Flames center Morgan Frost is entering the final year of his contract and is slated to become an unrestricted free agent next summer. With the team in the middle of a rebuild and the high demand for centers, there’s a strong case to make that Calgary should be looking to move the 27-year-old at some point before the trade deadline in March.
However, TSN’s Travis Yost argues that there’s a strong case to make for the Flames to instead work out an extension with Frost. On top of scoring a career-best 22 goals last season and winning nearly 57% of his faceoffs, there are some underlying numbers that suggest that this type of offensive output could be sustainable moving forward.
While Frost isn’t going to be a true top-line pivot around the league, he has shown enough over the last several years to demonstrate that he’s a capable middle-six piece at a minimum. He’s also still young enough to still be an important contributor a few years from now when Calgary is looking to flip the switch toward trying to make a playoff push again. Even rebuilding teams need some veteran pieces and while GM Craig Conroy could likely procure a strong return for Frost’s services in a trade, keeping him in the fold could be a shrewd move in the long run as well.
Another speculative trade candidate out of Calgary has been defenseman Zach Whitecloud. Acquired as part of the return for Rasmus Andersson in a midseason swap, the Flames gave him heavy minutes down the stretch, playing him more than 22 minutes per night which is way ahead of the ice time he had been receiving in Vegas. Being a right-shot defender with a very affordable contract ($2.75MM for the next two seasons) means that Conroy will have no shortage of suitors for his services.
That said, Kent Wilson of the Calgary Herald suggests that moving the 29-year-old this coming season may be unlikely. Given that the Flames have a very young core on the back end, they will place some extra value on having Whitecloud mentor some of those younger players. Having him on the roster will also allow them to ease someone like Zayne Parekh into the full-time lineup over handing the youngster a role he’s not yet ready to handle. Accordingly, while he’ll undoubtedly be highly coveted on the trade front now, their preference could very well be to hold him for another year.
In a separate column, Wilson examined Samuel Honzek’s situation. The 21-year-old got into 18 games with the Flames last season where he had four points and 35 hits but has had his development marred by injuries so far. At a time when the Flames are looking to push more youth into their forward group, he’s seemingly not quite the lock that he once was.
While Honzek was a quality point producer in junior hockey, he doesn’t profile as a high-offense forward in the pros. Instead, he may fit more as a middle-six power forward while Blake Coleman is now in Minnesota, opening up some hard matchup minutes. One of those roles could be viable for Honzek but he will need to take some solid strides this season toward showing he can handle one of those. Otherwise, it wouldn’t be entirely shocking if he found his way into trade speculation at some point as well.