It’s not often that trade trees cross over only to circle back and laugh in one team’s face.
For the Calgary Flames, it was a tale of traded assets on Friday afternoon as the 2025 NHL Entry draft loomed only hours away.
In a move to stabilize their blueline, Montreal Canadiens general manager Kent Hughes sent Calgary’s former first round pick, 16th overall which was acquired during the 2022 offseason in exchange for taking the final season of Sean Monahan’s contract, winger Emil Heineman, who Calgary acquired from Florida in the Sam Bennett trade and later sent to the Habs as part of the return for Tyler Toffoli, as well as their own first round pick (17th overall) to the New York Islanders in exchange for star defenceman Noah Dobson.
Per Elliotte Friedman of Sportsnet, the Canadiens then signed Dobson to an eight year, $76,000,000 deal carrying an annual average value of $9,500,000.
If the name “Noah Dobson” rings a bell for Flames fans, it is likely because of another trade for a star defenceman—also involving the New York Islanders.
Flash back to June 24, 2017. General manager Brad Treliving, fresh off of his third full season with the Calgary Flames and a four-game round one loss to the Anaheim Ducks, traded Calgary’s first round pick at the next draft (2018), a 2018 second round pick and either a second round pick in 2019 or 2020. The Islanders sent a fourth round pick in either 2019 or 2020.
Calgary eventually selected Swedish winger Lukas Feuk with the fourth round pick in 2019.
The following season, things didn’t exactly go according to plan for the Flames.
A 30th-worst 2-8-0 record to finish the year saw the team plummet to 20th place; much to the delight of an Islanders brain trust headed up by the freshly hired NHL legend, Lou Lamoriello.
With the Flames’ pick, Lamoriello selected Dobson at #12, who has gone on to log 230 points in 338 games with the Islanders over six seasons. The smooth skating defenceman leads all Islanders in ice time with 7649:23 since the 2020-21 season. Nearly 600 more minutes than the second-place Ryan Pulock (7022:15).
It certainly feels like salt in the wound, considering that only one asset in the deal, Montreal’s first round pick, didn’t at one point belong to the Calgary Flames in some form. For as much as fans would like to see a big trade involving the Flames on Friday evening, perhaps this isn’t what they expected.
Stats courtesy of the National Hockey League and Puckpedia.
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