NHL Network: Elliotte Friedman on the NHL Network on the latest on the Calgary Flames.
** NHLRumors.com transcription
E.J. Hradek: “Elliott, let me ask you about the circumstances in Calgary. They have a new GM there, Craig Conroy they have a number of players that are coming to the end of their contract. He’s got to kind of figure out and sort through what is going to happen there.
One player came out and wanted, publicly said they wanted to trade. What are you hearing about the Calgary Flames and what they’re thinking about moving forward?
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Friedman: “Well EJ first of all, on the player asking for the trades Zadorov through his agent doing it. Mikael Backlund Flames captain at some point last week, I don’t know if it was individual or it was you in a group, I heard differing arguments about that. But it definitely happened where he made it very clear to the players, that the flames have to cut down on the noise and there can be no more distractions. There can be no more agents making public comments. they have to worry about playing their game. And after Backlund said that they won twice and they lost and shoot to the Islanders. They got five out of six points, and I don’t think that’s a coincidence.
You know, look, I think there are teams hovering around the Flames. I do think they’re three UFA D, (Noah) Hanifin, (Nikita) Zadorov and (Chris) Tanev, people are talking to them about them. I think Lindholm same thing,
I think Calgary’s got a couple of different things pulling them though, EJ. Number one, when do they want to do this? I think some teams would like to do things with the Flames and I think some teams would like to do it pretty soon. But Calgary is not out of the playoff race and I think they would kinda like to see how this plays out.
I think the other thing EJ that becomes a question here is, do the Flames allow any team interested in trading for these players the opportunity to talk contract with them because that can improve what you get in return. So, and the other thing too, that a few guys told me about is, when you have a player ask for a trade, sometimes a team will draw a line and say we’re not doing this right away because we can’t, we can’t let people think that if you asked for a trade, we’re just going to accede to your wishes right away.
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So I think there’s a lot of balls in the air. I definitely think they’re talking to teams about these players. I think teams like the Islanders, Dallas, Toronto, I would say Arizona and Vancouver, although I don’t think Vancouver is likely. All those players have been asking about the D. I wonder about a team like Columbus and Lindholm. So I think Calgary’s got a lot of teams that they’re talking to and a lot of teams reaching out. I think the most challenging thing is figuring out how quickly they’re going to do something.”
