Flames, Oilers To Tango – In More Ways Than One?

As the Calgary Flames prepare to open their 2010-2011 season against the Edmonton Oilers, rumours are bubbling over about the meeting of the two teams – and not just on the ice.

To begin, there’s buzz that two of Calgary’s high-priced blueliners – Cory Sarich and Steve Staios, who earn more than $6-million a year between them – will be healthy scratches for tonight’s match in Edmonton, watching from the press box as coach Brent Sutter opts for young guns TJ Brodie and Adam Pardy instead. Brodie put in a hell of a training camp, offers a cannon of a shot on the power play, and is another reason why the Flames – overstocked with defencemen and dedicating too much of their bloated salary cap to the blueline – need to clear out some bodies on defence and make room for as many as three younger guys who are NHL-ready.

Speaking of just that, there may be a reason Sarich is sitting beyond being the odd man out on a crowded defence.

Sportsnet columnist Mark Spector – an old friend of mine from university days, but don’t hold that against him – is floating a trade idea that would see the Oilers send disgruntled Oil d-man Sheldon Souray and centre Andrew Cogliano to Calgary for Sarich and winger Curtis Glencross. While the idea may be little more than Spec’s vivid imagination, the fact that Sarich may be sitting tonight lends weight to the idea that maybe, just maybe, there’s a deal in the works that includes him.

That Souray is available is the furthest thing fro a secret. He desperately (and very publicly) wants out of Edmonton, and has so alienated himself from the Oilers’ management that he’s been sent to the minors, dispite his $4.5-million salary this year.

While whether there’s anything to the rumour is uncertain, but there is some logic to the deal, at least on the surface. The Oilers need to unload Souray, and would like to get something for him. The Flames could use another centre, with three of them (including potential second- or even occasional first-liners Matt Stajan and Daymond Langkow) on the injury list. Souray has a huge shot on the power play, which Calgay desperately needs. Calgary would want to even out the salaries in any Souray deal, hence tossing in Glencross. (In my mind, the Glencross part is utterly wishful thinking on Spec’s part, but whatever.)

Still, I think the deal would be stupid on the Flames’ part. You’re lending a huge helping hand to a division rival (and loathed enemy) that’s in a very tough spot, giving up way too much in the bargain, and doing nothing to solve your own problems.

You’d be taking on one disappointing player (Cogliano) and another who’s pouted his way all the way to the AHL, and in return you give Edmonton a solid defencemen and a lightning-fast winger who scares the crap out of opponents when he’s on the penalty kill. And you actually add to your cap hit (by roughly $700,000) at a time when you’re already over the cap, and only injuries are keeping you from having to deal with that. you’d still be top-heavy with defencemen, top-heavy with salaries, and in need of an injection of forwards who can put the puck in the net (you’ve got four of them – Langkow, Kotalik, Stajan, Moss – who are out indefinitely with injuries).

The Flames would be idiots if they did this. You don’t bail your arch-enemy out of a jam unless you’re able to get something substantial out of it while really screwing them. This does neither.