Brad Treliving’s Worst Trades Prior to Joining the Toronto Maple Leafs
By Jeff Borsuk
Treliving’s 2nd Worst Trade
The biggest mistakes in Treliving’s career body of work have been trading away picks that become established NHL players.
This is forgivable. He shouldn’t be blamed that a third round pick he traded away in February of 2017 to get defenseman Michael Stone turned into goaltender Stuart Skinner. With the Oilers, Skinner made the NHL all-rookie team and was the runner up for the Calder Memorial Trophy, the league’s rookie of the year award.
It’s just bad luck that that same trade also saw Treliving give up a fifth-round pick that was used to take another goaltender Akira Schmid. Schmid too has made his way to the NHL. He looks like he is on pace to have a very promising career with the New Jersey Devils.
It is, however, too painful in the Flames and Treliving’s history to ignore the deal that was made in June of 2016. That’s when Calgary acquired goaltender Brian Elliott from the St. Louis Blues for a pair of draft picks.
Elliott lasted just one season with the Flames before signing a new deal that took him to the Philadelphia Flyers. During his only season in Calgary, Elliott started in 45 games and had a record of 26-18-3. He was good. He had a save percentage of .910 and a goals-against average of 2.55.
Unfortunately for the Flames, that’s all they got out of the trade. On the other end, the Blues made out like thieves. They used the pick their received to select Jordan Kyrou in the second round, 35th overall, in the 2016 NHL Entry Draft.
Kyrou has already established himself as one of the better players in the NHL. Two seasons ago, he had a 75 point campaign. Last year, he had 73, which included 37 goals. Kyrou is so good that GM Doug Armstrong signed him to an eight year $65,000,000 deal in September of 2022. He has a $8,125,000 AAV.