The Calgary Flames aren’t looking for rentals.
One point back of a playoff spot with a game in hand and 26 games left on the regular season schedule.
That’s where the Flames stood on Tuesday morning as they prepared for the Washington Capitals, their first matchup in a gruelling six-game road trip that will take them right up to the NHL’s trade deadline.
So the question needs to be asked: Is there anything the Flames can do during this make-or-break stretch that would affect the way GM Craig Conroy does business at the deadline?
In short, probably not.
We’ll let Conroy give the longer answer.
“If we won the next (six) games, maybe we’d be out there for a rental but the mindset has always been we’d do something if it helps in the long-term, not just the short-term,” Conroy said in an interview with Postmedia this weekend. “Where we’re at right now, it just doesn’t make sense to give up draft picks for a guy who might be a rental. Rentals aren’t what we’re really looking for right now.”
Conroy won’t mortgage the Flames’ future just because his team has outperformed the hockey world’s expectations and has earned itself a solid shot at an invite to the post-season dance.
It’s genuinely impressive that this year’s team has managed to stay in the playoff fight by committing to a high-intensity, relentless forecheck and tight defensive structure.
But the organization is also well-positioned to stock up in the NHL draft over the next two years and build the foundation of a squad that they hope will be competing near the top of the Western Conference in a few years’ time.
Sacrificing that future for a rental player at the deadline just wouldn’t make any sense — not if the player the Flames acquire wasn’t going to be around when highly-regarded prospects like Zayne Parekh and Matvei Gridin start being difference-makers in the NHL.
That doesn’t mean Conroy isn’t open to moves, though.
He already showed that willingness to make trades when he dealt Jakob Pelletier and Andrei Kuzmenko to the Philadelphia Flyers a couple of weeks ago and got Morgan Frost and Joel Farabee in return.
Farabee and Frost weren’t rentals, though. They are players in their mid-20s who will be around for a few years, at least.
“We kind of made a hockey trade to bring in Farabee and Frost and if there’s a hockey trade out there, for sure, you’re always looking for that,” Conroy said. “At this time of year, some teams are gearing up. We’re open to everything, I just don’t see us going into the rental market this year.”
Conversely, though, Conroy doesn’t have any plans of a firesale where he’s trading away picks for veterans. Reports have indicated that the Flames have told other teams that the likes of Rasmus Andersson and Nazem Kadri won’t be moved this year.
They won’t sell guys just for the sake of selling and Conroy made clear that he’s a big believer in the benefits of the Flames’ young players competing in high-intensity, meaningful games coming down the stretch.
“They put themselves in the position where we brought in some guys, made some moves and you’d love to see what they could do as a team these last 27 games,” Conroy said. “For the growth of our young guys and our veterans and for the whole organization, to make the playoffs would be an amazing accomplishment and then, once you get in you never know, but we know how hard it’s going to be. These games ramp up, it gets more intense, it’s going to get tighter. We’ve got to find ways to score goals, that’s one thing we haven’t done a lot of. We can play in tight games, but you still need to score goals.
“All these games, when you’re in the hunt to make the playoffs after what’s usually the all-star game, all these games are so important. For us, they are playoff games — I know they’re not, but to us they really are because we can’t afford to stumble coming out of this break.”