By Payton Knoph
Calgary (AP) - It didn't feel right, but had to be done. The Flames moved longtime offensive stalwart winger Oscar Moller and defensive specialist Jack Johnson to the Boston Bruins last offseason to free up valuable salary cap space. Moller, coming off his worst offensive season since joining the team, was expendable when the Flames decided to lean on young winger Sven Andrighetto to round out their top 6 forward group. It was a move designed to open up space for the Flames to make a play on forward Nathan Horton (to which they successfully pulled off). However, after moving Moller, the team didn't have that same swagger.
From the get-go, the Flames struggled last season to find any rhythm. While never falling so far as to find themselves out of a playoff spot, they did however, have to string together a solid second-half to establish themselves a top seed. In dealing both Moller and Johnson, the team was left to be too soft, lacking the intensity that good teams have an abundance of. The Flames were not hitting, and not being a hard out in many games. They simply were just too soft, and had no leader to harden them up.
After a string of big moves around the deadline, the Flames bulked up, acquired some physical-first players and their fortunes turned around. But a leader did not emerge, and so, with Moller being an unrestricted free agent this offseason, Flames' management saw an opportunity to bring back an old friend.
Sending the Bruins back their 2nd round pick in 2027 -the same pick the Flames acquired in the deal to send Moller to Boston- the Flames acquired Moller's negotiation rights. Armed with a salary cap void after the departure of Horton, they went to town securing Moller to a three year deal worth $19 million (or $6.5 million per season).
"We are elated to have Oscar back with us. At the time when we traded him away, it hurt. Oscar was a fan favourite, a homegrown talent, and a constant threat every night we had him play. He was instrumental in our cup run in 2025 and to see him play for another team slammed us everytime. The Bruins are now going to be moving to play their young guys, and weren't going to re-offer Moller a deal. So we swooped in. Of course, we could have let him go to market, but we wanted to make a point to him that we wanted him back and be a major part of our team for the foreseeable future. I hope he plays out his career with us to be honest. Oscar is our Northstar." said GM Nagle
With Moller in the fold, the Flames now have a very talented and experienced top 6 forward group:
Moller - Eichel - MacKinnon
Pastrnak - Reinhard - Puljujarvi
It is expected that Moller will lineup on the leftside where he played a majority of his junior career.
4/6/2021 - 494 words
