Dustin Wolf has proven his doubters wrong at every level so far. He has been one of the bright stories on the Flames this season. He’s been overlooked in large part due to his height. One of the biggest examples is him slipping to the end of the seventh round of the 2019 NHL Draft. The Flames selected him 214th overall, which was the fourth-last pick in that draft. The Flames didn’t have their own seventh-rounder in 2019, as they sent it to the Ottawa Senators for Nick Shore at the 2018 Trade Deadline. So, how did the Flames acquire the pick they used to select Wolf?
Flashback to a trade with the Carolina Hurricanes in 2017
In June 2017, the Flames made a trade with the Carolina Hurricanes. The Flames acquired goaltender Eddie Lack, defenceman Ryan Murphy, and a 2019 seventh-round draft pick. In exchange, the Flames gave up defenceman Keegan Kanzig and a 2019 sixth-round draft pick.
Murphy’s contract was bought out by the Flames shortly after the trade occurred. It was awkward as Murphy was not aware that a contract buyout was included in the deal and expressed how happy he was to be acquired by the Flames in a social media post. The Flames really just made this trade to shore up their goaltending position. The Flames acquired Mike Smith a few years before and weren’t sure where prospect Jon Gillies and David Rittich were at.
Eddie Lack’s Flames tenure wasn’t very fruitful. He seems like an awesome guy though, and he had success with other NHL teams. Lack played four games with the Flames, posting a 5.29 GAA and a 0.813 SV%. He got passed on the depth chart and spent some time with the Flames then AHL affiliate Stockton Heat. Midway through the 2017–18 season, the Flames dealt Lack to the New Jersey Devils in exchange for defenceman Dalton Prout. Prout played one and a half seasons split between the Flames and the Stockton Heat.
However, the Flames make out like bandits in this deal and it’s because of the selection of Dustin Wolf with that 2019 seventh-rounder. It goes to show that you can trade down in a draft and still come out as the winner of the deal if you make the correct selection. Who knows where Wolf would have been playing if the Flames hadn’t acquired Eddie Lack in 2017.
The Hurricanes got nothing from this trade tree
On the Hurricanes side, Kanzig was a nothing defenceman who played some ECHL games for them. The Canes used that 2019 sixth rounder to select right winger Kevin Wall. Wall was never signed by the Hurricanes or any NHL team. He’s playing with the Milwaukee Admirals of the AHL, where he has 12 points in 59 games over the last two seasons.
