If you’re a Calgary Flames fan, it probably wasn’t your best day.
The Daily Faceoff’s Frank Serravalle dropped a bombshell on Twitter about four players on the Flames — who are entering the final year of a contract — who don’t want to re-sign with the organization once their current contract expires.
As we know, the Flames have plenty of UFAs and RFAs to sign after the 2023-24 season and with a new GM in the barn, he has to figure out who wants to stay and who wants to leave.
Today, we found out who might leave the Flames organization via trade or free agency.
Just before noon ET, Frank Serravalle tweeted this about Elias Lindholm:
# flames Update: CGY recently put on a big show, rolling out the red carpet ($) to try and re-sign C Elias Lindholm.
CGY is waiting for a response from Lindholm and hasn’t had a definitive answer yet. But major league speculation is that he’s leaning toward not re-signing with CGY.
– Frank Seravalli (@frank_seravalli) June 22, 2023
So five minutes later, he tweeted this about Noah Hanifen:
Faith # flames He received a more direct answer from defenseman Noah Hanifen, who clearly indicated he had no plans to sign an extension in Calgary.
That doesn’t necessarily guarantee a trade, but Calgary has an answer on where they stand.
– Frank Seravalli (@frank_seravalli) June 22, 2023
And about 30 minutes after Hanifin’s tweet, Serravalle threw his third bomb into the flames. This time on Mikael Backlund:
Finally, in # flames: a bit of a surprise. He said Mikael Backlund also tends not to re-sign in Calgary.
That could change, and the Flames are hoping that it will. It has been a staple for 15 years.
However, Craig Conroy has decisions to make.
– Frank Seravalli (@frank_seravalli) June 22, 2023
Finally, Serravalle tweeted about the flames again at around 5:30 PM ET. This time it’s about Tyler Toffoli, and here I’m going to start talking about the 31-year-old.
Do not throw another piece of wood on the fire in order to # flamesbut potential migration continues.
I’m told Tyler Toffoli also plans not to re-sign in Calgary.
– Frank Seravalli (@frank_seravalli) June 22, 2023
Tofoli, 31, has just wrapped up his second season with the Calgary Flames and by the sound of Seravalli’s tweet, it appears he too is looking to sign elsewhere when his contract expires at the end of the 2023-24 season.
However, even five minutes after that tweet, Sportsnet’s Elliot Friedman dropped this on Twitter:
There is talk this afternoon that Calgary has made Tyler Toffoli available for trade
– Elliot Friedman (FriedgeHNIC) June 22, 2023
So not even within five minutes, we got word that Tofoli isn’t interested in re-signing Calgary, and now the Flames have made him available for trade to 31 other teams.
With this little news, I think the Toronto Maple Leafs should be calling out the Calgary Flames for their services to help support the top six in Toronto.
Not only will Toffoli bring scoring ability to Toronto’s top six players, they also bring a reliable defensive presence on the ice in equal strength as well as a solid playing option as seen below. J Fresh Hockey Player Card for Tyler Toffoli.
It is not very common for a player who can score between 20 and 30 goals in a season to be available for trade with a year left on his contract. Not to mention, Toffoli had a career year last season scoring 34 goals and 73 points in 82 games — which led the Flames in both categories last season — and if he gets caught in the top six, especially with the Toronto team, he can match or Approaching. To last season’s total for sure.
As I said above, he’s entered the final year of his contract, and given his output and price ($4.25m), there should and may be a lot of teams calling Calgary about the services of the Scarborough Residents.
It is not known what the asking price is for Toffoli, but given his unwillingness to re-sign with the Flames, I believe Calgary will have to take the best offer available before losing it to nothing if he waits until after the 2023-24 season.
Oh, how could I forget that the new GM in Toronto is Brad Triliving’s former Calgary GM.
It wouldn’t shock me or anyone else if he swung a deal with his former club for Tyler Toffoli or even Noah Hanifen if Treliving wanted to improve the Toronto Blue Line.
It will be interesting to see what the Flames do with the NHL draft less than a week away and free agency next Saturday. It will also be interesting to see if Treliving finds a way to bring a Flames player to Toronto as well.
(stats from Hockey-Reference.com)
(Details of the contract from PuckPedia.com)