The Calgary Flames had some problems way back in 2011. Some were market-based. Some were self-inflicted. But the fifth-worst trade in club history was a swap that somehow made things worse for the team at a time where they were trying to maximize their veteran core’s on-ice value.
Jay Feaster became fully-fledged general manager of the Flames in December 2010 when the club parted ways with Darryl Sutter. Feaster inherited a weird reserve list: a weak farm system and a rapidly aging (and expensive) core group that was a product of a lot of deficit spending of picks and prospects by his predecessor.