Blackhawks Need a Trade Like Flyers & Flames Pulled Off

Late last night, the Calgary Flames and Philadelphia Flyers pulled off a big trade. The Flames acquired forwards Morgan Frost and Joel Farabee from the Flyers for forwards Andrei Kuzmenko and Jakob Pelletier, a 2025 second-round pick, and a 2028 seventh-round pick. This deal makes sense for both sides. The Flyers cleared some salary cap space down the road, while the Flames added some well-needed depth for their playoff push.

Easy To See Flyers Motivation

Depending on what you read, both teams are the big winners and getting fleeced. William James of Philadelphia Hockey Now was pleased in his initial reaction to the trade. They shed Farabee’s $5 million cap hit for the next three seasons and moved on from Frost, who never fit in with John Tortorella’s system.

Kuzmenko’s contract expires after this season, and Pelletier will be a restricted free agent this summer, looking for a minimal raise from the $800,000 he’s currently making. Although the Flyers have been competitive, they are still in a rebuild. With this deal, they have seven picks in the first two rounds of the upcoming draft and precious cap space.

Flames Reward the Locker Room

The Flames are in a strange situation. They entered the season in the early stages of a rebuild, but the team keeps winning under first-year head coach Ryan Huska. If the Stanley Cup Playoffs started today, they’d be in the second Western Conference Wild Card spot. This move showed the locker room that the front office believes in them and is rewarding them for the unexpected yet welcomed results.

Acquiring Frost and Farabee gives them some depth scoring with two players under the age of 26, and they didn’t have to give up a first-round pick to get them. Adding Farabee’s contract is not concerning because, according to PuckPedia, the Flames have the second-most cap space available.

Blackhawks Need to Make Trades Like This

Calgary made the exact type of trade the Chicago Blackhawks need to start making. General manager Kyle Davidson said earlier this week that all options regarding the trade market are open. He’s already traded veteran Taylor Hall for a third-round pick, but that didn’t move the needle for many.

Frost is a player I’ve felt Davidson should target for a while now. I talked to Bill Matz of PHLY Flyers earlier this season about a possible trade.

Could the Blackhawks have pulled off this trade if they wanted to? Yes, they could have. Pelletier is a 23-year-old former first-round pick who hasn’t been able to find success at the NHL level yet. He sounds a lot like Lukas Riechel, even though Reichel has played many more games in the NHL than Pelletier. At least, you could argue that Philipp Kurashev is a viable comparison, too.

Kuzmenko is a high-priced, under-achieving forward on an expiring contract. This first made me think of Ilya Mikheyev; it’s not that he’s underachieving, but more because of the salary. However, he has another year left on his deal, so he likely wouldn’t have made sense. Some combination of Pat Maroon, Craig Smith, or Andreas Athanasiou could have possibly made this work. All three are on expiring contracts and would not be the Flyers’ problem after the season ends.

The Blackhawks rebuild is in pretty good shape. Many talented players are coming up through the ranks that will make up the core of this group when they are ready to compete again. Having a cupboard stocked full of prospects and draft picks is excellent. However, at some point, you need to start making moves that help both the present team and the future.