Flames Rumors: Veteran To Be Placed On Waivers Very Soon

The Calgary Flames are rumored to be close to making a dressing room rattling move sooner than later. An exec from another team said that there have been rumblings that the Flames might put a veteran on waivers and rattle the room to get them to turn things around quickly. If something doesn't change fast, their season could be written off and a major shift in the organization could happen.

Of the players on the Flames, I only identify nine of them as veterans that would also cause a shock in the dressing room. Those players include Elias Lindholm, Jonathan Huberdeau, Nazem Kadri, Mikael Backlund, Blake Coleman, MacKenzie Weegar, Chris Tanev, Nikita Zadorov, and Jacob Markstrom. Now not all of those names should even be thought of when predicting who would get put on waivers to cause the shakeup.

The players I can confidently say are safe are Lindholm, Huberdeau, Backlund, Weegar, and Tanev. Of these five, Lindholm and Tanev are definitely trade candidates that the team wouldn't want to hurt their value or give them up for free.

Considering Coleman has great chemistry with Backlund, this would be an interesting move. The two have taken a step back offensively from last season and Coleman is seen as an overpayment. Zadorov recently made some comments about the Flames that might be a reason to send a message. Ilya Solovyov already got into two games. He could be recalled to take over a spot on the third pair.

Now the very interesting veterans would be Kadri and Markstrom. Both have struggled last season and this one so far. Although Markstrom has played better than his numbers suggest, Dustin Wolf is the future and is still in the minors with no room to get called up. This would be a drastic change in net for sure. Kadri has looked like he isn't trying out there at times. He is in the second of a seven year deal at $7 million AAV and he has just one goal and four points in 10 games while being moved to the third line. Not only would this shock the team, it might shock Kadri into putting in a better effort. If any of these players are put on waivers, I wouldn't disagree with the decision to shock the team, even if it's just for a short time to get the team going and show them that nobody is safe.