Flames Trade Kuzmenko, Pelletier and Picks to Flyers for Frost, Farabee

The Calgary flames exchanged the wingers Andrei Kuzmenko and Jakob Pelletier, as well as the draft choices in the second and seventh round, at the Philadelphia flyers Thursday evening for the Morgan Frost center and the winger Joel Farabee.

Kuzmenko, who was selected from the Flames match against Anaheim on Thursday evening, scored four goals and 11 assists in 37 games this season. After eight seasons in the KHL, Kuzmenko made his NHL debut with Vancouver in 2022-2010 and scored 39 goals. The production of Kuzmenko fell last season, and it was exchanged in Calgary on January 31, 2024. Pelletier, the choice of global recovery n ° 26 of Calgary in 2019, has four goals and seven assists in 23 games this season. The $ 11 million Kuzmenko contract, $ 11 million, expires after this season, while Pelletier is expected to be a limited free agent.

Frost, the choice of draft n ° 27 by the Flyers in 2017, and Farabee, the choice n ° 14 of the team in 2018, both had NHL NHL careers. Although the two have experienced supported periods of offensive success, they both fell sometimes, especially the time spent like healthy stripes this season – Frost for four games in November, and Farabee for three games this month.

Frost, who has 135 points in 278 career games with the Flyers, is a limited free agent pending winning $ 2.1 million this season. Farabee, who has 2 points in 384 career games, has an AAV of $ 5 million for three more seasons after this one.

“Obviously, we did a job this evening and I just wanted to cross it a little.”#Flames GM Craig Conroy reviews Morgan Frost and Joel Farabee of the flyers! pic.twitter.com/3aw8vaprri

– Calgary Flames (@nhlflames) January 31, 2025

“We estimated that, at this stage, these two players will be a huge bump in our programming,” Flames Craig Conroy told the journalist after the match. “Above all, we get a center (in frost) … adapted to age and something we really wanted to. And then Joel Farabee is a 20 -goal scorer experienced twice. It brings jam.

The flyers also obtain a second round choice in 2025 and a choice of seventh round in 2028 in the flames.

What it means for flames

On the surface, the flames are well released here. They exchanged a pending UFA (Kuzmenko), a former first round choice with a low ceiling (Pelletier, which could benefit from a change of landscape) and a relatively negligible project capital in exchange for two everyday players which will be strongly counted for marked the rating and on which will be counted in the top six of the team. It’s really a good deal for the GM Craig Conroy flames.

In a messaging bag of April 2024, I identified Frost as a realistic commercial target for Conroy. It is a young attacker and a pending FRG which could benefit from being in a new environment, with an advantage to be exploited. A recovery project. The flames are very in their group, because they make themselves younger while trying to reuse the players. Farabee also adapts to this mold, and is signed until 2028 with a ceiling of $ 5 million. But if he can do better than his 22 career goal season, probably in a high -end role, Farabee would considerably help a deficient score team.

Of course, if these two players do not work, the flames could be struggling with more difficult contracts – the exact opposite of what they need. But this is worth the risk, especially with what they abandon.

They separate from Kuzmenko, who does not provide much else when he does not mark. They also say goodbye to Pelletier, whose ceiling is that of a forefront of energy forward, unless it proves the opposite. Pelletier was also not claimed in derogations earlier this season. It is not a surprise that the flames separated from the capital project, but to have to separate from a second round choice in 2025 and a seventh round draft choice in 2028 is a good report Quality-price for Calgary.

What it means for leaflets

The most important duty of the Director General of Flyers Daniel Briere from here and when the team seeks to compete again – probably in 2026-27 at the earliest – decides who should be with the long -term club.

On Thursday, he boldly said that two old first round choices that had quarries from top to bottom will not be. Frost never transformed into the center of the top-six that the club hoped when he drafted it, while Farabee was in the middle of a disappointing offensive season, with only eight goals in 49 games. Make Farabee erases his salary by $ 5 million, which would have been in books until 2027-28, which gives leaflets more flexibility for the future.

But unless there are more sales before the commercial deadline on March 7, this season also makes a lower team this season. While Kuzmenko and Pelletier can be able to fill the score vacuum left by Farabee, Frost was their purely qualified center. There is no one on the list or in the system that could logically fill this hole in the middle.

(Photo of Andrei Kuzmenko: Minas Panagiotakis / Getty Images)