As news broke Thursday of Calgary’s latest trade and signing, the hockey community celebrated Flames architect Brad Treliving for another masterful development.
Nazem Kadri in, Sean Monahan out.
The moves led to many anointing Treliving as next year’s GM of the Year, with one enthusiastic going so far as to suggest he should win the Hart.
The last magic trick performed by the NHL’s most prolific plate spinner came on his 53rd birthday while he was in Texas, transporting his daughter to school.
“I was on the s— list today, I pretended I was on the phone all day while a lot of heavy stuff was going on,” laughed the man who might as well top all GMs in the humor department.
“Today has been a busy day.”
Make it a busy five weeks, starting with Johnny Gaudreau’s 11th-hour decision to abort contract talks on July 12, starting a chain of trades and signings that have made Treliving the centerpiece of the NHL this summer.
Even as Rome seemed to crumble around him, it managed to snag and sign a superstar like Jonathan Huberdeau, followed by Thursday’s seven-year, $49 million deal with Kadri to give the Flames the center depth they crave for decades. .
When asked why it took five weeks for one of the top unrestricted free agents to finally sign with Calgary, Treliving cited the cap crisis as a key impediment.
“It’s a bit like fishing: sometimes you think you’ve got it on the hook and then it kind of disappears. Then you’ll see if you can get it back,” laughed Treliving, who dreams of having time to launch from a boat.
“At first, I didn’t really think … well, it was an interesting time because at the beginning of free agency we were trying to manage our situation.
“We didn’t know what (Tkachuk’s) number would be, so we made the change and wanted to leave as much flexibility as possible.”
Suffice it to say, their plans quickly changed.
The two sides stayed in touch, but it wasn’t until Treliving felt comfortable with Kadri’s desire to sign with Calgary over the last few days that he came out and paid handsomely to rid the team of the success of $6.375 million from Monahan. It did so by sending him to Montreal with a conditional first-round pick, which could be in 2024, 2025 or 2026.
The return was the coveted space and future considerations.
As incredible as a Flame like Monahan was in his first six years in Calgary, a growing list of injuries weakened him to the point where he hurt the club as a costly fourth-line liability in recent years.
All in all, Monahan was as good a soldier as a team could ask for, which made Treliving emotional as he thanked the longtime assistant captain for his service.
But like everything that’s happened in Calgary this summer, Treliving quickly turned the page on one of the league’s most prized signings of the summer.
“Putting (Kadri) in with the current centers we have gives us a formidable group,” said Treliving, who tried to trade for the 31-year-old Cup champion in 2019.
“He has a unique combination of skill and snark and plays a top position at center ice.
“Watching him over his career, he’s really developed the ability to play in all kinds of situations.
“That combination is unique, he can play with power, he can play heavy, he’s very competitive, very skilled. Smart player and he plays center ice.
“He’s our type of player.”
The type of player Darryl Sutter is too, which is what has Flames fans debating whether this year’s team will be better than last season’s 111-point edition when Gaudreau and Matthew Tkachuk were around.
It’s an incredible debate considering where this club was after losing Gaudreau for nothing.
“You handle this — it’s not me, it’s our staff,” Treliving said, drawing universal praise for his crisis management.
“You get to work and say, ‘how do we improve our team?’
“The last month has probably been a bit more dramatic with the people and players involved.
“You can curl up and play woe-is-me or dust yourself off and go after it, and that’s what we did.”
Seven million annually (and a first-round pick to make the deal possible) is a hefty price to pay, but the intangibles and pedigree Kadri brings as one of the league’s most intense competitors should continue to help shape the Flames as a spring threat. .
“When there’s a lot on the line, some people get tight and some embrace it, he loves the spotlight,” said Treliving, who knows how hard it is to land a top-six center.
“He plays on that edge, which we value. He has crossed the line a few times and paid for it.
“You mature and learn from it. When we were doing homework, he kept saying he was a winner.”
Does the team’s identity change?
“I don’t think our identity has changed at all,” he shrugged.
“We have very competitive players, a team that is competitive, that controls a lot, plays hard and we hope that they can play in any way they need to. But before we get into identity, let’s go to camp.”
Before that, no one would stop by Treliving for another move or two.
With 10 defensemen signed to one-way deals, you get the feeling it’s not over.
“We’ve improved our team by adding Naz and will continue to do so,” Treliving said.
“We still have a lot of defenses. We can tweak some things going forward.”
And maybe hook up a few moving boxes for his daughter while he’s at it.