With the dismal start of the Calgary Flames this season, Calgary general manager Brad Treliving may be faced to give his team an electro-shock of some kind. Although, he must be careful of not pushing the panic button, he must realize that right now his team is letting some important points slip away. Points that will be useful come March and April.
Calgary seem to have the offence that will give them the goals needed but it is obvious, there holes on defence despite fact they acquired Douggie Hamilton during the off-season. The odd man out seems to be Dennis Wideman which the Flames would love to unload. In the case of Wideman, he has another year at a salary cap hit of 5.5M with another year remaining on his contract with a no-trade-clause. So needles to say, Wideman has full control on his future.
Treliving may want to look at Ladislav Smid who’s cheaper and easier to move. Or may they want to move a player like Mason Raymond or Matt Stajan to add more sparks to a team in need of one. According to TSN Insider, the Buffalo Sabres did show some interest in Calgary’s defensive corps but no trades were ever concluded. Buffalo is also in need of shoring up their defence now they have addressed issues with their forwards by acquiring Evander Kane (injured) and Ryan O’Reilly from the Avalanche during the off-season. He stated that Buffalo who has a good group on defense are still young and they could benefit from a veteran defenseman no.3 or 4 on their depth chart.
In need of defense
In a recent segment of TSN Insider Trading, Bob Mckenzie stated that even if no trade hasn’t really been materializing yet this season, talks are heating up amongst certain teams and the focus appears to be defenseman at this point. He pointed out defenseman like Luke Schenn in Philadelphia with the Flyers who has been taken out of the lineup on a few occasions this season, may be on the move. One other defenseman who may move is Roman Pollack with the Toronto Maple Leafs. Other players who could be moving are Matt Carle in Tampa Bay with the Lightning, Dennis Wideman with the Calgary Flames and even Jarred Tinordi with the Montreal Canadiens.
Sidney Crosby on the trading block?
Stan Fischler reports from The Hockey News that Sidney Crosby could be trade bait for the Pittsburgh Penguins. He noted that Crosby who has had a sub-par season so far may be the player they need to part with to get Evgeni Malkin and Phil Kessler going. In addition of the return they would get, the Penguins would obtain a well needed cap space for resigning certain players they need to resign and to add some prospects in their depleted farm team.
He mentioned that other superstars were traded in the past like Wayne Gretzky and Mark Messier but those players were traded in a different era with no cap space or no-trade-clause. Crosby has a no-trade-clause and could veto any forms of trade involving him.
Editor’s Note: This is quite bold for Fischler to state that Sidney Crosby could be trade by the Penguins because he is having a sub-par season. This could be more of a coaching issue that Crosby himself. Crosby is in Pittsburgh to stay for the time being. He is more the face of the Penguins that Malkin is. So if they had to part with either Crosby or Malkin, you could bet they would let go Malkin first. Crosby sells more off the ice for the Penguins than Malkin is.
