"CALGARY - The Calgary Flames made a trade Monday morning to acquire a player already with their farm team.

The Flames sent minor-league blueliner John Negrin to the Winnipeg Jets in exchange for forward Akim Aliu.

Aliu has four goals and one assist in 13 games this season playing for the Abbotsford Heat while on loan from the Jets. The Flames obviously like what they saw to keep Aliu long-term.

Aliu was a second-round pick of the Chicago Blackhawks in 2007 but he's yet to make his NHL debut after bouncing around the AHL the past few seasons.

The 6-foot-3, 205-lb. winger was born in Okene, Nigeria, and is just 22. He played with Sudbury and London in the OHL.

Negrin played three games with the Flames during the 2008-09 season straight from the Swift Current Broncos of the WHL, but has played with the Heat the past three seasons.

When the Flames acquired 25-year-old blueliner Brian Connolly for centre Brendan Morrison over the weekend, they needed to make some space on the Heat's defence."

For AHL Defenseman Brian Connelly...

http://theahl.com/stats/player.php?id=3089
http://www.hockeydb.com/ihdb/stats/pdisplay.php?pid=81044
http://www.forecaster.ca/demos/hockey/player.cgi?7292
http://www.hockeysfuture.com/prospects/brian_connelly

... I'm not displeased. I thought resigning BMo was a mistake getting a youngish D-man who has had success at the AHL level seems like a fair return.

Preview of Battle of Alberta tonight

I did this ... just because. Thought you guys might be interested. Not sure if it's 100% right, but the search and replace function is a pretty awesome tool.

It doesn't take into account regional games (CBC), flex games (NBC/VS), and TBD games (TSN2), because I would have to do more work, and I'm not interested in doing more work.

I usually don't put these type of things up because they are not strictly hockey related. So I'll tuck it off to the side and not put it on the front page.

It can be rather controversial but I've seen a few articles now on SBNation about sexual orientation, military respect and so forth they don't strike me as particularly hockey related either.

So I figured why not, it is the off-season.

Why not put up something that I think is a real issue. I'll let the reader connect the dots for what this may or may not mean to sports markets, including hockey.

This was on my local news last night. You'll recognize the T-shirt of a young fan. I also want to add that until you live in the United States you should be wary about jumping to conclusions. There are many differences.

One myth is that Americans are lazy. Although those people that sit around and do nothing exist, they are no different in % to Canadians who do it. In reality in America many working-class Americans work 2-3 jobs as the college student in the video comments. That is inconceivable to most Canadians but it is true.

I doubt she is getting Stars season tickets this upcoming season and if anything this Stampede in Dallas may give Calgarians a bit of pause in their yearly festive rodeo.

Appreciate what you have...

The Calgary Flames have acquired forward Pierre-Luc Letourneau-Leblond from the New Jersey Devils in exchange for a fifth-round draft pick in the 2012 NHL Entry Draft.

29 other teams didn't sign Brad Richards, but he didn't sign with the Leafs only because of cap circumvention. You know who scores goals Brian? Brad Richards. You know what doesn't score goals Brian? Righteous indignation.

Hi Flames fans! Your Flames are the new owners of the NLL's Roughnecks, and this friday at 11am Eastern time I am hosting a lacrosse all questions answered thread. Come over all day to ask questions about the Roughnecks and more!

CALGARY - The Calgary Flames have hired former NHLer Clint Malarchuk as the club's goaltending coach and named Chris Snow director of video and statistical analysis.

Malarchuk, from Edmonton, spent last season with the Atlanta Thrashers as their a goaltending coach. He played 10 seasons in the NHL with Quebec, Washington and Buffalo from 1981 to 1992.

Malarchuk was also a goaltending coach with Florida Panthers and Columbus Blue Jackets during his career. He'll work with Flames starter Miikka Kiprusoff and other netminders in the system.

Flames general manager Jay Feaster said head coach Brent Sutter strongly recommended hiring Malarchuk.

"When we concluded our interview with Clint, I asked Brent what he thought, and without hesitation he said, ‘I think we should offer him a contract right now,'" Feaster said in a statement released by the Flames.

"We had interviewed half a dozen candidates at that point. It was the first time Brent had such an immediate reaction and felt so strongly that we had found the perfect fit both for Brent but, even more importantly, for our goaltenders."

Snow was Director of Hockey Operations for the Minnesota Wild for four seasons. He analyzed team rosters and cap commitments to plan strategy and prepare for contract negotiations and arbitration.

His job with the Flames will be compiling video and statistical data for use by the club. Before he entered the business of hockey, Snow was a Boston Red Sox beat writer for the Boston Globe.