Rumor: Flames will likely lose key player to Vegas.

With the NHL’s upcoming Expansion Draft for the newly minted Vegas Golden Knights, general managers around the league are scrambling to get their house in order and determine just exactly who they plan on making available to the league’s 31st franchise. For Calgary Flames GM Brad Treliving, he’ll have a few options and Ben Shelley of The Hockey Writers explores a few in his latest article.

The Flames actually find themselves in a pretty enviable position when it comes to the Expansion Draft. Reliving has the ability to protect his entire core group of Johnny Gaudreau, Sean Monahan, Michael Frolik , Mikael Backlund, Sam Bennett, Mark Giordanno, Dougie Hamilton and T.J. Brodie. So, who does that leave up for grabs? 

Shelley speculates that the Flames will expose forwards Bret Kulak, Alex Chiasson, Matt Stajan, Linden Vey and Trouy Brouwer and that Vegas would be most likely to choose from this group. In particular, Brouwer would be a compelling choice given his experience and ability to play up and down the lineup. It’s no secret that he’s had a difficult time finding consistency in Calgary, so Treliving may be just as happy to lose Brouwer as the Golden Knights are to land him.

Whatever happens, the Flames are certain to lose a key player from their roster moving forward. While the damage may not be their undoing, Treliving will have some work to do in re-stocking the team’s bottom 6 forward group to recoup from the loss.