from Mark Spector of Sportsnet,

This is the most dangerous time to be Brad Treliving.

The Calgary Flames general manager has very little time to save his team’s season, at a time of year when National Hockey League trades are rare. Few other teams are as desperate as Calgary, so from a Flames perspective, the opportunity to make a very risky deal will never be higher for Treliving.

For that reason, you couldn’t find a hockey man on Monday who’s GM had not heard from Treliving on the weekend. Or a GM who wasn’t admitting that, yes, he was also aware that Treliving was racking up his cell bill in pursuit of a deal.

Treliving is working the phones like his players once worked in their own zone — OK, that’s a cheap shot — though all the Flames GM would say when asked Monday was that he is simply “doing what everyone is doing, trying to make the team better,” he offered via email.

No small trade is going to fix his Flames, who are entirely broken right now, and word is out that Treliving is willing to talk about a very big deal if he can find one. We even heard that his conversation with Tampa Bay general manager Steve Yzerman was all about the Lightning’s obvious issues with signing soon-to-be unrestricted free agent Steven Stamkos.

continued