Calgary Flames acquire Kerby Rychel for Hunter Shinkaruk

The Calgary Flames have traded forward Hunter Shinkaruk to the Montreal Canadiens for forward Kerby Rychel.

Finally some news! I was going crazy over here. The Calgary Flames have traded Hunter Shinkaruk to the Montreal Canadiens for Kerby Rychel. Both forwards were first-round picks in 2013. Up until now, it seemed like the Flames were trying to acquire basically the entire 2013 first round, but this one cancels out, so it doesn’t necessarily count.

Rychel, who was drafted 19th overall by the Columbus Blue Jackets, was traded in 2016 to the Toronto Maple Leafs after a request for a trade had been issued. This season, he was traded to the Canadiens in the trade that sent Tomas Plekanec to Toronto. Shinkaruk was drafted 24th overall by the Vancouver Canucks. He was traded to the Flames in 2016 for Markus Granlund.

Rychel played in just four games for the Habs last season where he had one goal and one assist. Much like Shinkaruk, he has spent the majority of his time in the AHL, something that hasn’t been sitting well with Rychel, which is why he wanted a trade from Columbus.

Unfortunately for him, it doesn’t seem like he’ll be getting a whole lot of NHL ice time here in Calgary either. Compared to the other bottom-six players the Flames currently have, there won’t be room for him. And seeing how this is basically a swap of prospects and how Shinkaruk didn’t play a game at the NHL level last season, it’s highly unlikely Rychel will this season.

I mean… unless the Flames can do something about Curtis Lazar and give a spot to a player who is basically another Curtis Lazar. Otherwise, this seems like somewhat of an underwhelming trade.

All I saw was “Cortex Transaction Alert” and the fire inside me was building. That was quite the underwhelming transaction from Cortex, I must say.