Flames ready to give Frost, Farabee 'opportunity to play important roles' following trade
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Late Thursday night, the Calgary Flames acquired forwards Morgan Frost and Joel Farabee from the Philadelphia Flyers in exchange for Jakob Pelletier, Andrei Kuzmenko and a pair of draft picks.
The Flames move was part of a flurry of NHL trades that happened over the past week, including blockbusters involving Mikko Rantanen and J.T. Miller.
With the 4 Nations Face-Off just over a week away, Flames general manager Craig Conroy said his phone got busier after the Rantanen domino fell as teams began to think about integrating new players before the two-week break for the tournament begins on Feb. 9.
“Once the Rantanen trade happened, it did feel like I got more calls,” Conroy said Monday on OverDrive. “From our point of view, to have the guys come in and be able to play five games and then have the break and know what they’re coming back to after the break, they’re just going to be that much more comfortable.”
The Flames sit in the second wild-card spot in the Western Conference, two points ahead of the trailing Vancouver Canucks, but just one point behind the Los Angeles Kings for third in the Pacific Division.
With the team in the thick of the playoff race, Conroy was able to reward his team for playing well while also acquiring a pair of young forwards that fit the team’s timeline moving forward.
“We’ve got a really good group of veteran guys with Kadri, Huberdeau, Backlund, Coleman, Weegar, and Andersson. We’ve been trying to add to that younger group of players,” said Conroy. “For these guys to be available, they fit into the age group [that we were looking for] well. You want to reward these guys for playing so hard.”
Frost, 25, had 11 goals and 25 points in 49 games with the Flyers prior to the trade and scored his first as a Flame on Sunday against the Seattle Kraken. Conroy praised Frost and was excited to add the Aurora, Ont. native for his hockey IQ and ability to win faceoffs. At 51.9 per cent, Frost has the highest faceoff percentage of any centre on the Flames’ roster.
Farabee, 24, has eight goals and 19 points in 52 games this season and is well off the pace of the career-high 22 goals and 50 points he posted last season. Despite the down year, Conroy hopes that a change of scenery can help the two-time 20-goal scorer return to form.
“I know we weren’t picked to be where we are right now, but we thought maybe if we could get a centre and also to get Joel Farabee, who maybe just needed a change from Philly. We’re hoping we can give him a good spot and a good opportunity to get back to where he was,” Conroy said. “This deal made total sense and gave us an opportunity to see them and get to know them. We feel like we can give them an opportunity to play important roles and really reset with our group.”
With the March 7 trade deadline quickly approaching, Conroy says the team is not necessarily done making moves but doesn’t believe the Flames will be in the market to acquire a rental for a playoff run.
“Every day we’re trying to figure out if there’s a way to make us better. I don’t see us going to get a rental just for the run. That can always change. If the right player came up in the right situation. If you’re in a really good spot and you feel like one piece could do it, maybe you do it,” said Conroy. “But right now you’re just talking to teams. We’re looking to make the team better every day.”