Calgary Flames: Five Pairing Options for T.J. Brodie

3. Michael Stone

This one is a bit of an obvious choice. The Calgary Flames traded for Michael Stone from the Arizona Coyotes back in February and boy was that some sort of good luck charm for the Flames. The Flames got Stone in return for some draft picks, and Arizona also retained half of his $4 million salary. Good work Brad Treliving.

This ended up being somewhat of a good luck charm for the Flames. Not only did they get someone to play alongside T.J. Brodie, but this meant that anchor Dennis Wideman is out of the lineup. And that sparked a ten-game win streak for the Flames, the longest in Calgary Flames history and also a tie with an ultimate franchise record, back when they were the Atlanta Flames, and back in 1979. Good work guys.

But like I mentioned earlier, I’m not exactly sure if Stone is going to be top-four quality with the Flames. Is he really a solid top-four defenceman, or was just anything better than Wideman? However, that being said, not only did the Flames have their win-streak, but T.J. Brodie’s stats drastically improved too. I talked about this earlier in March and that can be found here.

But again, is he good enough? We here at Flame for Thought had a virtual Monday roundtable discussion all about the Flames blue-line, and the general consensus seemed to be that Stone should stay and be given a shot.

The only thing is I’m not sure how much he would be asking for. He was under-performing quite a bit with the Yotes, and it’s not like he was incredible with the Flames. But he was a solid top-four option. If the Flames can manage to re-sign him for $4 million or less salary, then I’d say he’s an awesome choice and a safe pick. Him and Brodie seemed to gel together quite well and if we really look at it, him being in the lineup and Wideman out was really a big reason why the Calgary Flames ended up making the playoffs.