How the 2004 trade deadline set the table for the Calgary Flames’ run to the Stanley Cup Final

When Darryl Sutter arrived in December 2002 to coach the Calgary Flames, they weren’t yet formed in his image.

However, once Sutter inherited the general manager duties from the departing Craig Button five months later, he began to mould the club into what he wanted them to become.

Sutter didn’t make his first trade until July, when he sent Steve Begin and Chris Drury to Buffalo in exchange for Rhett Warrener and Steven Reinprecht. His next significant move didn’t come until mid-November, when he addressed his injury-addled goaltending situation by acquiring San Jose third-stringer Miikka Kiprusoff.

But as the Flames kept chugging along and remained within spitting distance of the post-season cutline, Sutter began making tweaks to his club in the months leading up to the Mar. 9, 2004 trade deadline.

With the Flames’ forward depth lacking after a series of injuries – and losing Jason Morgan to a waiver claim by Nashville in late December – Sutter sent a conditional 2004 fourth-round pick to the Sharks in exchange for AHL forward Lynn Loyns on Jan. 9, explaining to the Calgary Herald’s Jean Lefebvre at the time that he had tried to acquire Loyns twice previously.

From there, Sutter continued to add to his group, focusing on gritty NHL-level forwards.

On Feb. 24, five days after reclaiming Morgan on waivers from Nashville, the Flames sent him and a 2005 fifth-round pick to Chicago in exchange for Finnish forward Ville Nieminen.

On Mar. 6, mere hours after goaltender Roman Turek cleared waivers, the Flames traded fellow netminder Jamie McLennan, injured forward Blair Betts and prospect Greg Moore to the New York Rangers in exchange for surly Chris Simon. The move bolstered the Flames’ forward group, but also relieved a log-jam in net following a stretch where all three Flames netminders – Turek, McLennan and Miikka Kiprusoff – had been managing injuries.

“Once Roman got healthy, I was getting healthier, Miikka came back, so I became the odd-man out and got traded to the Rangers,” said McLennan, now an analyst with TSN. “But there wasn’t a healthy stretch of ‘all three of us are healthy, gotta make a decision.’ The decision came more when everybody got healthier right near the deadline and then Darryl wanted Chris Simon, didn’t need three goalies, all of that kind of stuff, so I was expendable.”

Depth forward Josh Green was lost to the Rangers on waivers the same day.

On Mar. 8, a day prior to the trade deadline, Sutter made one more move, adding Marcus Nilson from the Florida Panthers in exchange for a 2004 second-round pick.

The three forwards that Sutter added in the run-up to the trade deadline – Nieminen, Simon and Nilson – played big supporting roles in the run to the Stanley Cup Final. The trio combined for 13 goals and 26 points over 66 games, with Nilson (twice) and Nieminen (once) scoring game-winning goals.

2004 alumnus Chris Clark, now working in player development with the Columbus Blue Jackets, commended the moves Sutter made in the run-up to the trade deadline.

“It really solidified the bottom six of the team,” said Clark. “You can get through the regular season with a lot of skill, not that we really had that, but really on that bottom six, because you need some of those players to grind it out and you need some of those players to score big goals, and I think some of those guys did as well.”

It goes without saying that the acquisition of Kiprusoff was a home run move from Sutter. But undoubtedly the smaller moves he made, particularly adding to the team’s supporting cast of forwards, contributed to the march to the Stanley Cup Final.