Whether the deals they made in the past few days result in a playoff berth or only lead to the bitter disappointment of just falling short of the second season, both the Vancouver Canucks and Calgary Flames deserve to be lauded for their decisions to act now.
Instead of holding until closer to the March 7 trade deadline, the Canucks and Flames, who are currently running neck-and-neck in the standings, wisely consummated impactful and decisive trades.
The Flames were pegged prior to the season to be a lottery team but have become a surprise playoff contender. They added a pair of middle-line forwards in Jeff Farabee and Morgan Frost and sent struggling pending unrestricted free agent Andrei Kuzmenko, young forward Jakob Pelletier and a couple of draft picks, including a second-rounder, to the Philadelphia Flyers.
How this pans out in the long term is anyone’s guess, since we have no idea who the second-round pick will become, whether Kuzmenko can find his scoring touch paired with former KHL teammate Matvei Michkov, and how Pelletier, a 2019 first-round pick, develops.
As an aside, how things go with Flyers coach John Tortorella and Kuzmenko, whose attention to defensive detail is often wanting, will be must-watch TV.
As the Flames push for a playoff spot with their anemic attack, adding Frost and Farabee comes with questions, but plenty of upside. Both past first-round picks have shown great promise, but inconsistency. However, they are both not yet at their peak development, making Calgary’s move a calculated gamble with an eye on long-term possibilities.
Certainly, with the added element of a playoff push, Farabee and Frost will have a golden chance, and motivation, to turn their seasons in a huge positive.
As for the Canucks, they had a radical Friday night with a pair of multi-player swaps that remade a chunk of their lineup.
First came the long-awaited and expected deal that sent J.T. Miller, along with depth defenseman Erik Brannstrom and prospect Jackson Dorrington to the New York Rangers for center Filip Chytil, defenseman Victor Mancini and a 2025 first-round draft choice.
The move was long overdue, with it becoming all too public that the fiery Miller was not getting along with others, notably Elias Pettersson.
Upon flipping that draft pick to the Pittsburgh Penguins along with fourth-line forward Danton Heinen, depth defenseman Vincent Desarnais and prospect Melvin Fernstrom, the Canucks added a top-four defenseman in Marcus Pettersson and winger Drew O’Connor—who will likely skate on the second line with Chytil.
Other than apparently wanting to own every NHLer with the last name Pettersson, the Canucks are hoping the new-look second line can replace Miller’s contributions, and a stronger defense corps will ignite the middling club, which won a division title last season but floundered in this campaign.
In theory, it should help immensely, especially if the dressing room has more cohesion. Besides, if things continue to go sideways over the next month, the Canucks have more pieces to dangle come trade deadline, with O’Connor and Marcus Pettersson both pending UFAs, along with forwards Brock Boeser, Pius Suter and a few other depth players.
Being forced to trade away the best player in a deal—as Miller is—is never a good position to be in, but the Canucks found a way to make silk from the sow’s ear.
With the Flames and Canucks one point apart heading into Saturday’s action, the race is on to see which team comes up with a winning roll.
