Last June, the Flames moved out one of their key defensemen in Dougie Hamilton as part of a swap with Carolina at the draft. It appears that they will be looking to move out a key blueliner once again this offseason. In his latest edition of the Bobcast (audio link), TSN’s Bob McKenzie reports that GM Brad Treliving is looking to move one of T.J. Brodie or Travis Hamonic.
The reason for wanting to do this is two-fold. Calgary has youngsters Juuso Valimaki and Rasmus Andersson that appear to be ready to take on a bigger role for next season. They also have a very expensive pending contract with restricted free agent winger Matthew Tkachuk that will eat up a lot of their remaining cap space.
Brodie is in the final year of his contract with a $4.6504MM cap hit and will be eligible for unrestricted free agency in 2020. While he’s a left-shot player, he has spent quite a bit of time playing on his off-side which would certainly bolster his trade value. He has also been a fairly consistent point producer, surpassing the 30-point mark in six straight seasons and his skating is certainly an asset as teams are asking their defense corps to be more mobile.
Hamonic, a draft day acquisition back in 2017, is a much different style of player. He’s more of a shut-down defender and has been quite an effective one over the years going back to his time with the Islanders. However, staying healthy for an entire season has been an issue for him throughout his career. He’s also in the final year of his contract with a cap hit that’s just over $3.857MM and will be UFA-eligible in 2020.
With the free agent class not being particularly deep in terms of capable top-four defenders, the Flames should garner plenty of interest in the blueliners in the weeks to come. Considering Treliving’s recent history of being active on the trade front at the draft, it wouldn’t be entirely surprising to see a deal happen when that gets underway on June 21st.