While writing a comment in another thread depicting how much of a disaster the Lindholm trade was for the Canucks, I ended up going down a rabbit hole about just how good this entire trade tree has been for the Flames. It's been talked about before, but the more you look at it, the more absurd it gets… one trade essentially helped build the old core and it looks like it'll go a long way towards building the next one too.
Phase 1 – The Dougie Trade
June 26th, 2015
Calgary trades:
- 2015 1st round pick (Zachary Senyshyn)
- 2015 2nd round pick (Jakob Forsbacka Karlsson)
- 2015 2nd round pick (Jeremy Lauzon)
to Boston for:
- Dougie Hamilton
Looking back from 2025, it's easy to judge Boston for those picks (hindsight is 20/20), but if Calgary had kept those picks and drafted the same way Boston did. they would've gotten almost nothing. Meanwhile, Hamilton gave Calgary three excellent seasons, leading the Flames defencemen in scoring in 2016-17 and 2017-18.
Hamilton in Calgary:
- 245 GP
- 42 G
- 95 A
- 137 P (0.56 PPG)
This trade by itself was alrady a major win… and it was only the start.
Phase 2 – Dougie for Hanifin + Lindholm
June 23rd, 2018
Calgary trades:
- Dougie Hamilton
- Michael Ferland
- Adam Fox
to Carolina for:
- Elias Lindholm
- Noah Hanifin
Recap from Carolina's point of view:
- Hamilton: excellent, but injury prone. 121 points in 184 GP (0.66 ppg, so actually better then he was in Calgary), then walked as a UFA after 3 seasons.
- Ferland: 40 points in one season, then walked as a UFA
- Fox: Also refused to sign in Carolina, flipped for a 2nd round pick (that became Noah Gunler, a career AHL'er)
Pretty good short-term return for Carolina, but very little lasting impact on their roster today.
Recap from Calgary's point of view:
- Hanifin: legit top-4 defenceman for years
- Lindholm: elite top line player on Guadreau-Monahan line (2018-19), then even better as the 1C on the Tkachuk-Gaudreau line (2021-22)
Phase 3 – Modern Day "Rebiggle" Trades
January 31st, 2024
Calgary trades:
- Elias Lindholm
to Vancouver for:
- Hunter Brzustewicz
- Andrei Kuzmenko
- Joni Jurmo
- VAN 2024 1st round pick (Matvei Gridin)
- NJ 2024 4th round pick
For Calgary, Brzustewicz + Gridin both project as future NHL regulars with real upside. Kuzmenko was a serviceable player that went on to be traded for future assets. The NJ 4th was traded to the Flyers for a 5th and 6th as well.
Lindholm on the other hand really struggled in Vancouver, scoring only 12 points in 26 games. He played a bit better in the playoffs but walked for nothing afterwards. The Flames got an absolute haul for not a lot in return.
March 6th, 2024
Calgary trades:
- Noah Hanifin
to Vegas for:
- VGK 2026 1st round pick
- VGK 2024 3rd round pick (Kirill Zarubin)
- Danill Miromanov
The Flyers also recieved:
- VGK 2024 5th round pick (Noah Powell)
This trade helped Vegas immediately, but Calgary’s main payoff (the 2026 1st) hasn’t arrived yet. Philadelphia essentially got a free pick for retention.
January 30th, 2025
Calgary trades:
- Andrei Kuzmenko
- Jakob Pelletier
- CGY 2025 2nd round pick (Shane Vansaghi)
- CGY 2028 7th round pick
to Philadelphia for:
- Morgan Frost
- Joel Farabee
Not the flashiest move, and the true value depends on how the picks turn out. The Flyers later flipped Kuzmenko to LA for a 3rd-round pick. Considering Calgary got two roster players while Philadelphia ultimately holds a 2nd and 3rd, this is also a solid trade for the Flames.
Tables and Stuff
Now, lets look at the assets that each team in the trade tree still has control of to this day. Some of these players I didn't mention explicitly above, but the teams acquired them using assets gained in at least one trade in the tree.
| Calgary Flames | Philadelphia Flyers | LA Kings | New York Rangers | Vegas Golden Knights | Ottawa Senators | Boston Bruins | Carolina Hurricanes | Vancouver Canucks |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Hunter Brzustewicz | Shane Vansaghi (CGY 2025 2nd round pick) | Andrei Kuzmenko | Adam Fox | Noah Hanifin | Kevin Reidler (BOS 2022 5th round pick) | Jackson Edward (OTT 2022 7th round pick) | Noah Gunler (NYR 2020 2nd round pick) | Literally nothing lol |
| Matvei Gridin (VAN 2024 1st round pick) | Heikki Ruhonen (NJ 2024 4th round pick) | Brendan McMorrow (PHI 2025 7th round pick) | ||||||
| VGK 2026 1st round pick | Noah Powell (VGK 2024 5th round pick) | |||||||
| Morgan Frost | LAK 2027 3rd round pick | |||||||
| Joel Farabee | CGY 2028 7th round pick | |||||||
| Danill Miromanov | ||||||||
| Kirill Zarubin (VGK 2024 3rd round pick) | ||||||||
| Luke Misa (LAK 2024 5th round pick) | ||||||||
| Eric Jamieson (STL 2024 6th round pick) |
And finally, I thought it'd be interesting to not just look at modern day assets, but to look at lifetime scoring of the players produced from this trade tree (by team).
| Team Name | Games Played | Goals | Assists | Points | PPG |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Calgary Flames | 1276 | 261 | 498 | 759 | 0.59 |
| New York Rangers | 431 | 63 | 306 | 369 | 0.86 |
| Carolina Hurricanes | 255 | 59 | 102 | 161 | 0.63 |
| Vegas Golden Knights | 99 | 12 | 39 | 51 | 0.52 |
| Boston Bruins | 125 | 7 | 16 | 23 | 0.18 |
| LA Kings | 22 | 5 | 12 | 17 | 0.77 |
| Philadelphia Flyers | 32 | 5 | 8 | 13 | 0.41 |
| Vancouver Canucks | 26 | 6 | 6 | 12 | 0.46 |
| Ottawa Senators | 2 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0.00 |
(Note that the Rangers are carried by Adam Fox, which is mostly a footnote of this tree… and excuse my salt but I don't think the Rangers landing Fox says anything about how good their management is, because he was always going there.)
Final Thoughts
From a single trade in 2015:
- Calgary got three seasons of elite scoring from Hamilton
- flipped him into years of Hanifin + Lindholm
- flipped those into a new core of prospects and roster players
- and the trade tree continutes to accumlate in value 10+ years later
Meanwhile:
- Vancouver contributed a lot of assets and ended up with nothing.
- Carolina got short term success, but no lasting pieces
- New York got Adam Fox, but they were always getting Adam Fox (obligatory !Fox)
- Boston swung and missed on 3 valuable draft picks
- Philadelphia has a few depth draft picks
- LA has Flames legend Kuzmenko
All told, it's legitimately one of the best trade trees in franchise history. For all of the trades, the Flames either won outright (Boston, Vancouver ones especially) or did very well in (Carolina, Flyers). Vegas one is kind of up in the air, but if that's the worst trade to show here then the Flames should be ecstatic.
I made a spreadsheet organzing every player and pick from this tree, including the ones I didn't explicitly mention here. This is what I used for the results shown in the tables.
11 comments
Thanks for this. I really appreciate the hard work you put in to make content. A fun read.
In case anyone is confused (since it’s late 2025 and there’s no name attached to it) the Vegas 2025 first rounder we got for Hanifin hasn’t been realized yet because it was conditional on them actually keeping it. Instead they traded it for Hertl and we got the 2026 1st instead.
The weird one for me is why Hamilton never really stuck anywhere for long given his obvious playing abilities.
This trade tree actually starts with Glencross iirc
The Dougie deals by BT were some of his best work and what Conroy has done is quite something with just Lindholm and Hanafin.
I also enjoyed when Steve Dangle did his trade trees where, like you, using games played as a key output. Thanks for the breakdown!
Conroy has been really good at preserving organizational value. One of the things I am interested in seeing is whether he can convert some of these bulk assets into higher quality players over time. Basically, the Flames essentially have too many depth forwards and I wonder if Conroy can bundle several of them together to address a hole elsewhere.
Great post.
The Dougie trade also affected the oilers negatively. They were in on Dougie too, but lost out and ponied up for Griffin Reinhart instead. They paid a first (Barzal) and a second (Beauvillier), for one point in 29 games from Reinhart.
Chia eventually traded Hall one for one since Reinhart was such a dud.
The Dougie trade conceivably cost the oilers a cup or two.
That’s some really good analysis. Easy to read and follow. Thanks
That trade tree always fascinates me
It’s a lesson in not hanging onto assets before they’re past their prime. At the time, I thought we were losing a great defenseman in Hamilton when we traded him, but it worked out in the end. Similarly, Hanafin and Lindholm still had some serviceable years left in them, but they were pending UFAs.
I think Treliving has always been a mid at best GM who lived off the glory of two brilliant trades. And whatever else I may think of most of his other moves, the trades to bring in and then send out Hamilton were great.
It was funny at the time though because people here whined up a storm about trying to “shortcut the rebuild” when we traded for him. But when you have a chance to get an already very good 22-year-old defenceman for a couple lottery tickets, you do that every day.