Flames Sign Chris Tanev & Alex Petrovic, Lose T.J. Brodie To Toronto

The Flames reworked their blue line Friday by adding former Vancouver defenceman Chris Tanev to their roster. The Toronto native left the only franchise he’s ever played for, signing a four year, $18 million dollar contract (average $4.5 million per year) with Calgary. Tanev was a steady presence in Vancouver’s lineup playing in 514 games since 2012-13 and racking up 118 points from the defensive end.

Tanev add some physicality to the Flames defensive end as well. At 6-2 and 197 lb, Tanev is a big body in front of the net and he’s pilled up a ton of blocked shots over his career. Since registering full time minutes in 2013-14 he's only had two seasons where he's had less than 100 block shots. Those are in 2016-17 and 2017-18 where he played in a limited amount of games. Otherwise he's been over a hundred, with 170 block shots being as high water mark and blocking 159 shots in last season's abbreviated 69 game schedule.

Alex Petrovic comes to Calgary by way of Boston on a one-year, two-way contract worth $750,000. Petrovic spent last season with the Providence Bruins in the AHL, never seeing time with the Bruins in Boston. He does have NHL experience however, logging seven years with the Florida Panthers and one year in Edmonton in 2018-19. In 263 career games he scored five goals and collected 45 assists while spending 360 minutes in the penalty box.

The Flames also re-signed tough guy Zac Rinaldo to a one year, two-way contract worth $700,00 and Byron Froese to a two year, two-way contract worth $725,000.

The biggest name moving out of Calgary was defenceman T.J. Brodie. Brodie inked a four year, $20 million dollar contract with the Toronto Maple Leafs Friday afternoon. Brodie was one of the longest tenured Flames on the roster, but his last few seasons were up and down production wise. The Chatham Ontario native struggled when he wasn’t paired with Mark Giordano on the Flames top defensive line and with the Flames growing depth of young defencemen it made sense for 30 year old and Calgary to part ways. Brodie played for the Flames for 10 seasons, his best being 2015-16 where he scored six goals and had 39 assists.

by Mark Parkinson