The Montreal Canadiens traded top-line winger Tyler Toffoli to the Calgary Flames in exchange for a 2022 first-round draft choice (which is lottery-protected), a 2024 fifth-round pick, forward Tyler Pitlick and prospect Emil Heineman, the latter of whom landed in Calgary in the Sam Bennett trade last season.
With the trade deadline approaching on March 21, this was the first major player to find himself in a new home. How did both general managers do in the deal? Here are our grades for both sides:
Tyler Toffoli to the Flames was less a trade than an inevitability. Montreal’s new executive leadership — president of hockey operations Jeff Gorton and general manager Kent Hughes — was signaling a fire sale to reshape this roster. One of the most obvious players to go was Toffoli, 29, who had no trade protection, a reasonable cap hit ($4.25 million annually) through 2023-24, and the need for a fresh start.
The most obvious destination was Calgary. The trade reunites him with Darryl Sutter, the Flames’ coach who was behind the bench in Los Angeles for Toffoli’s first six NHL seasons and their 2014 Stanley Cup championship. That shared experience and trust can’t be stressed enough, especially on a burgeoning contender like the Flames. He knows how Sutter likes to play, and Sutter knows that Toffoli is his kind of player: a reliable scorer who dominates possession at 5-on-5.
The Flames had a need for more scoring in their top six. Toffoli can play either wing. Sliding him on the right side of Andrew Mangiapane and Mikael Backlund makes the most immediate sense. That allows Blake Coleman to slide down a line to play with Dillon Dube and Sean Monahan.
Coleman played well on that second line, but the trio generated only 2.87 goals per 60 minutes. Of the various line combinations on which Mangiapane has played, that one ranked fourth in that category. Toffoli, with 26 points in 37 games for a terrible Montreal team, should improve that.
This trade improves the Flames’ forward depth, adds scoring in the regular season and the playoffs — Toffoli had 14 points in 22 games last postseason for Montreal — and does so at a reasonable cost that didn’t see them part with a top-tier prospect.
The only slight downside is his age (30 in April) combined with the term through 2023-24, but that’s in service of an all-in move from GM Brad Treliving. But there’s another aspect to that term that makes this deal intriguing: Perhaps Toffoli is Johnny Gaudreau insurance if the Flames are suddenly in need of a top-line winger should the pending unrestricted free agent walk this summer.
Finally, kudos to Treliving for getting Toffoli five weeks before the trade deadline, not only to give him ample runway to get acclimated but to make a deal far away from the mania of deadline prices.
The timing of this trade works both ways. Would it have been better for Montreal to use deadline pressure to extract a better trade package in exchange for Toffoli? Or, was this the best offer it’d get, so why not pounce on it?
I’m inclined to believe the latter. There are so many moving parts as the deadline approaches: teams moving in and out of the playoff race, unexpected players becoming available. Doing this deal now means doing it when all of that is slightly more calm.
The first-round pick is lottery-protected, but given that the Flames have a better points percentage (.644) than the Vegas Golden Knights and have 23 home games left on the schedule, the Habs can pencil that pick into the lower third of the draft this summer.
Pitlick, 30, was a necessity to make the money work. At $1.75 million against the cap before UFA status this summer, he should obviously be looking for a rental property in Montreal.
Heineman is the intriguing name here. The Flames referred to him as an “unsigned drafted player” in their news release … and that about covers it. The 20-year-old winger is playing for Leksands IF in the Swedish Hockey League, and he has 16 points in 36 games. There’s a lot of improvement his game needs — such as his playmaking — but he’s a good two-way player with an array of effective shot options. He plays with effort, and he’s a powerful skater. He can put the puck in the net, but there are some questions about how high his offensive ceiling in the NHL can get.
The Flames acquired him in the Sam Bennett deal with the Florida Panthers last season, when his stock was rather low thanks to a rough offensive season in Sweden. The Panthers didn’t sign Heineman. The Flames didn’t sign him. And now he’s with the Canadiens as a not-insignificant player in a high-profile trade.
Most importantly, this trade signals the beginning of an “everyone must go” phase for Gorton and Hughes. This was the kind of veteran player trade Gorton was making when he quick-flipped the New York Rangers back to contenders. It won’t be the last.