As the Flames continue in their 2025-26 season, we’ve heard lots of trade talk surrounding Rasmus Andersson (obviously), Nazem Kadri, and Blake Coleman. Andersson made sense before his deal with the Golden Knights because he is in the last year of his deal, but with the other two, we’ve heard back-and-forth messaging.
The resounding message has been that the Flames are in no rush to move those guys, as they still have term and are valuable in the dressing room. In a seller’s market with seeming demand for both players, not moving them before the trade deadline would be a huge mistake. However, this is the underlying issue with the Flames organization, and it has been for some time.
The Calgary Flames only trade players when they are in the last year of their deal, or if they ask to be moved.
When is the last time the Flames dealt a player who wasn’t in the last year of their contract or hadn’t asked for a trade/indicated that they weren’t re-signing with the team? There are certainly none in the Craig Conroy era. Tyler Toffoli, Nikita Zadorov, Elias Lindholm, Chris Tanev, Noah Hanifin, Andrew Mangiapane, and Jakob Pelletier were all in the last year of their deals. Jacob Markstrom and Andrei Kuzmenko were both ready to move on to a new team.
I think the earliest example would be James Neal for Milan Lucic and a conditional 2021 3rd rounder, all the way back in July 2019. Both players were considered cap dumps at that time, though. Before then, you have Dougie Hamilton in 2018, but it was noted that both sides were kind of looking at the option to move him.
Before then, I would argue the most proactive they were was moving Curtis Glencross to the Washington Capitals while they were in a playoff chase in 2015, which is still paying dividends for the Flames today. Still, he was a pending UFA. For years, the organization has shown a common trend of not acting on players if they have term on their deals. Since this trend has spanned multiple General Managers, you can assume it comes from right up top.
The bottom line is all that matters in Calgary
Murray Edwards doesn’t care about anything other than the bottom line. Guys like Kadri and Coleman sell tickets and jerseys. The team can remain ‘competitive’ with these valuable cup winners and propel the organization forward, and closer to the playoffs. The team only moves players in the last years of their deals if they aren’t in a playoff spot. That’s why I won’t believe the team is moving one of Kadri or Coleman this year until one of them asks out.
The Andersson saga is no different
Let’s look at the Rasmus Andersson saga. I have been discussing moving Andersson for multiple years now, because I thought the value for Andersson would be incredibly high given his AAV and the term he had left on his deal. I ramped up that talk a ton last year around the trade deadline, as the Flames started to lose leverage after that.
Andersson could’ve been a Maple Leaf
The Flames were offered a very good deal from the Toronto Maple Leafs at the last deadline that included a 1st round pick, one of Fraser Minten or Easton Cowan, and another higher pick. The organization was in the midst of a playoff run, so they decided against making any move. Fast forward to the summer, and the LA Kings offered them two 1st round picks and a roster player for Andersson, under the condition that he would sign an extension with the club. Here’s where the leverage shifted. Andersson didn’t want to sign, so the deal didn’t get done.
We heard a lot of teams that were interested in trading for Andersson this season, including the Detroit Red Wings and Boston Bruins, but those teams didn’t want to do it without an extension either. Vegas ponied up their offer for Andersson without an extension, and Calgary’s trade return reflected that. It was still a decent return for Andersson, but if we compare it to the offer from the Leafs at last year’s deadline, for example, it’s definitely a step down. The major thing for me in the Andersson deal is that he didn’t want to sign an extension with other clubs, which dropped the return.
It is Andersson’s right to pick his future
You can’t blame Rasmus for that decision. It is absolutely his right to decide where he wants to play for the next seven or eight years of his life. It’s a family decision. If he doesn’t want to sign in Boston right now, he doesn’t want to sign in Boston right now. There’s nothing you can do. However, if they moved Andersson a year or two ago, teams wouldn’t have to worry about him leaving right away and would pony up for him.
Let’s be clear, the leverage has been with the player for some time. Just like it did with Noah Hanifin, who also ended up in Vegas. It’s a common theme of players having too much leverage in Calgary. Let’s look back at Vegas. Do you think the players were happy when the team traded Marc-Andre Fleury to the Blackhawks for future considerations for cap space? I’m sure they weren’t pleased, but players continue to sign/extend there. A reactive organization gives the leverage to the player. A proactive one moves said player before the leverage is gained by the player’s side.
The Flames have been sitting on cap space for years, but haven’t acted as a third-party broker
Another example of this reactive vs proactive behaviour is that the Flames have had ample cap space for the last several seasons. Despite this, they haven’t acquired other teams’ bad contracts in exchange for draft compensation.
I won’t totally blame them here, as the rising cap has made these deals harder to come by, but teams like the Sharks and Penguins have acted on it in recent years. The Penguins received a 2028 2nd rounder for taking on one year of Matt Dumba’s 3.75M contract just this past summer. Maybe they could even retain and flip him for another asset at this year’s deadline. It just goes to show that weaponizing cap space is a valuable tactic.
Fans agree that the Flames are a reactive organization, not a proactive one
I included this question in our mid-year fan survey, and the results speak for themselves. More than 85% of fans agreed that the Flames are a reactive organization, not a proactive one.
Do you agree with me and the fans who participated in the fan poll that the Flames are a reactive organization, not a proactive one? Acting on and moving Kadri and Coleman in a seller’s market would show the fanbase that they are a proactive organization that is thinking about the future, not clinging to veterans before they are no longer valuable. Prove me wrong, Calgary.
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