An eventful day for the Calgary Flames organization ended on a high note Thursday night as the Calgary Flames defeated the visiting Anaheim Ducks by a score of 1-0. Overshadowing the importance of this win, came an announcement from Flames manager Jay Feaster stating that the club had reacquired the services of sniper Mike Cammalleri from the Montreal Canadiens in exchange for winger Rene Bourque.

PHOTO CREDIT - TSN.ca

Calgary - January 13, 2012 - An eventful day for the Calgary Flames organization ended on a high note Thursday night as the Calgary Flames defeated the visiting Anaheim Ducks by a score of 1-0. Overshadowing the importance of this win, came an announcement from Flames manager Jay Feaster stating that the club had reacquired the services of sniper Mike Cammalleri from the Montreal Canadiens in exchange for winger Rene Bourque.

Pivot Mark Giordano made his highly awaited return to the Flames lineup after sitting out an excruciatingly long 21 games with a hamstring injury, and boy did he look good. A tight checking, low scoring fifty minutes of hockey went by the way side before things began to heat up in the final ten minutes of play. With that being said the few opportunities that these two clubs were able generate were of great quality which in a sense added a ton of excitement to the game as a whole. You could argue that the best chance of the game occurred just four minutes into the festivities when Jarome Iginla intercepted an Anaheim breakout attempt before barreling in on a breakaway against goaltender Jonas Hiller. A goal was also called back in the latter moments of the first frame when it was determined by the “war room” in Toronto that Ducks forward Rod Pelley had intentionally kicked the pucks towards the goal as it found its way past Miikka Kiprusoff.

As a result of the competitive play through sixty minutes, it was determined that this game would need extra time in order to find a victor. Calgary emerged as the hungrier team during the extra frame as they produced multiple chances to end the game in the early moments of overtime. A poor line change by Anaheim directly led to an odd man rush for Calgary in which Blair Jones scored his first goal as a member of the Calgary Flames at the 1:51 mark of overtime to put an end to the Ducks three game winning streak. With the win Calgary moves just three points shy of 7th place in the western conference and will be given a huge opportunity Saturday night as they get set to face off against the LA Kings in Darryl Sutter’s first trip back to Calgary after “stepping down” as general manger.

A swap of two highly skilled forwards in need of a change of scenery saw the Calgary Flames deal winger Rene Bourque to the Montreal Canadiens in exchange for former Flame Mike Cammalleri.

To Calgary
Mike Cammalleri (29 years old, Signed to a cap hit of 6 Million dollars for the next 2.5 seasons)
Karri Ramo (25 year old RFA goaltender playing in Russia)
Montreal 5th round pick 2012

To Montreal
Rene Bourque (30 years old, Signed to a cap hit of 3.33 Million dollars for the next 4.5 seasons)
Patrick Holland (19 year old prospect playing for Tri City in the Western Hockey League)
Calgary 2nd round pick 2013

This move clearly ends any notion of a Flames “rebuild” in the near future and fully endorses the concept of retooling the foundation of this organization moving forward. Initially when this trade broke on TSN during the Boston/Montreal game (in which Cammalleri was playing) I was skeptical of management adding such a high priced contract in addition to losing a few valuable young assets. However after having some time to think it over, I am finding myself as a fan liking this trade more and more as the minutes tick by. It has been a while since Calgary has made a trade in which they have acquired what is generally thought to be the best asset/player in the deal, and there is no doubt in my mind that Cammalleri is just that.

Rene Bourque has all the tools to be a very successful player in this league, the problem lies in the fact that he struggles on a nightly basis to utilize these abilities to his fullest.

Unfortunately the writing was on the wall for Bourque as he had fallen out of favor here in Calgary after struggling immensely over the past two seasons to produce a consistent on ice effort. The Rene Bourque of two years ago will be missed, but the fact remains he is no longer playing to that ability for this club and thus he was deemed expendable.

Mike Cammalleri is your prototypical sniper who found his greatest success here in Calgary playing alongside the captain Jarome Iginla. During his only year in Calgary, Cammalleri set career highs in goals (39) and points (82) and despite his inconsistent production during the regular season in Montreal he was an absolute monster when it mattered the most in the playoffs. In twenty six playoff games with the Habs, Cammalleri recorded an astonishing 16 goals and 29 points in which he proved to be amongst the best playoff performers in the league. His salary is no doubt a risk should he not be able to get his play back on track, but Calgary did also rid themselves of the excess two years that Bourque has remaining on his contract.

Karri Ramo has the potential to be a very valuable piece for this team moving forward should we be able to convince him to return to North America. Ramo has spent the past three seasons playing for Omsk in the KHL (arguably the second best league on earth) and has consistently produced remarkable numbers during that span. From everything I have read, scouts seem to feel that Karri Ramo has been the best goaltender in the entire KHL for the past two seasons and should he come over seas he has the potential to be a starting goaltender in the NHL. Feaster also has ties with Ramo as he was the general manager that drafted him while in Tampa in 2004, this to me suggests that we have a plan for him moving forward.

As of now I stand content with this deal as it significantly increases the playoff hopes this club has this season. The loss of yet another draft pick is my largest concern, but Feaster has gone on record saying that it his duty to reacquire those picks moving forward so until that doesn’t happen I will refrain from dishing out any undeserved criticism.

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