Via Frank Franklin
The off-season has been rough for Flames fans. On July 13th, the teams star player Johnny Gaudreau declined an eight year, $84-million contract and left Calgary to sign with the Columbus Blue Jackets.
Since Gaudreau was not traded, and simply signed with Columbus, Calgary received nothing but a hole in its roster. A 115 point hole in its roster.
Then before the month of July ended, another major roster change occurred.
The Flames announced a major trade between themselves and the Panthers.
Another member of the Flames 100-point club from this past season was on the move. This time, Matthew Tkachuk was traded to Florida for Jonathan Huberdeau and MacKenzie Weegar.
Huberdeau was quick to sign a contract extension with the Flames. A contract extension that was identical to the one that Gaudreau turned away. Fans were quick to notice that Huberdeau perfectly filled that 115 point gap that Gaudreau left. Huberdeau and Gaudreau were tied for second in league points last season.
Flames GM, Brad Treliving had one more major change to make to the Flames roster. Treliving signed arguably one of the biggest free agents of the off-season, Nazem Kadri. However, to make room for Kadri’s $7 million a year cap hit, the Flames traded centre Sean Monahan and a conditional 2025 first round to Montreal for future considerations.
Kadri is coming off a career year with the Avalanche. In the regular season he amassed 87 points and while on the Avalanche’s Stanley Cup run, he got 15 points in 16 games.
Treliving had great things to say about Kadri in a recent press conference.
“He can play on the powerplay. He can play heavy. He’s highly, highly competitive and is a highly skilled, smart player. — He is our kind of player”
– Calgary GM Brad Treliving
The Scoring Touch 