Seems like a lot to give to the yotes. Is Chychrun any better than Hanfin? I’m not convinced.

Definitely need to move 2 of Backlund & Zadorov or Toffoli & Tanev out in the off-season to keep this team together for the most part (assuming Weegar re-signs for around $6.25mil/yr) but hopefully Virtanen or Schwindt can help replace Toffoli and Coleman, Kunin or Zary can replace Backlund, with Mackey or Kuznetsov replacing Zadorov and Meloche or Stone filling the 3RD spot of Tanev departs and/or Free Agents are available to fill the cap casualty roster openings

Supposedly. Chychrun makes me leery given his injury history but he comes in on a good contract and Hanifin didn’t do well in the Playoffs for us so it’d be worth the gamble

Lucic is considered a Cap Dump that will cost at least a 2nd to unload and if Chychrun is deemed to be better and more valuable than Hanifin, I figured Hanifin + Lucic + a 1st balances everything out on that portion

Next Schmaltz is on a very good contract as well, so sending a 1st + Top Prospect in Coronato + Roster Player/Former 1st Round Pick in Valimaki might be sufficient but many under value Valimaki, so to seal the deal and compensate for a good contract, I included a 3rd RD Pick + Matthew Phillips as well

I simply don’t believe Phillips will get an opportunity to play in CGY due to his size, which is sad, so I hope he gets one in ARI and becomes a Star for them

hanifin is better than chychrun, kylington is better than soucy, kunin is not good and i’d much rather have two younger players, and virtanen doesn’t deserve to be anywhere near this team (both on merit and as a person)

sharks would need to get back the return they gave up and to me this isn’t it.

and as for Chychrun your D is clearly stacked with solid above average guys and i wouldn’t mess with it, plus that’s a lot to give up for who would be like the 3rd best D on your team.

Thanks for posting, your perception is interesting 🤔

Care to elaborate and explain your position further!?

This would without a doubt be a much Bigger & Tougher Team to play against and looks more skilled.

Let me know, I appreciate the discussion and am interested in alternative perspectives

Hanifin is bigger than Chychrun and better at both ends of the ice (Chychrun benefits from increased PP time and his value mostly comes from being a better finisher than most D, he’s very good at both ends but Hanifin is a reliable top pair guy while I’d say Chychrun is a lower end top pair guy/great #3). Soucy’s fine, but Kylington provides our D corps with much needed mobility, I’d take Soucy over Zadorov, but not Kylington. Kunin is a play killer that sucks defensively and takes too many penalties. Basically Lucic only younger lol, and Lucic’s leadership is more valuable, so it’s not even an upgrade on our banger

At the end of the day we don’t need to get bigger or tougher and we would get significantly less skilled, apart from adding Schmaltz over Lucic, but that’s not worth Coronato, two 1sts, and a downgrade on D.

Could ship Hanifin & Dube to FLA for Aaron Ekblad instead maybe!?:

Weegar-Ekblad
Kylington-Andersson
Zadorov-Tanev

Flames get fleeced in the Arizona trade.

Kunin was just acquired by San Jose for basically free, wouldnt move Ruzicka for him

Kylington for Soucy is a pointless side grade

Going "all in" is making 1 big addition without demolishing team chemistry in the process

L&D! Great to hear from ya, thanks for posting!

I don’t consider an early 3rd + John Leonard as FREE by any means and Kunin’s a Beast of a Bottom-6 Player/Centre possibly > Nick Paul

Soucy brings Size, Physicality, Experience and is simply Better Overall AFAIC

Could definitely skip the Hanifin for Chychrun Trade but still gotta pay to get Schmaltz and move Lucic to make room for him. Rather spend Coronato on a Guy like Schmaltz with Term than a Rental like Patrick Kane or Player like Pastrnak who’ll cost twice as much to acquire and pay

Chemistry!? CGY lost its Top 2 Players, we’re building a Super Team and Building Up Chemistry now. Screw waiting for the TDL

Dont get me wrong, I like Kunin but I think we would have traded for him then if we were in on him. In the meantime I really like Ruzicka's potential to be a strong bottom 6 2-way center that's good for 25-35 points a year. He is also a big body guy that is quite physical. Swapping him for Kunin is just a very "grass is greener" POV to me.

Soucy is more physical and has more experience sure but the rest I don't really agree with. Plus Kylington is a way faster and way more offensively gifted dman.

For the sake of argument lets say both pur PTO's sign for league min (750k), Ruzicka signs for 850k, and Valimaki is traded in with his full cap hit completely out. As of right now if Calgary makes zero moves between now and the deadline they will have ~6.2M cap space to work with. That means they dont need to move Lucic to add a player at the deadline.

I also think you are overvaluing Schmaltz. To me that is a trade for Chychrun and Keller but there is no chance in hell Arizona is moving Keller

Only problem is Bill ZITO say NO!

Fair comments. Kunin is much much more Physical, just had a down year last season, but was putting up 0.50PPG the 2 seasons prior AND he's a Right Shot and Kills Penalties. I do think Ruzicka will be good as well, just figured he's more Offensive than Defensive. Wonder why he hasn't been re-signed yet either. I predict he'll be more like $925k-$1.025mil/yr for 1-2 years

Same goes for Soucy, he's Bigger, More Physical, More Experienced and Kills Penalties. Kylington fell down and got injured too much and he missed the net a lot, especially on the Power Play which created Short Handed chances the other way too many times

Schmaltz just seems like the best value and a player we could actually pry away from ARI by throwing Futures at them. Might be another Lindholm for CGY. He's Young, can play Centre, is a Right Shot and on a Value Contract for the next 4 years = better value than Garland or Bjorkstrand. This actually all came about with me thinking about moving Lindholm back to RW, as many believe he's not a True 1C

You seem to tunnel vision on 2 major things far too much; physicality and right handed shot.

The RHS thing was an issue before we got Toffoli but isn't anymore, especially with the addition of Weegar. For Forwards it's really only relevant special teams.

As for Physicality that's not what makes you good in a Sutter system and it's a very common misconception.

I also completely disagree with your view on Lindholm, he's proven to be a top 15 1C in the league. Moving him back to wing would be asinine. Plus you mention Schmaltz contract being high value for the next 4 years but moved Coronato's who could very easily be much higher value for the same time period.

Yes, Size & Physicality are very important to me, especially in the Bottom-6 and on Defense, but I want it all: Size, Speed, Skill, Energy & Physicality

Do we split Lindholm & Toffoli up and have each play LW on either PP unit or do we use a Right Shot D-Man for the left side Right Shot one-timers down low? I'm not opposed to Weegar or Stone doing that and sometimes wonder if Michael Stone would be a better 4RW lol, but that just doesn't seem realistic. Another Right Shot would be useful, especially on Faceoffs. I like Lindholm, but he's more of a Sniper than a Playmaking Centre and I'm surprised he didn't get more points at 1C to be honest. He did great at RW his first season in Calgary. I'm just saying it'd be an option as would going deeper at Centre and using Schmaltz at 3C and Backlund at 4C, we have sufficient skilled depth at wing to do it (Coleman, Dube & Pelletier)

Flames are in win now mode, so to get 4+ years of a proven player rather than waiting another 1-3 years to see what Coronato can do in the pros is something I think we should consider. Sure he could turn in to something and we'll get good value, but by the time the value is good, CGY's window will likely be closing and at that point we can Trade away Schmaltz & Kadri for a hyped up Coronato like young nhl ready prospect, just like some team will offer to acquire Patrick Kane

I have no issue with players playing on their off-hand and until recently was pushing for Toffoli to play at LW 5on5 and that I believe both Mangiapane & Coleman are better at RW. Kunin & Soucy are Big, Strong, Skilled, Defensively Responsible and can Contribute Offensively; they can do it all AFAIC. Ruzicka & Kylington can't from what I've seen. You won't see either on the PK and Kylington blew his opportunity on the PP last season. With Weegar coming in, I don't see where he gets the same time & opportunity he did last season. Do we want Weegar playing 23mins+ per game!? Soucy would help cut that time down significantly, especially on the PK.

Listen, if all I cared about was Physicality, I wouldn't be pitching trading Lucic away. He brings Toughness & Leadership, but he's too slow and gets lost in his own zone defensively till he finally gets the puck and then he's okay from there. I'm looking for Younger Backlund, Lucic & Toffoli replacements, like Barbashev, Kunin and Garland/Schmaltz who can step in and contribute now. Size & Physicality are just attributes I tend to admire, but they should be fast and skilled too, not like Brett Ritchie who was just Fast and Physical. I also prefer to have two $5-6million 1.00PPG+ players over one $10-12mil/yr players like Pastrnak or Meier. Huberdeau & 1st & 2nd Line Centres being the exception. I'm so glad we didn't sign Gaudreau or Tkachuk to the contracts they received

Coronato is widely considered NHL ready now by scouts. I was emphasizing his ELC being extremely high value for the next 3-4 years (depending on if we burn a year or not after he signs it towards the end of the season). I think he could very easily be a similar caliber player to Schamltz as soon as next year. I think he fits the Flames window great when you factor in what he could achieve during those 3 ELC seasons. To me he is like when Montreal added Caufield right before their playoff run or when Vancouver added Hughes at the end of 18/19. That is the level of impact I see him having at ~900k.

I don't disagree with your views on Kunin or Soucy I just think they are misguided and you underappreciate the likes of Kylington and Ruzicka. I think Kunin is a solid depth player but at probably triple the cap hit of Ruzicka for the next 2 years I would much rather have Ruzicka who I think can certainly grow into a similar role. AR should to be quite decent defensively last year despite only playing a handful of games, while also showing quite a bit of offense. Soucy may be better suited for a 3rd pair role than Kylington but time will only tell there. I am definitely not against moving Kylington as we've discussed in the past but I do not see a swap like this as logical. It simply achieves nothing in my eyes. We loose the offensive pressure and speed that Kylington provides but gain more physicality. If anything with the departure of both Johnny and Tkachuk we will probably be leaning on our backend more to provide offense.

If you are looking to add a bottom 6 affordable player that could provide lots of physicality and also potential to be a solid middle 6 guy then I would suggest Brett Leason. He's a local kid who's on Washington but may be forced to be place on waivers this year. I've been very open to a swap with him for Valimaki as it fits both teams needs in my opinion.

Chychrun is not even really an upgrade over Hanifin...

I'd be fine to remove Hanifin & Chychrun and the 3rd RD Pick OR replace one of the 1sts with a 2nd, but we may need to offer something other than Coronato now as well

I respect your knowledge & opinion. I hope you are right about Coronato and Ruzicka, who I really like, but see as more of an offensive Top-9 Forward than a 4th Line Checker/Defence First Player. Your point in Cap Hit between Kunin & Ruzicka is valid, but I'd still consider sending Kylington for Kunin and playing him at 4RW. I think Soucy is just as Dangerous Offensively as Kylington and Mackey & Valimaki could be as well. I'm happy Kylington had a good year, I'm just not that impressed and I guess I don't trust him and didn't like his repetitive mistakes, but that said, he is young.

Would Leason really do any better than Trevor Lewis, Walker Duehr, Cole Schwindt or Adam Klapka!? I'd claim him off waivers, but hope for a better asset in return for Valimaki if he's moved. I'm also hoping we sign Jake Virtanen, but in the meantime, my fingers are crossed it's Kylington who gets Traded for a difference maker and I'll stick with keeping Hanifin & Coronato for now

First, all things being equal I MAY chose JC over NH, and honestly probably because the extra contract length, not even player for player. That being said, the fact they are even remotely close (and by all accounts both fans and hockey experts call them pretty much a coin flip), this would be a tremendous overpay for Calgary. If Calgary wanted JC, they would be better serves movinf NH elsewhere to get a 3-4 asset package, and then using that packed to then acquire JC; thus, saving giving up at least one of the firsts and Coronato. IMO Coronoto will be NHL next season. He is close to being ready, has a unique shot that can translate immediately, and will cost the flames 925K for three years. He is essential for even making the cap work the next few years if they want to make some other contracts work.