Defections and Rejections: How The Flames Were Licked

Dudley Moore: Do you feel you've learnt by your mistakes here?

Peter Cook: I think I have, yes, and I think I can probably repeat them almost perfectly. I know my mistakes inside out. — The Frog & Peach Restaurant

[The following is an excerpt from our upcoming book Deal With It: The Trades That Made NHL History]

If there were a transaction— or series of transactions— that defined the 2022 NHL offseason it was probably the moves that saw UFA Johnny Gaudreau spurn Calgary for Columbus, and the Flames subsequent trade of Matthew Tkachuk to Florida for winger Jonathan Huberdeau, defenceman MacKenzie Weegar, Cole Schwindt, and a lottery-protected first-round pick in 2025. The winner in those deals was the one who lost the least.

Seeing elite NHL players traded in their prime is not commonplace, and the league had waited to see how Flames GM Brad Treliving handled the problem. With Gaudreau’s free-agent window pending in the summer of 2022— and no progress on a new contract— there was a push among some to trade Gaudreau in the summer of 2021. 

The Flames decided to hang onto him. The skillful winger bet on himself. What happened was one of the greatest contract years ever in sports. Gaudreau and Tkachuk combined with Elias Lindholm to form the league’s most dynamic scoring trio. All three players would hit forty or more goals as they soared to record heights. Calgary won the Pacific Division, then was unceremoniously ousted in the Division Final by Edmonton. 

At that point reality hit. As the July 1 free-agent deadline approached, Gaudreau announced that, despite an enormous eight-year $80M contract offer from the Flames, he would test free agency. The star winger claimed he wanted to go home so his wife could have their baby in the USA. As such it was believed his preferred venues were Philadelphia or New Jersey or even the New York Islanders. 

Calgary hoped against hope for a reversal of that decision, but Flames fans quietly fans resigned themselves that he wanted to be nearer to family. To their shock and surprise Gaudreau would only travel as far as Columbus, Ohio, to find a new home, taking $15M less than Calgary’s offer to play on the Blue Jackets, a team with few real hopes of playoff contention.

Things were about to get worse for the Flames. Gaudreau’s linemate Matthew Tkachuk told Treliving on July 20, 2022, that he would not sign longterm in Calgary after his contractual options were done in 2023. To buy time to create a deal for Tkachuk the Flames announced they were taking him to salary arbitration. 

It went for naught. Tkachuk phoned GM Treliving and told him he wanted out. “Matthew did not have an appetite and would not sign with the Calgary Flames long term," Treliving said. "He outlined the reasons for this. … Ultimately (he) made the decision and informed us that being a Calgary Flame long term was not in his plans.” There were real concerns that the hole left in the Flames’ roster by the defections could be irreparable.

All things considered, Treliving seemingly turned the Tkachuk lemons into lemonade, obtaining three players from Florida, including pending UFA Jonathan Huberdeau who had matched Gaudreau’s 115 points in 2021-22, upcoming defenceman MacKenzie Weegar, Cole Schwindt, and a lottery-protected first-round pick in 2025. To have the deal go through the Flames signed Tkachuk to a pre-arranged eight-year $76M deal. The Flames then signed both Huberdeau and Weegar to long-term deals.

Tkachuk was happy. “Florida kind of fell right into my lap within the last week or so,” he told Sportsnet. “So, very happy with a very tough process… this is where I want to be. I want to be at this part of my life in Florida. That's just the way it goes. But it's got nothing to do with my time in Calgary.” Flames coach Darryl Sutter made clear his feelings when asked to compare Tkachuk to his former Flames teammate Tyler Toffoli. "One guy has won Stanley Cups," Sutter said. "Been a big part of long playoff runs.” Toffoli had won the Stanley Cup with the Kings in 2014 and was a key part of the team's playoff success under Sutter with 14 points in 26 games. Tkachuk had done none of the above, as Sutter had witnessed in the spring of 2022.

Florida still thought they made out best in the blockbuster move. “Matthew is a tenacious, physical competitor who possesses a tremendously unique skill set," Panthers general manager Bill Zito said. "He is a consistent elite offensive contributor and has emerged as one of the most complete and dynamic young players in the National Hockey League. We are thrilled to be able to add a generational talent to our lineup.”

The Flames also added Nazim Kadri as a free agent to restore sandpaper to the Flames lineup. Almost everyone in hockey agreed that Treliving had rescued his team from disaster. It looked like a balanced trade. But the first season in Calgary was a disaster for Huberdeau, Weeger and the Flames. From Pacific Division champs and Cup contenders they were reduced to missing the Western Conference playoffs. Disastrously, incredibly, the Flames lost 17 times in OT. Win half those games and it’s a playoff team.

Huberdeau’s inability to find complimentary players like Alesander Barkov and the other the talent he’d had in Florida, saw him collapse to just 15 goals and 55 points— a staggering 60-point drop-off in production. Worse, he seemed ill-suited to the abrasive Sutter style. By season’s end there were rumours that both he and Kadri would demand trades from Calgary if the veteran coach— who still had a year left on this contract— were to return. 

“I knew it was going to be a change and adjustment. But, of course, I didn’t think it was going to be this hard,” Huberdeau said as the Flames held their end-of-season media availability. “I completely lost my swagger this year. You can just tell… You know you’re just trying to be out there and help your team to win, and you can’t really do it.”

Tkachuk, meanwhile, blossomed in south Florida. Playing on the Panthers top line and power play he produced numbers similar to those from his final season in Calgary. In all he scored 40 goals and 108 points as he helped push the Panthers into the final playoff spot in the Eastern Conference. There was much talk that, were it not for Connor McDavid, Tkachuk might have been a favourite for the Hart Trophy. While the Flames face-planted from first in the Pacific to out of the playoffs, the Panthers rode Tkachuk’s 100-plus season into a playoff berth against the record-setting Boston Bruins. Making him the only principal in the big trade/ signings to see the postseason. 

Gaudreau, meanwhile, couldn’t emulate Tkachuk’s success in his first year with Columbus, which finished dead last in the Eastern Conference. Gaudreau plummeted from 40 goals to just 21, and to 74 points from 115. Any thoughts that the Jackets had of their prime acquisition leading them to the promised land were dashed. (Although he was given a warm welcome home when the Jackets played in Calgary during the regular season.) Depending on how Columbus does in the 2023 Draft, Gaudreau won’t be seeing the postseason anytime soon in the powerful Eastern Conference.

For Flames GM Treliving, whose contract has now not been renewed, there was resignation over the hand he’d been dealt. ”At the end of the day, the players make decisions," Treliving said. "You always reflect back on how you go through a process. I feel very, very comfortable that the ownership of this organization, the management team here did everything possible to have [Tkachuk and Gaudreau] sign and stay. They chose, they didn't want to. Not a lot you can do about that, so you move forward.”

Questions now swirl about will Tkachuk translate his regular season into playoff success— something he’d failed to do in 2022? For the Flames, the question is existential. Treliving is out. Sutter is protected. How do they make Calgary a place players want to play? They have an old building, a toxic coach, remote ownership, miserable travel, lousy winter weather for families and Connor McDavid pounding them for years to come. Until they are a destination, not a no-trade demand, the future is problematic.

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Bruce Dowbiggin @dowbboy is the editor of Not The Public Broadcaster  A two-time winner of the Gemini Award as Canada's top television sports broadcaster, he’s a regular contributor to Sirius XM Canada Talks Ch. 167. Inexact Science: The Six Most Compelling Draft Years In NHL History, his new book with his son Evan, was voted the seventh-best professional hockey book of all time by bookauthority.org . His 2004 book Money Players was voted sixth best on the same list, and is available via http://brucedowbigginbooks.ca/book-personalaccount.aspx