The Calgary Flames are highly reliant on their defense to win games. Like many other seasons, the Flames are once again running a “defense first” system.

Unfortunately, that defense first system is taking away from the offense. They are currently 27th in the NHL in offense, averaging 2.5 goals per game. That’s why they recently made a few blockbuster trades that were aimed at providing more goals.

The first deal the Flames made was with the Toronto Maple Leafs. They landed four players, including Matt Stajan, Niklas Hagman, and Ian White. Stajan is on pace for a 20 goal season and Hagman already has a 20 goal season. Hagman’’s 20 goals are the second most on the Flames and Stajan’s 16 are fourth most on the Flames.

The other important player the Flames got is Ian White, a defender. Although defense has been a point of strength for most of the season, it was weakest in January. White also comes from Toronto and is one of a handful of players on the Maple Leafs with a positive +/- rating. He also has nine goals and 17 assists this season.

However, the thing that Calgary fans are most worried about is in the second trade. In the most controversial trade decision so far, the Flames have given Olli Jokinen to the New York Rangers for Ales Kotalik and Christopher Higgins. Jokinen was third on the team in goals with 11 and also third in points. Needless to say, fans are questioning the decision to trade him.

To me, the Flames broke even on the second deal. I have a feeling that Brandon Prust (also traded to New York) was thrown in the deal to make things a little bit more fair. Yes, more fair to the Rangers.

Now that the Flames have Stajan and Hagman, they no longer have the need for a goal scorer like Jokinen. At this point, Jokinen would be more of a luxury that the Flames could use as a bargaining chip. But, is the “bargaining chip” in Jokinen really best used to get Kotalik and Higgins?

Kotalik and Higgins haven’t been having stellar years. There have been complaints about Higgins’ lack of net presence and some writers have even criticized  Kotalik’s level of talent.

However, when he was in New York, Kotalik was sixth on the team in points (22) while being 14th in time on ice (13:56). Higgins has been doing better in ice time, but his numbers haven’t been as impressive. He only has 14 points this season, but is playing a lot more.

The thing that a lot of people don’t realize is that Calgary gave up a player that’s going to score around 20 goals this season (probably a little less) for two players that will probably score 10-15. Not only that, but those players are already accustomed to playing on lower lines. Since Jokinen has a reputation for being selfish you can probably imagine how he would react to less ice time.

Jokinen wouldn’t have gotten the respect that he wanted, so Darryl Sutter did what any good GM would have done. He made it somebody else’s problem. It could have been a distraction to the team, but it would have been a bigger distraction to Jokinen.

This distraction would have come at a crucial time for the Flames. Right now, they are battling for a playoff spot and their focus needs to be on the ice. Now they have two players that are used to seeing less playing time and can still put up numbers. Not only that, but the trades they made with Toronto should help provide the offense that they need for the rest of the season.

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