The Vegas Golden Knights could be a perfect trade partner for the re-tooling Calgary Flames

The Calgary Flames are going to be an active team on the trade market this summer. Whether it’s trading out a veteran player or two, or adding young talent to their roster, they’re going to be busy.

Craig Conroy has said on multiple occasions that the Flames are going to re-tool, rather than rebuild. He and Flames ownership want to get the Flames back in playoff contention as soon as possible.

There are a lot of Flames fans who don’t agree with that direction. But that’s what the Flames are going to do and there is not much we can do about it.

Looking through the lens of a re-tool, what are some potential trades that the Flames could make to acquire young NHL players that can help get the team back to being competitive again? Who could be the next Yegor Sharangovich? That 22–25-year-old player who is underutilized on their current team that could flourish in a larger role on a team like the Flames?

I see the Golden Knights as a perfect match.

The Golden Knights are in salary cap hell. According to PuckPedia, the Golden Knights are projected to have only have $1,797,517 of cap space. They still need to sign three forwards to fill out their roster. And Vegas has expressed interest in wanting to re-sign Jonathan Marchessault who is not going to be cheap. Because of those factors, there are two Vegas players who might be available on the trade market this offseason.

One is defenceman Nic Hague. The other is winger Pavel Dorofeyev.

Hague is exactly the type of defenceman a re-tooling team should be targeting. The 25-year-old defender has a huge presence on the ice at 6’6, 240 pounds. Hague has one year remaining on his contract making $2,294,150 before becoming an RFA in 2025. He is a reliable, stay at home defenceman who can play top four minutes. That is exactly the profile of defenceman the Flames should be looking for from a re-tool perspective.

The Golden Knights have Alex Pietrangelo and Noah Hanifin making a combined $16.15 million over the next several seasons. Shea Theodore needs a new contract next summer and he’s in for a massive raise. I don’t think the Golden Knights can afford to sign Hauge to a long-term contract extension.

Pavel Dorofeyev is a skilled 23-year-old, left shot winger who is looking for a new contract this summer. Dorofeyev played in 47 games with the Golden Knights last season scoring 13 goals and 11 assists. In 2022-23, he only played in 18 games but scored seven goals. He was doing that playing in a limited role getting limited ice time. He is the type of player who could break out if he gets an opportunity to play on the top two lines and on the power play.