"Zero sense for the gain": Flames GM Treliving details trade deadline approach
The Calgary Flames didn’t do much in advance of the 2023 NHL Trade Deadline.
No making waves.
No big splash.
Just some subtle swimming through trade waters.
As general manager Brad Treliving should have.
“We have a good team that’s underperformed here for various reasons,” Treliving said. “And so for us, we felt it was most prudent right now to work around the edges. I think in certain areas we’ve improved our team. But we’ve got 20 games here. We know the hill is steep. But we’ve made our bed and now we’ve got to deal with it. I believe in this group, no question, but the reality is we sit where we sit after 62 games and we know the challenge in front of us.
“The big thing for us is we weren’t coming into this to say we were looking for short-term help that would cost us picks, young players, prospects, anything of that nature.”
The Flames didn’t do much to bolster those odds at the deadline, with the league’s first brother-for-brother swap in sending Brett Ritchie, and defenceman Connor Mackey, to the Arizona Coyotes in exchange for Nick Ritchie and Troy Stecher.
The Flames also added Dryden Hunt, optioning farmhand Radim Zohorna to the Toronto Maple Leafs.
Simple. Subtle.
“We’ve got a good team,” Treliving said. “It’s easy to poke holes in it right now. We’ve got a good team that’s underperforming. There’s a difference. We’ve had individuals underperform, and collectively we’ve underperformed. We’ve all got to own it. Our work the last few days in particular was looking at longer-term more than short-term.”
Calgary trails the Winnipeg Jets by five points for the second wild card into the playoffs from the Western Conference, and are nine back of the Edmonton Oilers for the second. The Flames also trail the Seattle Kraken by nine points for third in the Pacific Division.
They’re just one up on the retooling Nashville Predators, too, with the latter having three games at hand.
As such, analytics site MoneyPuck gives the home side an underwhelming 47% chance of qualifying for the playoffs.
They were a 73.8% bet eight days ago.
“When you look at where we’re at right now, to say that you’re in the game and start throwing second round picks and first round picks and third round picks… those add up,” Treliving said.
“To me, it made zero sense for the gain that you’re going to get, and knowing the position we’re in. It falls on all of us. We’re in the position here. We’ve all got a piece of the pie — management, players, coaches — and now we’ve got to dig ourselves out as best we can. We’ve got to dig it out with the group we have. We didn’t believe at all we were going to start spending assets to say, ‘Okay, let’s cross our fingers and hopefully somebody gives us a bump the last 20 games.’
“We haven’t been able to get traction, and sort of find a foundation and build from it. We haven’t gone on any kind of streak.
“We’ve tried to give ourselves a little help around the edges today and we haven’t taken anything out of the room. And now we’ve got 20 games to see where we end up.”
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