NHL Rumors: It could be an interesting year for the Calgary Flames

Sportsnet: Elliotte Friedman on the Jeff Marek Show talking about the Calgary Flames sending Andrew Mangiapane to the Washington Capitals and what it could mean for the rest of their roster.

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Matt Marchese: “Yeah, you mean Washington there, his former team. So they took Andrew Mangiapane for a second round pick. How much of this is because they’ve struggled to score goals and how much of this is keeping the team competitive while Alex Ovechkin aims to break Wayne Gretzky’s record?

Friedman: “I think there is some of that, but I think in general they want to be like, they, like they made the play-offs this year, but they were eliminated. And I just don’t think they felt that was good enough.

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I think, the biggest thing it tells me is that Mangiapane was still a year away from getting unlimited freedom. The Flames didn’t see him as part of the future. So I think that’s one of the things that’s going on here. That seemed to me.

I think this, as I think the Flames have set themselves up to be one of the most impressive teams in the league next year. They continued to fix themselves. They have a ton of money undrafted. You know, what else are they thinking of doing here?

I think it’s really interesting. And, you know, one of the things I wonder about is, like I’m sure other players on that list are probably asking the same question. They’re like, ‘Okay, what exactly are we doing here?’

So I’m curious to see what they’ll do with freelancing. They did it, they made it clear. They will be checking things out. They said they will be very careful about the time. They’re not looking for seven-, eight-year deals, but you can get good players on short deals, especially if you raise the AAV a bit.

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So I’m interested in this. They’ve, you know, I think, I think they’ve sent a little bit of a message that they’re willing to build more, or they’re more willing to change their roster than a lot of people expected. “