Calgary Flames: Three Potential Trades Involving 1st Round Pick

The Calgary Flames haven’t been scared to deal first round picks in the past. Will they do it again?

The Calgary Flames have not been worried about trading away their first round pick in the past. In 2015, the traded their first round pick to the Boston Bruins, along with a couple of second rounders for defenceman Dougie Hamilton.

Two years later, at the 2017 NHL Draft, general manager Brad Treliving was wheeling and dealing once again. He traded his 2018 first round pick as part of a package to the New York Islanders for Travis Hamonic.

The pick that went to Boston turned into Zach Senyshyn while the first rounder that went to Long Island ended up being Noah Dobson.

You win some, you lose some I suppose. But that won’t stop Treliving from trying to upgrade his roster once again in the future. The NHL Draft is fast approaching with the first round taking place on October 5 and the remainder being held the next day. Could we see the Flames move thier first round pick once again?

They currently hold the 19th overall selection. Based on prospects rankings and lists, there could be some intriguing names available with that pick. Some high scoring CHL forwards like Dawson Mercer, Hendrix Lapierre and Jacob Perreault could fall to 19th. But do the Flames want to be patient and pick someone who will help in a couple years?

Or do they want to make a trade and find someone who can help them right now.

If they do swing a deal, they have a couple of lineup holes they could look to fill. Cam Talbot is a free agent and the team could look to find more of a number one goalie, rather than a platoon guy like Talbot.

Calgary is about to lose T.J. Brodie and Travis Hamonic to free agency as well and could use a right defenceman to slot in next to Noah Hanifin on the second pairing.

They could also use a big, scoring right winger to jump into the top six with Sean Monahan and Johnny Gaudreau.

So, if the Flames do want to move their first round pick, who could they target to acquire via trade?

Brandon Montour

The Buffalo Sabres are in an interesting spot right now. They have been awful for years, and they only have five forwards signed for next season. They do have a lot of defencemen under team control, arguably too many.

Last season, the Sabres moved Marco Scandella for a fourth round pick only to see him traded again a few weeks later for second and fourth round picks. They also lost Zach Bogosian for nothing, deciding to tear up his contract when he refused to report to the minors. Now, he is in the Stanley Cup Final playing every night for the Tampa Bay Lightning.

They just had so many defencemen that they had to get rid of a few. They still have a handful of players at the same position and could be enticed to move a player like Brandon Montour for the right return. With Rasmus Ristolainen and Henri Jokiharju on the right side, Montour could be the odd man out in Buffalo.

Montour is a steady, two-way defenceman who is a perfect option on a team’s second pairing. Sliding him in next to Noah Hanifin would give the Flames a great two-way second pairing.

Montour is a restricted free agent, but the Flames have plenty of cap space to fit him in. He scored 18 points in 54 games for the Sabres this past season but the 26 year old showed more offensive punch a year ago when he had eight goals and 35 points.

The Brantford, Ontario native was a second round pick of the Anaheim Ducks in 2014. He showed lots of promise in their organization before he was dealt to the Sabres for the 29th overall pick in last year’s draft and Brendan Guhle.

The 19th overall pick should be enough to get Montour in a Flames jersey.

Yanni Gourde

I was going to suggest Kyle Palmieri here but we have had talked about enough players who came up with the Anaheim Ducks before being dealt, haven’t we?

The Tampa Bay Lightning have a tremendously deep team, but the salary cap staying flat is going to force them to move someone out that they would prefer to keep. The trouble there is, many of their big earners also have no-trade clauses built into their contracts.

That will make it difficult to move a players like Steven Stamkos and Nikita Kucherov but why would they want to anyway? Tyler Johnson, Ondrej Palat, Alex Killorn and Yanni Gourde also have no-trade clauses, but convincing Gourde to move him might not be as difficult as the others, and the reason for that is playing time and opportunity.

The 28 year old only had 30 points in 70 games this season. So why would the Flames want to give up a first round pick for him? Well, it’s basically the same reason he would want to waive his no-trade clause. Opportunity.

Gourde was 9th among Lightning forwards in ice time this season. He played some second unit power play minutes, but averaged only 0:42 per game of ice time with the man advantage this season. His most frequent linemates this season were Pat Maroon and Cedric Paquette. After those two, he most often played with Carter Verhaege and Mitchell Stephens.

30 points in 70 games is starting to sound a lot better. Especially when you look at his past. When he actually played with Brayden Point or Steven Stamkos in his first two seasons, Gourde scored 25 goals and 68 points in 2017-18 and followed that up with 22 goals and 48 points the next year.

Gourde is under contract for five more years at a cap hit of $5.16 million per season. He would be an awful lot closer to his best season than his worst if he was put on a line with Johnny Gaudreau and Sean Monahan. The chance to play with two offensive players again might be enough to entice him into waiving that no-trade clause.

If it is, there is no question five years of Gourde would be worth a first round pick.