After an overall busy trade deadline day surrounding the NHL, the Calgary Flames didn’t make too much noise. Here is how they did.
On a busy trade deadline day for lots of NHL teams, the Calgary Flames moves seemed underwhelming. However, not many Flames fans were expecting big moves anyways. About a week ago, GM Brad Treliving somewhat hinted that the Flames wouldn’t be making any big moves by mentioning how outside resources won’t fix the Flames issues right now and most of their problems are internal.
The Flames made two moves: Picking up RW Chris Stewart off of waivers from the Minnesota Wild and trading a 2019 seventh-round pick to the Ottawa Senators for C Nick Shore. So they basically gave away a seventh-round pick next year for two bottom-six type players. That doesn’t seem to awful.
So how did they do?
Nick Shore
To be honest, I’m not totally against this trade. Shore’s a right-shooting centre and right shots are exactly what the Calgary Flames are missing. Like I mentioned yesterday…
"This season, Shore has four goals and 16 points in 55 games. While that’s not exactly impressive, like I mentioned on Twitter, he also has a 52.1% CF% with 39.7% OZS%.Shore has just one assist in his last six games, but he’s also been playing for the Sens… He was also part of the deal that sent Dion Phaneuf to LA and sent Gaborik the other way. So he hasn’t exactly been in Ottawa for very long. With LA this season, he had four goals and 15 points in 49 games. Shore has been playing on the Sens fourth line centring Marian Gaborik and Max McCormick with limited minutes.While he had slightly better possession metrics in Ottawa than with LA this season, he also started more of the faceoffs in the defensive zone in LA."
Related Story: Flames acquire Nick Shore from Senators
With all that, he seems like he could actually be decent bottom-six player. Although he is a centre, so he’ll have to fight Matt Stajan for that 4C spot, another player who was part of a Dion Phaneuf trade.
While Shore doesn’t put up a lot of points, his metrics are exactly what you’d hope for in a fourth-liner. Treliving said that Shore is someone the team has been looking at since his NCAA days. He also said that they were looking for a right-shooting centre who can play a defensive role. Is this a slight indication that they may be parting ways with Matt Stajan when his contract is up this year if all things go well with Shore?
He also talked about how great of a penalty-killer he is. The fact that the Flames only gave up a seventh-round pick for him when they gave up a second-round pick last year at the deadline for Curtis Lazar – a player who’s probably worse than Shore – shows that they definitely learned their lesson.
Let’s now look at Chris Stewart.
Chris Stewart
Like I mentioned, the Flames picked Stewart up off of waivers. Again, like I mentioned yesterday…
"This season, Stewart has nine goals and 13 points in 47 games. He also has quite a low CF% compared to his OZS%. His CF% this season is at a mere 40.5% with an OZS% of 52.0%. Basically, he has quite low puck-possession stats and the other teams get more shot attempts than his teammates do when he’s on the ice (at 5v5) even though more than half of the starts he has have been in the offensive zone.Basically, he’s bad at puck-possession, to put it bluntly."
Related Story: Flames claim Chis Stewart off waivers
This pick up wouldn’t be so bad if Stewart didn’t make his way into the lineup tonight on the first line with Johnny Gaudreau and Sean Monahan. The last two games, Sam Bennett has been playing on that line and they seem like the found chemistry quickly. So the fact that Stewart basically took his spot is somewhat baffling.
However, Glen Gulutzan did say that they would be messing with the lines a little bit and would most likely be playing with the lines as the game goes on to see the best fit for Stewart. But between Shore and Stewart, Shore actually seems like a decent bottom-six player. Unfortunately, Stewart does not.
How did the Flames do?
I’ll give the Shore trade an A- because the Flames barely gave up anything for it and he seems like a decent bottom-six player on a cheap contract (less than $1 million where the Flames only have to pay $193,952 for the remaining and which ends this year). So if the relationship isn’t right, they can always part ways with him this off-season. It isn’t higher because the Flames didn’t quite need a 4C right now with Stajan still on his contract, but it isn’t horrible of a trade.
I’ll give the Stewart pick up a C because he isn’t good a puck-possession, he’s not that offensively gifted, and (by no fault of his own) he somehow will start the game tonight on the top line. However, this isn’t a complete fail because his contract is also quite cheap ($1.15 million, so the Flames only pay $241,129) and who knows, he may be able to find his offence back with the Calgary Flames.
Next: Flames won't trade Sam Bennett anytime soon
How do you think the Calgary Flames did? Do you wish they made more of a splash?