Hockey fans always love a good trade to debate about, but they also love discussing rumblings of potential transactions.
How can you blame them? Trades are one of the most exciting aspects of any sport because they are moves that can have varying degrees of impact on a team in the immediate and long-term future. You have the ones that involve minor league players or draft picks being swapped that barely move the needle, but there will occasionally be the blockbuster that sends shockwaves around the NHL. Combining that with the build-up to said move and the mounting speculation of what could transpire and what the return package may become makes the entire process so enthralling.
Of course, not every trade can come to fruition for a varying degree of factors ranging from failing to meet the asking price, a medical report, or a player unwilling to waive a clause. But sometimes you get a scenario where two parties outright refuse to conduct business in good faith making any speculation of them getting anything productive done a waste of time.
This leads us to the ongoing saga between the Leafs and Flames. Ever since Brad Treliving departed Calgary to move to Toronto, there has yet to be a single trade done between the two teams. The last time they made a trade was in March 2023 (when Kyle Dubas was still the GM) with a swap of Dryden Hunt for Radim Zohorna. Theoretically speaking, over a year without a deal getting done between two teams does not seem like a long time. But the aspects in play regarding why that has been the case say a lot about why things won’t be any different anytime soon.
It makes sense why many would be quick to assume that Treliving would want to trade for some players on the Flames. After all, he spent over a decade there as GM and knows better than most many of the pieces that could be or were on the market. Wanting to bring in some familiarity when going to a new team is human nature and it is sound logic for why Treliving would be in the running when Calgary is dangling one of their players for a trade.
So if he spent so much time with that organization, why has a transaction between the Leafs and Flames not happened since Treliving became Toronto’s GM? It likely has to do with the fact there appears to be some bad blood between him and some higher-ups in Calgary.
The end of his tenure with the Flames was rocky to put it lightly as there was a power struggle over the direction of the team in terms of their head coach. There were reports of discontent from the players regarding Darryl Sutter and while Treliving was willing to make a coaching change to bring in a fresh voice, upper management and owner Murray Edwards did not. Treliving opted not to sign an extension as a result yet, ironically enough, Calgary ultimately fired Sutter anyway a little over two weeks later.
The fallout from this rift between Treliving, Sutter, and Calgary management has led directly to the situation that we are now in where the prospect of a trade between the Leafs and Flames appears impossible.
It started when it was reported that he would not be allowed to be at the Leafs’ table during the 2023 Draft until after the Flames made their pick. While restrictions being in place for newly hired executives are not uncommon in the NHL, the fact that this was done when his old team went 16th overall and his new team went 28th overall at the draft made the move seem strange.
Then it became more apparent this past season when the Leafs were reported to be in trade talks for Nikita Zadorov, Chris Tanev, and Jacob Markstrom. All three of those players were never acquired in-season and there is a good reason for that.
When the Leafs made a push to make a big trade that would have gotten them both Zadorov and Tanev, the initial reason given for why it never materialized was because of disagreements over salary retention. Yet it was later reported by Ottawa Sun’s Bruce Garrioch that there is a belief among league executives that Edwards is in “no hurry” to help Treliving and the Leafs. The only way a deal would have gotten done was if Treliving was willing to pay a big fortune to get the players he wanted, which felt unlikely as he has earned a reputation for not budging on what he thinks the value of a player is.
Zadorov would ultimately get dealt to the Canucks for a third and a fifth, while Tanev was sent at the deadline to the Stars at a retained salary in a three-team deal that resulted in the Flames getting a second, a third, and a prospect. The exact details of what the Leafs offered have yet to be revealed, but the fact they wanted to acquire both in a major deal means they likely would have given the Flames a pretty good package. While those were not the only players Calgary wanted to move this past season, the fact that they were willing to take a lesser offer instead of what Toronto could have offered speaks volumes.
Meanwhile, Markstrom was in the middle of trade rumours this offseason with the Leafs being one of the teams in the mix to acquire his services. After he was acquired by the Devils for a first-round pick and defenceman Kevin Bahl, it was revealed that the Leafs had a comparable offer to what New Jersey had. Due to what Sportsnet’s Elliotte Friedman described as “politics”, Toronto would have had to blow everyone out of the water to get the goalie and this never came to fruition as Treliving held firm on what he felt was the asking price.
The evidence is clear that the Flames treat the Leafs (and by extension, Treliving) differently than they do other teams in the league. It says a lot that Calgary is more willing to make multiple trades with a divisional rival than they are with a team in a different conference. Sure it is certainly possible that the Leafs never truly had the best offer in all three scenarios mentioned earlier, but it is quite telling that Edwards will be unwilling to allow Craig Conroy to trade with his former boss unless Treliving makes a ridiculously large offer.
Yet despite the mounting evidence that the prospect of a deal between the two teams is near impossible, there are people still listing players on the Flames for the Leafs to target. Whether it be Blake Coleman, Rasmus Andersson, or bringing back Nazem Kadri, do not expect any of those players to end up donning the Blue and White anytime soon. It is a waste of time to consider any three of those players (or any other current Flame for that matter) as possible trade targets because they will not succumb to the Flames’ insistence of the Leafs needing to surrender an arm and a leg to get a deal done.
The only way for Treliving to get any one of his players from Calgary is through another team. It was evident when they acquired Tanev’s signing rights at the draft before signing him to a six-year deal and their interest in signing Zadorov before he became too expensive and they pivoted to Oliver Ekman-Larsson. By this logic, don’t be surprised if rumours emerge that the Leafs make a push to sign Oliver Kylington for cheap next month.
It has become painfully obvious in the past year that there is seemingly no chance that the Leafs and Flames make a trade together as long as Treliving is Toronto’s GM and Edwards is Calgary’s owner. The resulting fallout from Treliving’s power struggle with Flames ownership regarding Sutter had carried over into how the two teams conduct business when compared to the rest of the league. Toronto has been treated differently in the sense that they have to make a ridiculously large offer to get Calgary to consider, and the Leafs’ GM has a steadfast belief in sticking to his asking price and not budging.
It’s why the Leafs never got Zadorov, Tanev (initially), and Markstrom. It’s why they have no chance of landing the likes of Coleman, Andersson, or Kadri. And it’s why you should not expect a trade between the Leafs and Flames anytime soon.
