I hate giving eyeballs to articles that are completely disconnected in their speculation, but we are still in the age of Stammergeddon and we already touched on someone’s dressing-down of this in Quick Strikes… So I’ll just get right to the festering meat of Mark Spector’s Sportsnet piece:
No small trade is going to fix his Flames, who are entirely broken right now, and word is out that [Brad] Treliving is willing to talk about a very big deal if he can find one. We even heard that his conversation with Tampa Bay general manager Steve Yzerman was all about the Lightning’s obvious issues with signing soon-to-be unrestricted free agent Steven Stamkos.
Nice bait there, ain’t it? And yes, the term “bait” is applicable here as Lightning captain Steven Stamkos is dangled and the contract situation is painted as mire. “Obvious issues” being that Stamkos didn’t sign outright and Yzerman has not offered Pandora’s Box and several appendages to be named later in order to get Stammer signed.
The “obvious issues” here is Sportsnet going for click-bait by even suggesting this, riling up the masses in eastern Canada (Toronto wants their hometown boy and to see another Canadian franchise supposedly chasing him would garner attention and criticism).
The second noteworthy issue from this report is the Tampa Bay Lightning situation outright ignored in order to rally the major point of Spector’s piece – that there’s trouble in Calgary that has to be mended. Never mind the Tampa Bay’s record at the start of the season and the lack of need for a major shakeup like this, never mind Lightning franchise itself is stocked with talent, never mind the fact that it’d take a true blockbuster of roster-player contributors and high caliber draft picks to pull in Stamkos and the fact the Lightning would have to shed more players in the deal with thanks to the 50-contract limit. There is no need right now in Tampa to even consider a deal, let alone for lateral organizational depth moves.
If Stamkos isn’t signed by the trade deadline, a deal might go down that is heavy on a draft-pick return… But that will be a trade with a contender looking for the last-piece-of-the-puzzle, or a franchise that’ll throw everything at Stamkos to retain him long-term.
Panic draws speculation like this every season around the league, and there’s discomfort in Calgary (one win in six games played and a goal differential of minus-13) but there’s no top-down, quick-fix solution for the Flames. Plotting one that sacrifices young talent for a big-name is going to cause more damage long-term than is fixes through immediate return. Calgary has some great young talent in Johnny Gaudreau, Sean Monahan and Sam Bennett among others. Sacrificing that young core for a win-now retooling would be the worst kind of panic move the Flames can make. Especially for an impending unrestricted free agent like Steven Stamkos.
