"It wasn't easy moving either of them. But at the time, both were expendable to bring in top-tier talent, and both of the key players coming back to us lead us to the finals." said GM Nagle

The first to be moved was winger Sonny Milano. At the time, the Flames were blessed with an impressive group of young forwards and Milano, being a left winger, was the third man out. Already having drafted left-wingers David Pastrnak and Anthony Mantha, Milano was expendable, and the Flames greatest need was a minutes-eating defenseman. When the chance to acquire star defenceman Andy Rogers came up, the Flames leveraged their depth and ponied up Milano. Rogers went on to have a Norris winning season, and the Flames, went on a Cinderella run to the cup finals.

The second trade which involved Anthony Mantha was a bit more complicated. The Flames were once again re-tooling their top-tier talent to take another Cup run. In an exciting afternoon, the Flames pulled off back-to-back-to-back blockbuster deals that changed the face of the franchise. The first deal to go down was moving Mantha to the Blackhawks for steady star left-winger Jeff Skinner. Then the Flames flipped another young forward, Alex Debrincat to the Minnesota Wild for a titanic package that included goalie Malcolm Subban and defenseman Jack Johnson. GM Nagle then flipped goalie Brad Thiessen and offensive defenseman Michael Funk to the Boston Bruins for young right winger Nate MacKinnon. All four (Subban, Skinner, Johnson and MacKinnon) players the Flames got back that day played key roles in the Flames' run last season.

"That afternoon saw us deal away some high-quality young forwards that we knew could become stars in their own right. But at that point, we already had a young group of forwards in Eichel and Reinhard. We had MacKinnon on the way. And with Oscar Moller emerging as a superstar, adding Skinner gave us a very formidable top-six group. It's funny how trades pan out, and looking back, I wouldn't have changed a thing. Milano and Mantha are incredible talents, and so too is Debrincat. Had we kept all those young kids, I'm not sure we would have had the experience necessary to be a contender for the Cup. You have to have a good mix of young and older players." said GM Nagle

"I wish them the best of luck and I'm happy to see them succeed. And while I'm aware that they may seem like the ones that got away, our fine group of players right now have tasted some success, something that neither of those young stars have seen just yet, and may never will." added the GM