Sometimes you look at an exchange that happened a while ago and you think about how the both involved teams influenced. For one team it is seen as a great exchange that has set them so incredibly well now and in the future. Sometimes it is viewed for the other team as, well, not so great.
For the Calgary Flames, the trade that Elias Lindholm sees in January 2024 to the Vancouver Canucks as a home run for the team. They have several assets that look like they can be impact players for years, while Lindholm was usually miserable like a canuck and then walked to the Boston Bruins five months later.
Lindholm was a great player for the flames, but the trade that sent him to Vancouver has so far been a home run. Although there is still a way to determine what the return will be to be, it seems that Craig Conroy has done excellent work with a tough situation. So let’s see what this trade looks like today with everyone involved.
Elias Lindholm
As I said of the top, Lindholm was fantastic as a flame. Five and a half years he had a bargain of a contract and more than realized and more. It peaked in the 2021–22 season, when he scored 42 goals and 82 points, and was a selke finalist like the center on the most dominant line in hockey, alongside Johnny Gaudreau and Matthew Tkachuk.
After Tkachuk and Gaudreau had left, you could easily see that Lindholm took a hit, without having two elite players on his flanks. He was still a good player, but he was very clearly not the same without the two next to him. The next year and a half was a bit tough sleds for Lindholm, all with the highlight in the 2023–24 season, where it seemed as if it didn’t make him care and just wanted to come from Calgary. He got his wish.
When he arrived in Vancouver, things didn’t get much better. He only had 12 points in 26 games, and not long after he arrived in Vancouver, it seemed that they were trying to move him. There was a lot of smoke, but nothing flourished and he played in the Canucks for the rest of the year. He had a very good play -offs with 10 points in 13 games, and he used it to sign a monster agreement with the Boston Bruins on July 1, 2024.
The $ 54 million man for De Bruins was supposed to be their new top center, but last year he really went bad for him. It only scored 47 points in all 82 games, while the Bruins had their worst season in years, it was not great and Lindholm still had six years left in that deal in Boston.
Andrei Kuzmenko
Andrei Kuzmenko was a pure camp dump in this trade to make the money on the Canucks side work. However, he did pretty well when he came that season. He started a slow start, but then he started producing more and more. To end the 2023–24 season, he scored 25 points in 29 games, and he was dynamite next to Nazem Kadri.
Then the 2024–25 season started and it could not have gotten worse for Kuzmenko. He could not score a goal to save his life, and it seemed that head coach Ryan Huska had no time for him. He started to be scratched, set up the fourth rule and was even taken from the Power Play. It was not a good year for Kuzmenko, and after 37 games and only 15 points scored, he was sent to the Philadelphia Flyers.
The Flames would move Kuzmenko, Jakob Pelletier and a few choices to the flyers in exchange for Morgan Frost and Joel Farabee. Kuzmenko would then play seven games with the flyers before he was traded to the Los Angeles Kings prior to the Trade Deadline. He found his foot again, had a good end to the season and then signed a new contract with the Kings for this coming season.
All in all, Kuzmenko was a nice player to have. He was great in the media with his smart personality, was skilled on the ice and then helped to achieve a nice return for two players who will be flames for the near future. Everything for a player who was seen as a cap.
Hunter Brzuszewicz
Hunter Brustewicz was the big prospect that came back to Calgary in this deal, and it was for a good reason. The pick of the third round of 2023 was in the middle of a huge season with the Kitchener Rangers in the OHL, where he would go 92 points that season. Did I mention that Brzustewicz is a defenders? It was a fantastic season that made us all very enthusiastic for his future.
Brzustewicz then made the leap to the AHL last season. After a little bit of a slow start and adjust to the pro game, he had a very nice second half of the year. He got better and better with every passing game. Brzustewicz would end the season with 32 points in 70 games and looked very comfortable at the pro level. He would play in the last game of the season of the Flames last year and did not look out of place. He was strong on pucks, flexible in transition and had no panic in his game at all.
Brzustewicz will now keep an eye on an NHL job for this season, and he looks like he could be a future top-four defender at a certain point in the line. He will probably play in the AHL with the Calgary Wranglers most of this year, but make no mistake, there is a lot of advantage with this player, and he will be very interesting to watch over the next time.
Joni Jurmo
There is not much to report about Joni Jurmo. He was a complications perspective in the deal, and from the start it seemed that there was no NHL-Op his head.
After only 17 games with the Wranglers last season, Jurmo and the Flames decided to separate while the Flames ended his contract this summer.
2024 First round Pick
The first round pick that was sent to the Flames in last year’s design eventually became 28th in general, and with that choice the Flames selected Matvei Gridin. It was a nice choice at the time, because the Russian led the USHL in scoring in its concept year and is as skilled when they come.
Gridin made the leap to the Qmjhl last year and illuminated it as part of the Shawinigan -stress. He scored 79 points in 56 games and received the Qmjhl Rookie of the year. He was fantastic, the game emphasized after playing the highlight and was the driver of a Shawinigan team that was not that talented.
Gridin is now going to make the leap to the Wranglers for his first year of professional hockey, but he has recently been given his heads with his performance in the Flames Rookie Showcase last weekend. He may have an external chance to make the flames out of the camp when he continues with his current pace of play, but he will probably spend most of this season with the Wranglers and get used to the Pro Game.
However, let’s call a kick a kick. There is so much skill here with Gridin. Lots of speed, great instincts, a fantastic shot and an engine like few. His advantage can be really high, and it seems that the flames have stolen it in that place. This will be a large year for Gridin to show what he has, and for example I am very excited to see how this season is playing for him.
2024 Pick in the fourth round
The Flames also received a fourth round pick in this deal. She moved the choice at the 2024 design and went down, but they gained two picks. They received the 150th general choice and the 177th general choice in the 2024 design of the Philadelphia Flyers, and they selected Luke Misa and Eric Jamieson with those choices.
Misa was a straight stem in the fifth round. He had 81 points in his concept year, and he succeeded it by having an 85-point year in the OHL with the Mississauga Steelheads. Misa has great speed, great hands and a very good hockey -IQ. The only knock is that he is a bit on the smaller side, which can explain why he fell on the fifth round.
This season Misa is playing with Penn State in the NCAA, and he gets the chance to play with the projected first general choice in the 2026 Draft, Gavin McKenna. He will play against older and stronger players this year, and it should be good for his development. NHL can be upside down with Misa; It can take a little longer, but he has all the skills and drive to do it.
Jamieson was selected with the other choice and he is a towering defenders who skates well for his size. He had a nice season in the WHL last year with the Everett Silvert tips and scored 36 points in 66 games. His game usually revolves around being a solid shutdown player, but he showed a nice offensive advantage last year. Just like Misa, he will also make the leap to the NCAA this season with the University of Denver. Jamieson could be an NHL player one day; It may be a long chance, but he goes to the NCAA good for his development, and there can be a nice value with this choice.
Learn from your success in the past
The flames really did well with this deal. Although there is a way to go here with the prospects, the Flames gained a lot of value for a player in Lindholm who very clearly did not want to be a flame and wanted to send it half a season before he was traded.
Conroy could learn from this because he still has a Swedish player who enters the last year of his contract in Rasmus Andersson. You rather hit a home run with an exchange like this, so it makes sense to try it again.
Photo by Gerry Thomas/NHLi via Getty images
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