ScorchStack Issue #9- he’s no Carol Freakin’ Baskin after all
Remember Tiger King?
Wow, free agency. I hope things went well for the Calgary Flames.
What’s inside?
Jacob Markstrom has signed in Calgary- he might be the right player, but arguably not the right move.
A retrospective of Brad Treliving’s time in Calgary, and where we go from here.
The final piece of the Ass-trology series, appropriately ending with fire signs (Calgary Flames. Fire, flames. Do you get it)
Noah Hanifin: Who is he? What does he do? Wouldn’t it be cool if someone that wasn’t him was here instead of him?
Since last week
We double dipped on the issues last week! The early edition featured a close look at the Flames at the draft table on day one, how Connor Zary stacks up to Connor McDavid, a Mark Jankowski eulogy, and preparing you for the return of Blasty.
The late edition was about the Flames’ day two results and which unqualified RFAs could help the Flames out. Might come in handy now that they have no cap space and plenty of holes to fill.
Another movie review, where Ramina argues that Most Valuable Primate isn’t just a hacky movie where an animal play a sport, but also a movie that tugs on your heartstrings
The issue with Jacob Markstrom
Not some sort of meta joke
By Christian (@decayinwtheboys)
Brad Treliving’s tenure as Flames GM has featured two very negative throughlines: signing bad, long term contracts the second free agency opens and the inability to find a bonafide #1 goaltender.
Then he went and gave a long term contract to a goalie with the hopes he would be a bonafide #1. Jacob Markstrom got a six year, $6M AAV contract from the team, their big splash in free agency. Instead of setting off alarm bells, many were happy with the move. The Flames finally added a high quality goaltender (stealing them away from a divisional rival, no less) and put an end to the non-stop goaltending carousel that had been running since Miikka Kiprusoff left town. This was a very reasonable and well expected move to make.
But the ScorchStack was founded so that we could complain about the team without being restricted to 280 characters, so I’m going to complain. The Flames signed a very good player to a reasonable contract, but by doing so, they restricted their ability to cure what actually ailed them.
What’s wrong with signing Markstrom isn’t Markstrom. He’s been a good goalie for the past three years, putting up very respectable numbers on some putrid Canucks teams. The problem isn’t the money he’s getting either. $6M seems very reasonable for a starting goalie given how most NHL teams pay their goalies, and it wasn’t even the most money given to a goaltender this week ($6.25M to Matt Murray, but that was Ottawa so maybe not a point in favour of the Flames). The problem isn’t even the term, as Markstrom has a lot less wear on him than other goalies. He’s only played 270 games in his NHL career, 163 of them coming in the past three years. With goalies aging better than skaters, it’s not crazy to think that he might actually last all six years of his contract. Even if you get five good years, that’s a good deal.
So what’s the issue?
The issue is that no transaction exists in a vacuum. Signing Jacob Markstrom for 6x6 is a good idea for a lot of teams, but it was not a good idea for the Flames. The contract represents a misunderstanding and/or misprioritization of what the Flames actually lacked and what the Flames actually should’ve spent their money on.
Let’s start with this: goaltending is not the Flames’ biggest problem. I know hockey memory is very short term, but try to remember that the Flames finished first in the West two seasons ago with David Rittich putting up an average .911 SV% and Mike Smith finishing the season at .898 SV% (Smith played 42 games, by the way). The Flames’ goaltending was much improved this past season, with Rittich finishing a bit below average at .907 but Cam Talbot picking up the slack with a .919.
Yet the team was much worse. Why they were not great this season is a myriad of factors, all of which have been evident for a long time. They don’t have a RW besides Lindholm, who some would rather see at centre. The first line centre is a defensive trainwreck on good days and is entirely reliant on the first line LW to do anything in the offensive zone. Overall, the team doesn’t have consistent offence, and doesn’t have depth to step up in moments when other lines are struggling. Generously, they might have one good line every game and three that can’t get out of their own zone.
On the back end, the Flames have defenders who don’t live up to their reputation. Mark Giordano is starting to show that he might not be so young and fresh anymore. Noah Hanifin has never lived up to his potential, and with five seasons under his belt, it’s not likely that he will. Juuso Valimaki and Oliver Kylington are question marks. Sweet angel boy Rasmus Andersson is really the only defender that can’t be criticized (you are banned from reading the ScorchStack if you dare). As an overall unit, they can turn into a discombobulated mess in their own zone and don’t quite have the offence to make up for it.
The Flames have a lot of very real problems that could’ve been addressed in free agency. Instead, they signed Markstrom and are now unable to allocate any more cap space to solve these problems. I’ll assume in good faith that they took a look at their roster, saw which spots needed upgrading, tried to figure out how they could fix those issues in a realistic manner, and made the conclusion that Jacob Markstrom was the solution.
By going through that process and arriving at the answer they did, it indicates that they’re not ignoring those issues entirely, they’re simply betting that they aren’t as bad as they appear. By my estimation, here is a list of bets the Flames are taking this season:
That Johnny Gaudreau and Sean Monahan (and to a lesser extent, Elias Lindholm) aren’t flawed players, just unlucky ones whose major dips in production were the results of bad luck instead of bad play.
That Dillon Dube and Andrew Mangiapane can both step up and produce beyond their cap hits, covering for the holes in the offence that couldn’t be plugged by free agency.
That the returning members of the bottom six can remain positive contributors without taking head first dives off the aging curve.
That Regular Season Sam Bennett can play like Playoff Sam Bennett.
That whatever group of prospects and/or fringe players will fill out the bottom six are NHL-level and can produce positive results for the club.
That Juuso Valimaki, having not played an NHL game since April 2019 and having gone about 14 months without playing a meaningful hockey game at any level, has still grown enough to play a full NHL season.
That Oliver Kylington (or even Valimaki) can play the off-hand side, or whatever Stockton RHD they use can also step in.
That Rasmus Andersson can effectively replace TJ Brodie, and that Chris Tanev can effectively replace Travis Hamonic.
That Noah Hanifin will actually take some sort of definite step forward in his progression.
That Mark Giordano can buck off old age for another season and return to even just a shade below Norris calibre.
That the team remains healthy in a year where they’re right up against the cap and have a boatload of fresh-faced AHLers that aren’t up to NHL snuff just yet.
That Geoff Ward, with an actual training camp to implement his ideas, can get the most out of this roster.
That’s a lot of risks for a team to take, nevermind one that thinks of themselves as contenders. Not all of them are unreasonable bets, but it’s a more than comfortable number of question marks to walk into a season with.
There’s one final bet, however:
If all else fails, Markstrom will be good enough to cover for the things that didn’t work out.
And maybe that’s all that matters. Markstrom took a team that was getting outshot every game in the playoffs to the second round until he was deemed unfit to play. Anton Khubodin did the exact same thing for Dallas and took them all the way to the finals, only to be outplayed by Andrei Vasilevskiy. The Islanders and Flyers also rode hot goaltending to deeper in the playoffs than most would’ve expected. Hockey is more of a game of chaos, and goaltenders are very good at
But if even that doesn’t happen, then the Flames are doomed, not just for this season but for many to come. The strategy with signing Markstrom is that he can push a good Flames team into Cup contention and keep a bad Flames team afloat for long enough until either the good Flames come back or the fans are happy. If he can’t hold up his end of the deal, the Flames can add “don’t have an actual #1 goalie” back onto their big list of problems.
Maybe that big hockey trade is coming. Maybe Brad Treliving will solve some of these problems in one fell swoop with a blockbuster that shocks the NHL. Maybe there’s a plan here, but as it stands now, it appears the plan was to get a goalie who could cover for the Flames’ more obvious problems. Hopefully it works, but I will always remain skeptical.
How long before the pitchforks come for Brad Treliving?
He started his tenure with such promise. Now he just keeps making bad promises.
By Nathan (@hanoten)
For better or worse, the Flames’ roster is essentially set for the upcoming hockey season, whenever and wherever it will be played. The Calgary Flames, fresh off some signing some big contracts during free agency, will likely look for AHL promotions and cheap depth to fill the holes they have left.
There’s been talk of GM Brad Treliving potentially doing a big trade to really shake things up for the Flames roster, but after taking a look at his recent trade history, maybe that isn’t such a great idea. In fact, upon further reflection, maybe it’s time to critically ask if Treliving’s work deserves a lot more criticism.
This is a team that has insane 2004 syndrome - the belief that if they make it into the playoffs, anything can happen. The problem with that is that they already lucked their way into a Stanley Cup Final with logic like that, and the Flames seem like they have a better shot currently at a lottery pick next year than squeaking into the playoffs.
Also, it’s worth mentioning that I really do believe in Treliving’s work at the NHL draft overall. Ideally, I live in an alternate world where Treliving is in charge of just that. However, the draft does not a general manager make.
The week that was has offered a couple of great examples of one of the biggest issues with Treliving - he is terrible at additions through free agency. By this, I am talking about signing a player who had UFA status. Treliving can certainly strong-arm restricted free agents into team-friendly deals (keep an eye out for that re: Andrew Mangiapane before next season). That’s not the issue.
Looking back to 2015, there are maybe 10 good signings that Treliving has done. I’ll give him the benefit of the doubt and assume that Brian Burke was still primarily calling the shots in 2014, and not count Deryk Engelland and Mason Raymond against him. Of those, two were re-signing potential Flames’ UFAs (Giordano and Backlund). Also, I counted both times he signed Kris Versteeg, as both times were a good call.
Since the start of 2015, Treliving has signed 42 UFAs. That’s less than a 25% success rate. Even acknowledging that many of those were just to have bodies down in Stockton and were never going to impact the Flames, that’s……not good.
To put that a different way, Treliving has also overseen five buyouts during that period. That’s one buyout for every two good signings. It’s no wonder that the team hasn’t won a playoff series since 2015.
Treliving has signed three players outside of free agency so far this offseason - Jacob Markstrom, Chris Tanev, and Louis Domingue. If I had to guess, I would say that likely only Domingue finishes his contract (one year, league minimum) without drawing the ire of Treliving signing him in the first place.
Markstrom could be very well be very good for a few years, but I imagine that won’t be the sentiment when his NMC and $6 million salary are a glaring albatross in 2024. Not necessarily because he’s a bad player, but because he can’t save everything and by then he could be legitimately blocking Dustin Wolf. I don’t even think it takes Tanev half that time to reveal how poor of a signing it was.
This doesn’t even get into how the positions that Treliving has addressed so far in the off-season weren’t the glaring issues the Flames needed fixing. Goaltending wasn’t the issue for the Flames, and neither was having one tough defender who is otherwise a drag on the team. Comparing that to the other signings around the league during this time makes it even worse by comparison.
He didn’t even go after the good Canucks. Sheesh.
Hoping for a trade to fix this is also going to be an issue. Since 2016, I would say that the best bit of trading that Treliving has done was last week, when he traded down in draft twice to land a couple more picks in addition to nabbing Connor Zary. If that’s the best there is, it hasn’t been very good.
What else would top the list? The Lindholm/Hanifin blockbuster didn’t look that good on day one and while Lindholm has tried his hardest to make up for it, those efforts have been offset by a) Hanifin b) Hamilton’s performance in Carolina and c) throwing in one of their top prospects at the time instead of finding actual value for him. Trading James Neal was going to be tough, but Milan Lucic doesn’t qualify as good, and it’s unlikely he’ll improve as he gets older.
The trade for Mike Smith wasn’t that bad for the Flames (middling prospect, backup goaltender, and a 3rd round pick) but also it was a trade for Mike Smith so I cannot in good conscience call it good.
I’d potentially consider the Travis Hamonic trade, a player whom I was fond of during his time in Calgary. To not protect the first-rounder though nearly saw the Flames trade a lottery pick for him, and that kind of oversight is enough to keep it from the top.
While there are certainly trades that Treliving tried to make that didn’t happen for reasons out of his control (the Zucker trade comes to mind), we are forced to judge him for the work that he has turned in. Just as in free agency, this is not a great look for him.
Gone are the days where he made big, worthwhile swings and traded for players like Dougie Hamilton and Brian Elliott without harming the team. Gone are the days where he got great value selling off pieces like Kris Russell, Jiri Hudler, and even Sven Baertschi.
At least at the direction we’re headed, he’ll get good value for the big pieces should we enter another rebuild.
For a team that is consistently spending to the cap, you’d think they would have more results to show for it. It seems like every year, a big hubbub is made that the Flames have the green light to spend to the cap. If they were going to do that, you’d hope they were to have better results.
It also feels slightly unfair to go after a general manager who saw a team with the best regular season in the west last season, as that was a reflection of what his roster could be. Unfortunately, Calgary’s season of everything going right ended in five games, and it seems unlikely to have everything go that right a second time around and get a mulligan in the playoffs. Have any other seasons been a vote of confidence for Brad Treliving’s work as far as roster assembly?
With the hope of a truncated season beginning in a few months, we’ll see if Treliving’s gambles this offseason pay off. They might for the short run, which will likely be negated by the actual glaring issues on this roster that weren’t addressed. Hopefully, the Flames are able to get those fixed before Treliving’s Band-Aids start to themselves become the big problems that Calgary needs new relief from.
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The Flames were an active team during free agency, adding a big name goalie and then giving out another big contract for a defender among other things. Are they better as a team than they were before?
By Nathan (@hanoten)
Nah.
Ramz' Ass-trology: Fire
It’s finally over
By Ramina (@raminashlah)
Welcome back to my Flames Astrology series! After starting this two months ago and promising to finish it within the first four weeks, that did not happen and I simply don’t care enough to feel guilty about it. We are on the final element which is Fire, just like the Flames, how fitting! Please read the first week’s newsletter to hear some minor basics and what I’ll be talking about for this series.
Like every time, I’ll be talking about the players’ Sun signs, guessing their Moon signs before looking it up, and only like the last time (the Water element), I won’t be guessing what their Rising sign could be because it becomes too long and it’s too stressful for me. Again, read the first week’s newsletter if you don’t know what those words mean, I give basic definitions!
I’ll be using this for the players like usual, but again I’ll be using what I already know and understand the signs as well. This week, we made it to Fire! Very topical.
By the way, I started the Fire series before Free Agency and I’m not going to check if any of the new players are Fire signs because that’s too much work on my part, I don’t know them well enough to come to any sort of conclusions, and also I don’t care.
Element: Fire
The Fire element consists of Aries, Leo, and Sagittarius with six players that fall into those signs. In short, the Fire signs can be energetic and charismatic. They also tend to be quite passionate, dynamic, and temperamental. Think of the Fire signs you know and you can probably see this about them. I really like this quote about Fire signs from this site:
Fire can keep you warm, or it can do great destruction. While fire burns out quickly without fuel to keep it going, it can also regenerate its power from the ashes. A single spark can set off a forest fire. As a result, fire signs need to be nurtured and managed carefully.
ABSOLUTELY agree. You sometimes have to tread carefully or bite your tongue around Fire signs as anything can really set them off.
Aries
The first sign of the day is Aries. Aries's positive traits are that they’re brave, honest, confident, ambitious, and impulsive in a take action kind of way. However, they can be quick-tempered, selfish, and ambitious to a fault at times. Think of Mark Jankowski on a two-on-one breakaway. Instead of passing, he goes for the shot even though we all know he won’t score. The lone Aries on the Flames is Andrew Mangiapane.
When I think of Mangiapane, I think of him being charming and charismatic once you get to know him, but can appear shy and modest at first. He also seems like he can be somewhat emotional and over-critical of himself. Therefore, I’m going to guess his Moon sign is Virgo or Aquarius.
I just looked it up and his Moon is in Libra, so not starting off strong. However, Libras are also described as being charming so I was somewhat right. I don’t see him as quite a Libra, although maybe the being “over-critical of himself” part since Libras can be quite insecure. Along with being charming they are also diplomatic, idealistic (in a good way as in they’re hopeful), and they can see both sides (the scales), however, they can be easily influenced because they see both sides, and they can be very indecisive along with being insecure. The website describes his Moon in Libra as him being sociable and popular, has good judgment, is intelligent and reasonable, and likes social pleasures. However, he’s unstable in loving relationships, he’s wavering, and may give too much weight to the views of others and to public opinion.
Ok, that was too much for one player but I’m not going back and editing now because I’m lazy so we’ll be moving along the rest quite quickly here.
Leo
The next sign of the day is Leo. Leo’s positive traits are that they’re proud (confident), warm-hearted, and very generous. But they can be overconfident and image-obsessed, condescending, and intolerant. The three Leos on the Flames are Johnny Gaudreau, Travis Hamonic, and David Rittich. Wow, an incredible group. All cool dudes. When I think of Gaudreau, I think of him as proud, charming, and ambitious, but also quick-tempered, self-conscious of how others perceive him, and a little reckless at times. For that, I will guess his Moon is either Gemini or Virgo.
After looking it up, he’s a Gemini so I’m smart again. The website describes his Moon in Gemini as him being a sharp intellect, likes literature, and will adapt to all situations and social groups. However he can lack follow-up ideas, he’s indecisive, and may go back on decisions.
The next Leo of the day is Hamonic. When I think of him, I think of empathetic, selfless, loyal, big on family, and charismatic. But maybe an over-thinker, over-critical of himself, and over-protective. For that, I’m going to guess his Moon is in Cancer or Pisces. Alright, well I tried looking it up and where he’s from, St. Malo, Manitoba is just straight up not on the website. I checked another website however and they had it, and it’s in Cancer! Right again, truly who else is doing it like me? No time to explain anything though because the description on that website is too long. Next player.
Lastly in the Leos, we have Rittich! When I think of Rittich, I think of charming, friendly, charismatic, and very sociable. But like Hamonic, also over-critical of himself, can be unpredictable, and seem overly-emotional. For that, I’m going to guess his Moon is in Aquarius or Gemini.
After looking it up, it’s actually in Taurus. I’m sorry for being stupid. The site describes his Moon in Taurus as convinced his ideas are strong-willed, is foresighted, willful, knows how to trust, appreciates all the good things in life, and appreciates and protects nature. But he can have excesses in pleasure, can be lazy, his sensuality can be a possible issue, and he can be thoughtless. In my opinion, he is perfect so this website is wrong.
Sagittarius
The last sign of the day is Sagittarius! Sagittarius’s positive traits are that they’re optimistic, straight-forward, and confident in that they don’t mind taking risks. However they can be quite restless (they need variety), irresponsible (especially in regards to other people’s feelings), and avoidant. The Flames have two Sag’s on the team, Matthew Tkachuk and Elias Lindholm. Both excellent and cool dudes. I definitely see how Tkachuk is a Sag, he didn’t consider my feelings when he cut his hair. Let’s start with him I guess.
When I think of Tkachuk, he seems reliable, confident, and ambitious. But can also be irresponsible, stubborn, and a little too ambitious, to a fault. For that, I’m going to guess his Moon is either in Aries or Taurus.
I just checked and it’s in Taurus! I rule. The website describes his Moon in Taurus as basically almost the exact same as Rittich’s, which makes sense why they’re such good pals.
The last player of the day is Lindholm! When I think of Lindholm, I think of sensible, practical, and reliable, but also shy, and can be easily influenced. For that, I’m going to guess his Moon is in Taurus or Virgo.
I just looked it up and his Moon is also in Sagittarius! I said last time how there’s a small chance of your Sun and Moon signs being the same! I don’t remember the exact number and I don’t care enough to look it up, please do it yourself, I’m not going to do all the work for you. The website describes his Moon in Sagittarius as he may like to throw himself into the unknown and into adventure, he’s agile, tough, enthusiastic, and attracted to long voyages. However he may take great risks in throwing himself into the unknown and into adventure, he’s audacious, bold, rebellious, unable to stay in one place, and always ready to risk everything to achieve his goal.
That does it for my Ass-trology series! Thanks for tuning in, I had not that much fun and lots of stress. Never doing that again, thanks.
Improve Your Defense By Trading Noah Hanifin
This one weird trick gets rid of him forever
by floob (@itlooksreal)
If there is a common theme to this week’s issue of the Scorchstack, it’s that Brad Treliving has looked at the 2020 offseason as his big opportunity to make the Calgary Flames worse, and oh golly how he has succeeded. The loosest knot on which to tug to make this whole thing unravel was on the team’s backend, letting TJ Brodie walk away to some alleged professional hockey team in Southern Ontario, without having a feasible way to replace him. In a vacuum, this is already a pretty tough pill to swallow.
Coupled with the godawful contract promised to Jacob Markstrom, and it seemed to indicate that the man building this team decided upgrades on defense are a problem best left for another season (and possibly another GM). One way - and a possible solution that has been hinted at for months now - is to ship Noah Hanifin out for a capable defenseman that plays the right side. With growing boys and perfect angels Rasmus Andersson and Juuso Valimaki expected to handle more of the workload this coming season alongside ageless bald man and proxy dad Mark Giordano, it seemed like Hanifin became both an odd man out, and somehow also the rare player with more value as a trade chip than on ice presence, an asset with offensive abilities the Flames could parlay into a solid second pairing defenseman to play alongside Valimaki, if that was to be the plan. With a bounty of enticing options plausibly on the market, a Hanifin swap checks off some, if not all of the team’s boxes.
Then Brad Treliving, aforementioned eater of worlds, decided to do free agency on ambien, signing a very available and even more washed Chris Tanev to a long term, expensive contract that there is no conceivable way he could ever live up to. In signing Tanev, the Flames replaced the TJ Brodie contract, without a TJ Brodie quality defenseman. Bad enough on it’s own, but what it also does is filter out potential returns on a Hanifin trade.
Which just means we’ll have to be a little more selective.
First, let’s define what the Flames have in Noah Hanifin. He is a young, 6’3” defenseman, who at 23 is already closing in on 400 NHL games. He is locked in to a relatively friendly contract with 4 years remaining at a cap hit of $4.95 million per season. He is considered a mobile, puck moving defenseman with strong offensive skills. These are all the kind of characteristics that should be, and are desirable to a lot of teams.
The reason why a player like Noah Hanifin would be on the block, however, is because he sucks. Big time garbage defenseman. You know this, you’ve watched him too and have thusly yelled yourself hoarse, flailing your arms at your television, wondering just what kind of childhood trauma he had to endure that leads him to make the decisions he makes on the ice. I’m only telling you this because most NHL GMs, I do not believe, are reading the Scorchstack (yet!), and these are details they do not need to be made aware of.
Noah Hanifin is JUST BARELY above replacement level as an NHL defenseman. You’ve probably seen a lot of fancy vis and a lot of talk about his possession metrics, GAR/WAR/SPAR stats, etc. I don’t need to re-hash them here, but they all tell you the same thing: he creates a lot of chances in the offensive zone, but never in a way that leads to goals, and he can’t be trusted at all on the defensive side of the puck. Some teams can live with his glaring deficiencies in his own end; the Flames, a team that hemorrhages shots against, cannot afford to have a player like that in their Top 4, even if Jacob Markstrom allegedly thrives in that scenario. Especially when his offense for whatever reason refuses to translate into goals.
So it’s time to look elsewhere, using Hanifin as the carrot other teams need to let someone more finely tuned to Calgary’s desires shake loose. Given the limitations on what the team can acquire from a salary cap perspective (Chris Tanev, hello) I’ve narrowed the list of potential trademates down to a digestible three. Some of these make a lot more sense than others, but let’s dare to dream.
Colin Miller, BUF - RD, 27 years old, $3,875,000 AAV for the next two seasons
This goes against everything I believe, but hear me out anyway. Is Colin Miller a better defenseman than Noah Hanifin? No, I don’t believe he is. But I do believe he is a better fit. I know this is some Edmonton Oiler/Hockey Canada logic mind bullshit, but there’s a reason behind this. In Miller, you lose out on a large chunk of the offense that Hanifin provides, but he is still a positive production player overall, and he completely eliminates all the defensive deficiencies that Noah inherently carries with him. There’s a good chance that reality forces the team’s hand into playing Juuso Valimaki as a top 4 defenseman, so it would be a good idea to pair him with someone dependable, but can also push the needle as well.
Plus he’s cheaper. As Jerry Maguire always said, “show me all that cash we’re saving in a flat cap universe”.
MacKenzie Weegar, FLA - RD, 26 years old, currently RFA (EvolvingWild projects $3,383,400 AAV for the next 4 seasons)
This one might be complicated, but it would be beyond worth looking into if you’re Treliving. At some point Florida is going to have to sign and trade their unheralded but very good RFA defenseman, or the Flames would have to trade for his rights, and either sign him or dive into the murky waters of arbitration, which Weegar has filed for.
Either way, it seems as if Weegar is not coming back to Florida (he’s no Carol Freakin’ Baskin after all! Remember her? Remember when we were all talking about her? Well pretend like we are). If Calgary can land him, they should. Weegar is a little bit of an analytics darling, someone who is good on both ends of the ice, and puts up the kind of point totals you want in a second pairing defenseman.
We don’t know what his next contract is going to look like, but you could see it being in the 3 or 4 years, $3 or 4 million range, which is exceptional, and Hanifin going the other way to Miami makes a lot of sense for their team as well.
The nice thing in both these trade scenarios is Hanifin’s perceived value is higher than that of the potential return, so if Brad Treliving is worth his salt (unclear), he can probably fetch a draft pick or two as part of the deal. With our third and final possibility, it’s more of a hail mary, and any looming trade would require some serious finesse.
Dougie Hamilton, CAR - RD, 27 years old, $5,750,000 cap hit this season
Look, say what you will, but there is always legitimately cool shit going into the Glenbow Museum, so this could work.
This is, to be certain, a pipe dream, but it’s not impossible to get Dougie back modelling an ugly Flames sweater for this Christmas season. While you would no doubt have to consider Dougie a rental player for one season, I would still do it because I fucking love Dougie Hamilton.
It doesn’t make sense for a lot of reasons, but one way to sway the Hurricanes into making the deal is knowing that Hamilton probably isn’t returning to Carolina after this coming season to begin with. He is a UFA at year’s end, and already the highest paid defenseman on the team looking to make a little bit more. With some fairly prominent contracts already doled out to Jacob Slavin, Brady Skjei, Jake Gardiner, and Brett Pesce, management in Raleigh might look at Dougie as a luxury they can’t afford. That doesn’t by any means make a package with Noah Hanifin as the return most appealing to Don Waddell, but I don’t want to hear about it, because look at this fucking picture and tell me you don’t want it:
Dougie. Come back to me Dougie.
Up Next Week
Hopefully a more positive issue!
Olli Toke-inen? Interviewing former Flame and all time cerebral mind on his new marijuana venture
I don’t know if we’ll have a movie review. We don’t typically write them until Saturday. Might be happening, who knows.