Calgary Flames: What could happen at the 2018 NHL Draft
By Ramina Shlah
Trading a defenceman for a defenceman
A situation that I don’t know if I see that probable, but still possible. The Calgary Flames thought that by trading for Travis Hamonic, they would have one of the best top-four in the league. Unfortunately, nobody quite took into account TJ Brodie.
Brodie has been on somewhat of a decline for the past couple seasons. Last season, everyone attributed it to having the anchor of Dennis Wideman. But this past season, it was clear that Brodie was making his own mistakes and Hamonic wasn’t exactly the one bringing their pairing down.
Basically, ever since Brodie stopped being on a pairing with Mark Giordano, he’s been on a decline. So there have been speculations on if Brodie has played his last game in a Flames jersey. And if he did, who would the Flames trade for? Well, a situation could be that if the Flames were to trade Brodie, Michael Stone would move up to that second pairing and Brett Kulak and Rasmus Andersson would be that third pairing since the Flames have made it vocal that they anticipate Andersson to have a full-time NHL role soon.
Related Story: What's going on with T.J. Brodie?
However, in an ideal situation, Brodie and Stone would both get traded and the Flames could find a different replacement on that second pairing. While it’s probably for Brodie to get traded, the Flames may not get high value for him given he just had his worst season in the past four years.
And Stone is somewhat expensive for a third-pairing (I’m still confused on why the Flames chose to re-sign him, but that’s in the past), so it may be unlikely teams are willing to trade for him as well. And the only way I see the Flames trading for a defenceman is if they also give a defenceman in return.
Like I mentioned, trading a D for a D seems unlikely, but not completely out of line.