NHL insider: Flames should think about ‘potentially selling as opposed to adding’ at trade deadline

As the dominoes keep falling in the days before the 2023 NHL trade deadline, insider Elliotte Friedman suggested during a segment on Tuesday night's Sportsnet Central broadcast that Calgary Flames general manager Brad Treliving and his staff should probably start contemplating trading away higher-end player assets.

His comments came on the heels of the Flames' 4-3 overtime, home-ice loss to the Boston Bruins, the NHL's top team.

The Flames sit five points behind the Winnipeg Jets for the final wild-card playoff spot in the Western Conference with 21 games left in their schedule, so 25% of their games yet to be played.

"Over the past couple of days, they've started thinking about some things I don't think they would have contemplated at the beginning of the year," Friedman told Sportsnet Central anchor Evanka Osmak.

"And I do think some of the teams that, for example, lost out on other players they wanted, like Timo Meyer, started to call Calgary and say, 'What are you thinking? What are you doing here?'"

Flames forward Elias Lindholm

Think players who 'have one year left on their contracts'

"I think the Flames will have some things to think about, potentially selling as opposed to adding, and I do wonder if teams are going to ask them about some of the guys who only have one year left on their contracts. Guys like Elias Lindholm, guys like Tyler Toffoli, guys like Mikael Backlund, guys like Noah Hanifin, guys like Christopher Tanev. 

"I do think they're going to be asked about some of those players, and I think the Flames might have some big decisions to make. 

"I think that's going to be one of the kinds of things they're going to do, is peruse over those offers and say 'Do we want to do that?' or do they want to try and stay in the race."