the Flames got a fair return for Mangiapane. Picking Mangiapane with a sixth-round pick and developing him into a second-round pick is a tidy piece of business and asset management.
Further, it removes Mangiapane’s $5.8M cap hit off of their books for the upcoming season, moving their current cap space well north of the $25M mark (as per CapFriendly.com, they have 28,999,167 in cap space). Of course, they have roster spots to fill with their free agent class but this gives them a lot of room to do more for the rebuild.
Whether the Flames hold onto the pick until next year’s draft or use it in more trades in this year’s draft remains to be known, but we won’t have to wait long to find out.
Photo by Brett Holmes/Icon Sportswire
