NHL Trade Deadline Open Thread

With roughly 17 hours left for teams to tinker with their rosters, it seems as good a time as any to put this up. The Flames, with the recall of Mikael Backlund, had 16 (!?!?!?) forwards at practice this morning, but as I’ve mentioned in the past month or so, the roster limits are gone as of tomorrow, so if Daz wants to go with 25 guys in the bigs for the duration, he can, since the Flames are in no cap danger at all. If they felt like taking a big ticket, they’d be able to do so without moving anyone of note.

That stipulated, I’d be a little surprised if anything major happened tonight or tomorrow for Calgary. The currency of deadline deals usually turns out to be draft picks, and as we’re all too aware, the Flames aren’t flush with those over the next couple of seasons. Maybe a Boyd move happens, maybe a GM falls, bangs his head, and remembers when Cory Sarich was a reliable tough minutes defender, maybe someone loves Ales Kotalik more than common sense should permit. I’m not holding my breath on any of that stuff. Unless something unexpected pops up, the Flames finished their major work for the year a month ago.

So, it's likely other teams that will do something or other between now and 1 MT, and the comments are yours to discuss, analyse, and vent, if need be. 

by Robert Cleave