Flames Have Had Discouraging And Quiet Offseason So Far

The Calgary Flames were not going to rebuild after Johnny Gaudreau hit free agency and they had to trade Matthew Tkachuk. Even though it didn't necessarily work out for the Flames right away, what they came away with has been good enough to give the team some hope.

There are good young players already on the team and more are on the way. It is a team that has a good mix of young and old talent, but more did have to change this offseason. The good news is that there is still some time for Calgary to do something, even though it looks a bit unlikely.

Many have been waiting for the Flames to trade Rasmus Andersson and get something very good back, whether Andersson is just part of the deal to land a star, or the team gets some young-ish talent that may be NHL ready as well.

The Flames have over $15 million cap space and only Connor Zary to sign. That will get done as it makes little sense for it to last into training camp. Michael Russo said that "I was a little surprised they didn't do more. I thought they would try to upgrade maybe at center. I thought Marco Rossi...would've made a lot of sense. I don't think they had a lot of interest, or pretty mild interest."

While Rossi may not have been a target as the Minnesota Wild acquiring Andersson makes little sense, the Anaheim Ducks may make a little more sense. I can see a spot on the Ducks' defense for Andersson past his current contract and the Flames could definitely run a Nazem Kadri - Mason McTavish 1-2 punch down the middle in the top-6 for a number of years if Morgan Frost doesn't become the player Calgary hopes he can be.

There is time and the Flames have assets and space. They may also just wait and see where the team is at and how the trade market shakes out in the first half of the season. There is no major rush with this current group, but they would also like to be more competitive and have a chance while Kadri, Jonathan Huberdeau, and Mackenzie Weegar are still playing at the level they're at.