Flames Acquire Defenseman Stone

			2017 Season			2017	July 1st Status
To Calgary	Pos	Age	GP	Goals	Points	Cap	Years	Cap
Michael Stone	D	26	45	1	9	$2 mil	0	UFA
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To Arizona	Pos	Age	GP	Goals	Points	Cap	Years	Cap
Retained Cap Hit					50%	$2 mil
2017 3rd Round Draft Pick
Conditional 2018 5th Round Draft Pick

We're not too far away from the NHL trade deadline and it will be another year, where I will try and put together all of the trades that have some sort of pool importance to them and that all kicked off on Monday, with the Calgary Flames acquiring defenseman Michael Stone from the Arizona Coyotes for a 2017 pick and possibly a 2018 pick as well.

Stone will join the Flames at a reduced cap hit, thanks to the Coyotes retaining some of his salary owed for a 3rd round pick in this June's draft and if he re-signs, since he is a pending unrestricted free agent come July, the Coyotes will also receive a 5th round pick in the 2018 draft.

The 26-year old defender has been quietly emerging on the hockey pool scene as a fairly reasonable, yet deeper, player on a team, but really jumped into prominence in the 2014 season, where he picked up 21 points.  Since then, he has done fairly well and really made a name for himself in the 2016 season, where he has topped out at 36 points.

His 2017 season in Arizona hasn't nearly been as productive, just ask Grant, as his 9 points this season only has him ranked 527th overall in pool scoring, well down from 239th in the 2016 season.  This could be one of the big reasons why the Coyotes are okay to part with him, besides free agency, as the price tag was fairly steep this year and the return wasn't quite there.

It will be interesting to see where Stone slots in with the Flames and how much this addition expedites the possible exit of a guy like Dennis Wideman, who has been rumoured to be on the move for a while.  The Flames have already added Matt Bartkowski to their lineup and changes are going to have to be made internally, to make everyone fit.