On Thursday night, Jake Middleton did something the Flames hadn’t seen from one of their defencemen in a long time: he became the first Calgary blueliner to score his first goal for the team while killing a penalty since Noah Hanifin in 2018.
The twist, of course, is that Hanifin’s current club was on the other side. Middleton’s goal came against the Vegas Golden Knights, the team the Flames sent Hanifin to ahead of the 2024 trade deadline. And that trade traces back six years earlier, when Calgary landed Hanifin and Elias Lindholm from the Carolina Hurricanes, the next opponent on the schedule.
That deal still stands as one of the biggest in recent Flames history, and it’s the kind of move that keeps paying out in layers.
Hanifin arrived as a young defenceman and went on to have some of his best years in Calgary. His breakout came in 2021-22, when he scored 10 goals and finished with 48 points, both then-career highs. That was also the season the Flames finished first in the Pacific Division, with one last run featuring Matthew Tkachuk and the late, great, Johnny Gaudreau.
Across parts of six seasons in Calgary, the left-shot defenceman put up 42 goals and 1919 points in 418 games, with his best goal total for the club coming in 61 games before the trade to Vegas.
Lindholm’s top year as a Flame also came in 2021-22. The right-shot centre exploded for 42 goals and 82 points in 82 games, setting career highs across the board while lining up with Gaudreau and Tkachuk. In parts of six seasons with Calgary, he scored 148 goals and 357 points in 418 games.
Both players were moved before the 2024 deadline, but not at the same time. Lindholm went first, dealt to the Vancouver Canucks for Hunter Brzustewicz, Joni Jurmo, Andrei Kuzmenko, a 2024 fourth-round pick, and Vancouver’s 2024 first-round pick. More than a month later, Hanifin was sent to Vegas for a 2026 first-round pick, a 2024 third-round pick, and defenceman Daniil Miromanov.
Those moves sit inside the larger Curtis Glencross trade tree, and the branches are still stretching.
The Lindholm return already has a few layers. A year after that deal, Kuzmenko was moved to the Philadelphia Flyers for Morgan Frost and Joel Farabee, both now in Calgary’s current top six and both players who could be trade pieces down the line.
The first-round pick turned into Matvei Gridin, a winger with the kind of scoring touch that could make him a top-line shooter. Brzustewicz also looked solid for the Flames last season and could still fit into their blue-line future.
The fourth-rounder was later flipped to the Flyers for picks used on Luke Misa and Eric Jamieson, with Jamieson also carrying bottom-pairing potential on defence.
The Hanifin side is smaller so far, but it might wind up being the more intriguing one. Miromanov barely had any runway with Calgary before leaving for SKA Saint Petersburg in the Kontinental Hockey League this past off-season. The prospects from that trade are the real long-term story.
The 2024 third-round pick became Russian goaltender Kirill Zarubin, who after strong seasons in Russia’s junior league has now made the jump to North America and appeared in two games for the Calgary Wranglers. The 2026 first, which had originally been a 2025 conditional first, turned into Jack Hextall at 30th overall.
Early on, Hextall looks like a strong get. The right-shot centre has two goals and four points in his first two games and is set to join the Michigan State University Spartans in 2026-27.
He’s also playing alongside another Flames prospect, Cullen Potter, who was a late first-round pick and already looks like a useful piece.
By sending Dougie Hamilton, Michael Ferland, and Adam Fox’s rights to Carolina in the first place, the Flames kicked off the chain that produced Hanifin and Lindholm, and those moves are still shaping the organization now.
It’s also the most recent time Calgary and Carolina made a trade. The Flames passed on the Hurricanes’ offer for Tkachuk in 2022, and that decision launched another trade tree entirely - one Potter is part of - but that’s a story for another Flashback Friday.
In Other News...
Oilers Still Have One Huge Goalie Question Flames Fans Will Notice
The Oilers decision to stockpile goaltenders has been one of the more intriguing parts of their long-term reset, with Frederik Andersen and Devon Levi brought in to strengthen a position that has haunted them for years. Levi has handled the opportunity well since Andersen went down, giving Edmonton at least one encouraging sign as it tries to sort out the crease for the 2026-27 season.
Tristan Jarry, meanwhile, remains the variable that could shape how confident the Oilers feel about the plan. He has had one uneven outing and one solid one in Edmonton so far, and his track record suggests the real test comes later, when the season wears on and the workload starts to build. For Flames fans watching from the other side of Alberta, it is the kind of goaltending question that could loom large well before the standings do. [Read more 🡒]
Ducks Could Be Eyeing A Blue Line Upgrade Before Deadline Chaos
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Anaheim is among the clubs being linked to Whitecloud as teams look for help on the blue line, with Toronto, Edmonton and Tampa Bay also showing up in the discussion. Nothing has been confirmed, and that is part of the point this time of year. The Flames have made it clear by their results where they stand in the standings, and Whitecloud's name is one of the more plausible ones to monitor as the deadline noise starts to build. [Read more 🡒]
Flames Are Doing Enough At Even Strength But One Problem Keeps Burning Them
The Flames have spent enough of their recent games looking competitive at even strength to suggest the effort is there, even if the results have not followed. In their latest outing, Calgary came out with a strong start and had some encouraging individual work underneath the surface, including a positive night from a young forward group that helped tilt the ice in spots and keep the team in the fight despite the overall record.
Matvei Gridin was one of the forwards who stood out in the numbers at 5-on-5, and Jacob Middleton added a milestone with his first goal as a Flame. Still, the familiar issues were never far away, as a handful of defensive mistakes and the ongoing special teams problems ended up dragging the group back down and turning a promising effort into another frustrating finish. [Read more 🡒]