Flames Make Two Last Minute Deals at the NHL Trade Deadline

The Calgary Flames had a quiet couple of weeks leading up to the NHL trade deadline, too quiet.

Everything showed itself right at the deadline time when the team announced two trades, one with the Toronto Maples Leafs and one with the Arizona Coyotes. The Flames got an even player-for-player trade off and gave up three familiar faces and gained three new ones.

Toronto Maple Leafs

The first trade the Flames announced on Friday was Dryden Hunt for Radim Zohorna.

Zohorna spent the majority of the season with their AHL affiliate, the Calgary Wranglers. Zohorna played in eight games with the Flames this season and didn’t put up any points. He put up 29 points in 40 games with the Wranglers.

The Flames made two player-for-player moves just before the deadline hit.

In return, Calgary received Dryden Hunt, who has bounced around three NHL teams this season already including the New York Rangers, Colorado Avalanche, and Toronto Maple Leafs. He also got some time in with the Toronto Marlies.

He has nine points in 15 games with the Marlies and three goals in his 37 NHL games, one goal with every team.

Arizona Coyotes

The Coyotes trade was the second and final trade the Flames announced on Friday as a deadline move. Brett Ritchie and Connor Mackey were traded from the Flames, and they received Troy Stecher and Nick Ritchie from the Arizona Coyotes.

And yes, there are relations between Nick and Brett. They are brothers switching cities with this career move.

Brett Ritchie had eight points in 34 games with the Flames, and Connor Mackey had three points in 10 games with the Flames this year and has been a press box spectator for quite a while.

In return, Brett’s brother Nick comes to Calgary with 12 points in 58 games with the Arizona Coyotes. The other side of that trade includes a defenseman in Troy Stecher that comes to Calgary with seven points in 61 games with the Coyotes.

Moving Forward

The Flames didn’t appear to get worse this trade deadline. They needed some defensive depth, and Mackey wasn’t proving himself to be a fit.

Instead, maybe Stecher can get some games under his belt and be helpful to this struggling Flames team that needs all the help it can get to try and make it to playoffs this year.

They got a pretty even return on the guys they acquired at the trade deadline, and sometimes a new team and a new city can bring out the best in some players.

They didn’t make any massive moves that shake up the core much, but they’ve beefed up some weak spots that needed reinforcements for injuries or even to help out their league-leading AHL team in their anticipated postseason run.

The Flames have 20 games to go in the regular season, and things are really looking like they’ll get down to the wire. Will these new additions play a part in the team’s success or failure? That remains to be seen.