Craig Conroy has made lots of trades in his time as Calgary Flames general manager.
Most of them have felt like he was subtracting from the team’s core by necessity.
On Thursday, though, he pulled the trigger on a deal that sent Jakob Pelletier, Andrei Kuzmenko and a second-round draft pick to the Philadelphia Flyers in exchange for Morgan Frost and Joel Farabee.
It’s a move that improves the team right now without sacrificing the future and it tells us a lot about the direction the Flames are trying to go.
Here are some takeaways from the big move:
THIS IS WHAT A RETOOL LOOKS LIKE
The Flames have always sworn they were aiming to do a retool, not a rebuild.
Well, this is what that looks like.
While they’ve acquired plenty of draft picks since Conroy took over as GM in 2023, they’ve also tried to get guys in their early-to-mid-20s who were closer to being able to contribute.
It’s how they ended up with Yegor Sharangovich and Kevin Bahl in the separate trades that sent Tyler Toffoli and Jacob Markstrom to the New Jersey Devils. They got Daniil Miromanov when they dealt Noah Hanifin to the Vegas Golden Knights.
And now, they get a 24-year-old Farabee and a 25-year-old Frost for Kuzmenko and Pelletier.
Conroy has stayed consistent with his vision, you’ve got to give him that. The Flames are trying to get better in the now while building for the future and while that’s a hard line to walk, the results have been encouraging.
It’s worth noting, too, that the Flames technically got younger with Thursday’s deal. Farabee and Frost are a combined 49 years old, while Kuzmenko and Pelletier are a combined 51.
There’s no sacrificing the future.
THE COUNTERARGUMENT
There are still people arguing that the Flames should be tanking for the highest possible pick.
When you’ve got Dustin Wolf looking like a future Vezina Trophy candidate, the holes in that argument start to look a lot more glaring. Are the Flames really going to waste a couple of Wolf’s prime years, especially when guys like Matt Coronato and pre-injury Connor Zary have been thriving in big games?
The Flames do still need to acquire some young, high-end offensive talent. The draft is the most obvious way of doing that, so it’s imperative that they don’t trade away first-round draft picks.
If they’re looking for elite-level forwards elsewhere, that’s going to be a massive challenge for Conroy. He’s done well in the deals he’s made, but adding game-changing first-liners isn’t something he’s been tasked with doing in the trade market or free agency just yet.
The draft may still be the path. It may have to involve hitting home runs with later picks, though, because a place in the higher end of the draft lottery doesn’t look all that likely right now.
HOW DOES IT PLAY IN THE ROOM?
If there’s one cause for concern with Conroy’s move, it’s how losing Pelletier will go down in the locker-room.
He’s an immensely popular teammate, as evidenced by Jonathan Huberdeau’s Instagram post after Thursday’s game. Everyone understands that hockey’s a business and trades are part of playing the game at the professional level, but that doesn’t mean that seeing a close friend moved doesn’t feel like a gut-punch.
The Flames do have a fair bit of recent experience with seeing teammates traded away, though. We won’t even go over the list of guys who were moved over the past couple years, but Nazem Kadri admitted Thursday night that it was harder when it’s a young guy like Pelletier getting traded.
“It sucks when you lose some good people who are well-liked in the dressing room and popular in here, especially when it happens to the younger kids who this typically might be the first time when they might be in a situation like this,” Kadri said. “You feel for them,”
This isn’t a question anyone should be overreacting about, but it’s always something you have to wonder about when an overachieving team makes a big mid-season move. Chemistry does matter, after all.
THE SEARCH FOR RIGHT SHOTS
There are 16 forwards listed on the Flames’ roster on the team website right now.
Only two of them are right-handed shots.
Trading away the right-handed Kuzmenko makes this even more of an issue.
Now, that list of lefties includes Anthony Mantha and Justin Kirkland, both of whom are out for the season. But as currently constructed, the Flames’ only right-handed options are Matt Coronato and Adam Klapka.
The most likely candidates for call-ups from the Wranglers are Rory Kerins and Dryden Hunt, and they’re both left-handed, too.
If there’s one area that Conroy didn’t address with this trade, it’s the striking shortage of right-handed forwards — and centres, in particular.
WHERE DO THEY FIT?
So where exactly do Farabee and Frost fit on the Flames’ roster?
Frost is a centre, so there’s no much confusion there. Nazem Kadri will continue to be in the middle next to Jonathan Huberdeau, while Mikael Backlund will centre a line with Blake Coleman. Could Coronato be moved to play on the right with Kadri? Possibly, and playing alongside Backlund and Coleman wouldn’t be a bad way for Farabee to quickly learn what playing the Flames’ brand of hockey means.
Frost could centre a line with Martin Pospisil and Yegor Sharangovich, while getting plenty of power-play time. Connor Zary will return at some point, and that could add a wrinkle, but there’s real potential for whatever line Frost finds himself on — whether you want to call it the Flames’ second or third unit.
LINDHOLM TRADE CONTINUES TO PAY OFF
In trading Kuzmenko, the Flames moved on from one of the pieces they received from the Vancouver Canucks in exchange for Elias Lindholm last season.
Given that the Canucks were Stanley Cup contenders, it’s still a trade they surely don’t regret. When the opportunity presents itself, you’ve got to go for it.
But if you consider what Lindholm has now netted the Flames, it’s an excellent package.
They got two players in their mid-20s for Kuzmenko — and Pelletier — in addition to now-20-year-old defenceman Hunter Brzustewicz, who is adapting to life in the AHL in his first year as a pro, Finnish defenceman Joni Jurmo, who remains a project, as well as a first-round draft pick they used on Matvei Gridin, who is eighth in QMJHL scoring this year with 25 goals and 30 assists as of Friday afternoon..
The Flames also received a conditional fourth-round draft pick, which they used to trade down and take Luke Misa and Eric Jamieson. Both of them are having solid seasons with their junior teams.
Not bad for a player who was essentially a rental in Vancouver.
DRAFTING MAKES A DIFFERENCE
As we touched on earlier, the Flames could certainly use some high-high-high-end offensive talent in their system, but some of their recent drafts have paved the way for moves like the one they made Thursday.
As of Friday afternoon, Parekh is second in the entire CHL in scoring by defencemen, with 61 points and leading the OHL. The Flames also have four players in the top 20 in OHL scoring — Parekh, Henry Mews, Luke Misa and Jacob Battaglia. In Gridin and Andrew Basha, they have a few more guys worth getting excited about, too.
And if Adam Klapka and Kerins continue their upward trajectory, there’s even more reason for optimism.
The Flames will continue to replenish their farm system and have lots of picks left over from last year’s sell-off, but their prospect pool is in a decent enough place where dealing away a second-round draft pick alongside Pelletier and Kuzmenko isn’t all that big a concern.
VANCOUVER, YOU’RE UP
Before we get into the Canucks, it’s worth noting that as much as it’s felt like a two-horse race for the Western Conference’s wild-card positions, that’s not entirely accurate anymore.
While the Flames leapfrogged the Canucks for the second wild-card spot with Thursday’s win over the Anaheim Ducks, that could change on Friday night if Vancouver beats the Dallas Stars. They’re not alone in the fight, though.
Both teams are hot on the tails of Los Angeles. The freefalling Kings are in third in the Pacific Division with 58 points, only one ahead of the Flames and two up on the Canucks as of Friday afternoon, and the Colorado Avalanche are within striking distance in the first wild-card spot, too.
Either way, the Flames made their move to solidify for the playoff push and beyond on Thursday night.
In J.T. Miller and Elias Pettersson, the Canucks have two guys who aren’t getting along and could potentially be traded soon. That might not automatically make the team better, but if the Canucks want guys in-return who can play right now, a trade could be good for both chemistry and depth.
There’s a long way to go before the playoffs, and the trade market is only going to make things more interesting.
THE SOONER BAHL GETS BACK, THE BETTER
Kevin Bahl is out week-to-week with an upper-body injury suffered against the Minnesota Wild last Saturday, and it’s hard not to look at the lineup the Flames trotted out against the Ducks and feel like they could really use him back.
Joel Hanley was skating alongside Rasmus Andersson, and while Hanley is a solid worker and has lots of veteran savvy, that’s not where anyone would envision him playing long-term.
Tyson Barrie was out of the lineup for months and he’s been needed since the Bahl injury.
If the Flames aren’t shopping for a blueliner, they must be confident Bahl will be back soon.
And the future looks very bright. A little patience could pay off. In Brzustewicz, Parekh and Mews, they’ve got three high-end defensive prospects who could be pushing for NHL jobs in the next couple of years. Re-signing Andersson long-term seems to be a priority this summer and MacKenzie Weegar is locked in long-term.
They need to survive until Bahl gets back, though.