Opinion | The Nazem Kadri deal caps a chaotic summer for the Calgary Flames. They are better?

As plans B go, this is not bad.

Remember, Plan A in Calgary was to give Johnny Gaudreau the keys to the Flames’ vault and lock 24-year-old power forward Matthew Tkachuk on a long-term contract. Sean Monahan? That was a problem of a former central player who became a seemingly deteriorating asset. Those kinds of talented athletes always cause consternation on teams because no one wants to give up a special player who is frequently injured too soon. It was an issue that needed resolution with a year remaining on his long-term contract.

So that was Plan A for GM Brad Treliving. Lock up the 100 point players, maybe get something for Monahan. But just as the best way to make the Almighty laugh is to tell him of his plans, the best concepts of NHL GMs tend to be hit suddenly and violently by unexpected influences.

Gaudreau took the money in Columbus, of all places, and Tkachuk said he didn’t want to pay any more in Calgary. On top of all this, Monahan had another round of hip surgery and had little value on the open market.

Oh!

Treliving had to scramble, and like a golfer faced with a double bogey that makes him a par, his scramble has worked out quite well. Or at least, more accurately, his fight has been met with rapturous applause from the Calgary hockey media who own the rights. Somehow good old Brad made the team better! Perhaps the Flames are more of a contender today than they were six months ago! Hurrah!

Well maybe. Losing Gaudreau and Tkachuk, and trading Monahan to Montreal, left three big holes. The acquisition of Jonathan Huberdeau last month and the signing of Nazem Kadri on Thursday filled two of those slots.

Then it gets a bit more complicated.

For starters, the Flames had to give the Canadiens a wildly difficult conditional first-round pick to get Monahan off their hands. It was a nice little deal from Kent Hughes for his rebuilding team on the same day he got the bad news that Carey Price might not play this season.

Additionally, Treliving lavished $84 million (US) over eight years on the 29-year-old Huberdeau, then gave the 31-year-old Kadri a seven-year contract worth $49 million. These, folks, are complicated contracts. In five years, when Huberdeau is 34 and Kadri is 36, they will eat up $17 million of Calgary’s payroll with several years remaining on their contracts. Losing young Tkachuk and the first-round pick to Montreal only underscores the reality that Calgary is trying to win now and doesn’t care one bit about the future anymore.

If these moves don’t make Calgary a better hockey team, well, it’s probably not Treliving’s problem anymore. He will have been replaced.

These were probably necessary contracts that the Flames had to accept. They faced an image problem, with three American players – Adam Fox, Gaudreau and Tkachuk – making it clear that given the choice, they did not want to play in Cowtown. Uncertainty about how American players feel about Alberta remains. But the Flames have convinced two well-known older Canadian players to take the money.

Now they can tell that elite NHL players are obviously willing to play in Calgary. Particularly if you give them retirement contracts.

Despite all the rah-rah stuff, no one really knows if the Flames are better or worse today. This has been an unexpected whirlwind of change. The best that can be said is that the damage could have been worse, and Treliving has done well enough to salvage what should still be a winning hockey club after a 111-point season a year ago.

Kadri’s addition will be fascinating. He blossomed as a supporting player in Colorado on a Stanley Cup-winning team, and now he’ll have to be a central figure in Calgary, perhaps the team’s No. 1 center. It’s the kind of evolution the Maple Leafs once envisioned for him until they gave up hope and made a bad deal to move him to the Avalanche.

Kadri can be an outspoken and polarizing figure, and some in Calgary recall that he once turned down a trade with the Flames. Most believed he was going to be a top free-agent option this summer after his outstanding playoff efforts in Denver, but then the first few days of free agency turned into weeks and no one signed him. There were rumors that the islanders were going to put pen to paper with him, but that didn’t happen.

Now Calgary has signed him to a long-term deal at a salary that is likely less than Kadri expected. Since 2012, he has scored 20 or more goals four times, and twice more than 30. Both were on high-scoring, offense-oriented teams, the Leafs and Avalanche.

He’s a solid two-way center with a moody side who, in theory, should fit in with defensive back Darryl Sutter. But Kadri has a different personality and not everyone fits with Sutter. So that will be interesting to see.

If Calgary had been able to retain Gaudreau and Tkachuk, and then add Kadri, the case might have been strengthened. Now? The Flames are definitely very different and have taken on some long-term contractual responsibilities.

More than ever, the focus will be on 32-year-old Jacob Markstrom to lead the Flames to at least the Stanley Cup Final. If Markstrom can have another Vézina Trophy-style season, then sure the Flames could go further next spring and this storm of moves could end on a positive note.

The Flames have undoubtedly been the most interesting franchise in the NHL this offseason. Now we’ll see if they can make the jump from interesting to improved.

Damien Cox is a former Star sportswriter who is currently a freelance contributing columnist based in Toronto. Follow him on Twitter: @DamoSpin

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