Jay Bouwmeester Traded to Blues: The Horror Continues

Jay Bouwmeester has been traded to the St. Louis Blues for Mark Cundari, Reto Berra and a conditional 1st round pick in 2013. (Conditional on the Blues making the playoffs – if that doesn’t happen the Flames get the Blues 2014 1st and a 4th round pick)

Flames fans are still reeling from the underwhelming return of the Iginla trade and the Jbo trade hits them like a second punch in a one-two combination. Are we knocked out yet? Maybe not quite but I have a feeling a Kipper trade is coming and that will take us down to the mat, TKO style.

The Flames have allowed the Toronto Maple Leafs to talk directly to Miikka Kiprusoff’s agent and there is nothing like another pending Toronto trade to really finish us off. (TSN)

Toronto has historically been Calgary's worst trading partner. First the Gilmour trade, the Neuf trade and now a Kipper trade? Given what history tells us and how Kipper is playing this year we may end up with a 3rd round pick. Toronto is wise to get in on the Fire Sale going on in Calgary because at this point who can expect a good return.

If the Flames manage to even get a 1st out of Toronto they win as far as I am concerned. It all may hinge on Toronto directly assuring Kipper of a signing bonus on some kind of 1 year extension after his contract. I suspect the trade has already been worked out but it is all about Toronto getting Kipper to report.

Anyways, back to breaking down the trades.

The Iginla trade was arguably defensible due to his "special" status in Calgary. A Sundin like circus was avoided, the media was blacked out and the former Captain got what he wanted. He was not run out of town and the organization did protect itself from whipping up a outraged frenzy in the larger fan base, although not with the analysts

I think a lot of people are forgetting how an Iginla trade had multiple angles to be handled, the organization had to be careful with it from a PR stand point and a smiling positive Iggy in his post-trade media scrum was clearly pretty happy to be going to Pittsburgh and I am fairly confident he will return to Calgary at some point in the future.

That should take the sting out of it for many fans. The cold analysts today can rightly fret about the "right now" return but at the bottom line a franchise player was treated with respect and got what he wanted.

Having said all of that though, the Jbo trade is different. It was the one trade where I was personally hoping for a huge return.

At the very least I think Feaster should have locked up the 2013 1st, no conditions. The Flames are now sitting on 3 1st round picks in what is considered the deepest draft since 2003. This bodes well for them if they can hit with these picks, even all the way down to the 2nd round.

But the Jbo trade is conditional and Flames fans better be cheering hard for the Blues to make the dance this year.

Mark Cundari is a decent prospect in the Blues system but Flames fans are certainly not out of line to have expected more. Size is his main hurdle and you can't learn size but the Flames clearly zeroed in on him for some reason that escapes me at the moment but then again I have never seen the kid play, I imagine they have.

Reto Berra like Kenneth Agostino and Ben Hanowski, I have never even heard of but it turns out the guy looks like a fair G prospect and I can deduce Hartley’s influence here since he is playing in the Swiss leagues, Hartley likely saw him play.

Nothing wrong with stock-piling G at this point in time for the Flames. It is the one area where they seem to have a fair bit of prospect depth.

I was hoping the Flames would trade Jbo and eat some of his Cap in a trade, beefing up return. It looks to me like they are clearing Cap instead. Do they have their eye on buying this off-season? Are moves planned to go hunting for some big contracts that will magically fit on their team now? With a lowered Cap next year some teams are going to be selling.

That means we may see a Mike Cammaleri trade coming here too. If for no other reason than he will be the sole large Cap Hit next year.

Who knows at this point, may as well get the popcorn ready to watch the show and yeah, hope for losses this year. As long as the Flames are in the top 3 for picks they should be locking up a quality player for the future.

The possibility of locking down a 1st for Cammy and Kipper remains, meaning that the Flames COULD have 5 – 1st round picks in a very deep draft.

Boston may be hanging up on Feaster at this point but they may take Cammy for a 1st.

The Flames may have options to bundle up Boston's and Pittsburgh's 1st to move up in the draft. If such a scenario comes to pass.

The salt in the wound of these trades is these unknown prospects. I can't for the life of me figure out why the Flames are not getting better ranked prospects. Something to do with their new draft analysis, is magic stats giving them different rankings on players?

I expected a lot more for Jbo. At the age of 29 and given his style of play he could easily perform for another decade in the top 4. Today he is clearly a legit top 2 D and I simply don't get it.

The Flames should have been able to get a firm 1st, a 2nd and the prospects listed. To me that is a very fair offer and I imagine every GM in the NHL is lighting up Feaster's phone now. Who would not want to deal with him.

It is Apocalypse Now in Calgary

by M Smith